How To Plan A Truck Route With Commercial Vehicle Routing Software

Planning a truck route requires more than just plotting stops on a map. It demands reliable routing software that accounts for vehicle size, weight, and road restrictions. Unlike standard navigation tools, commercial vehicle routing must comply with legal regulations, low-clearance hazards, and roadway limitations. Using a multi-stop route planner designed for trucks helps you avoid costly violations while optimizing delivery efficiency and driver safety. In this guide, you’ll learn how to plan safe, legal, and cost-effective truck routes using Route4Me’s commercial vehicle routing software.

Plan safe, compliant, and efficient truck routes with tools designed for commercial vehicle needs.

Routing must account for regulations, restrictions, and road constraints, making it essential to test your routes using real data with a free route planner trial. Try a 7-Day Free Route Planner Unlimited Stops and Unlimited Tasks Test Drive today!

What Is Truck Routing (Or Truck Route Planning)?

Truck routing – also called truck route planning – focuses on planning routes specifically for commercial motor vehicles (CMVs). Unlike regular route planning, truck routing must consider loading capacity, vehicle dimensions, and truck-specific road restrictions. Ignoring these factors can lead to violations, delays, and higher operating costs.

Can You Set Google Maps For Trucks?

No, Google Maps isn’t designed for these routes. While it can help truckers locate fuel stations, parking lots, or landmarks, it doesn’t account for legal truck restrictions. Using the Google route planner for trucking can result in unsafe directions, fines, or even accidents. Instead, businesses should rely on dedicated routing software for accurate and compliant routes.

How Do You Optimize A Truck Route?

To optimize a route, you need trusted routing software that calculates the safest and most efficient path while avoiding restricted roads. Route4Me’s route planning software lets you plan routes that accommodate your specific needs. With Route4Me, the easiest truck routing software, you can plan routes that account for:

Weight, height, width, and length restrictions
Low clearances or bridges
Hazmat cargo
Tunnels, tolls, and highways

How to Plan Truck Routes Using A Route Planner

Route4Me helps simplify route creation, saves time, and ensures compliance. Once routes are optimized, they can be dispatched to drivers’ mobile apps for navigation and tracking. Here’s how to plan a route in 8 steps:

1. Build Commercial Vehicle Fleet On Your Routing Software

Start by adding each truck to your route planning. Route4Me, among the best solutions for enterprise truck routing, lets you create detailed CMV profiles, including truck type, height, weight, trailer length, axle load, and more. Supported vehicles range from 18-wheelers to cement mixers and livestock carriers.

Creating profiles for field service vehicles on field service management software with fleet management features

2. Enter Addresses Into The Routing Software

Upload customer addresses or delivery points in bulk via spreadsheets, cloud storage, web file transfer tools, or scanned documents. Route4Me’s enterprise routing software supports hundreds of thousands of addresses, making it ideal for enterprise route planning.

Verify the uploaded spreadsheet with addresses and customer data in the Address Book Map.

3. Select Preferred Optimization Type

Choose an optimization type based on your fleet setup. Options include mixed fleet, multiple depots, or driver skill-based routing. Route4Me ensures that each route reflects your unique operational needs.
Direct Store Delivery route planning with business routing rules and customer and fleet variables.

4. Choose Where Routes End

Next, decide whether each route should:

Return to the starting location (roundtrip)
End at the final stop
End at the most optimal address (calculated automatically)

When choosing to end the route at any address, Route4Me, the best route planner software, automatically calculates the most optimal end stop.

DSD route planning - optimize best sequenced Direct Store Delivery routes for multiple drivers.

5. Add Optimization Constraints And Business Rules

Fine-tune each route with constraints such as:

Specify custom route optimization settings and constraints for delivery order route planning and optimization.

6. Optimize Your Route

With Route4Me, you can optimize routes in seconds. The software ensures compliance with truck-specific traffic laws while minimizing drive time and costs. Manual planning, by contrast, is slow, error-prone, and risky for compliance.

Since commercial routes must use only roads approved for commercial vehicles, their distances and travel times are typically significantly different from those of regular vehicle routes.

7. Dispatch Routes To Drivers

With Route4Me, you can optimize routes in seconds straight to your truck drivers’ iOS or Android free truck driver apps. The software ensures compliance with truck-specific traffic laws while minimizing drive time and costs. Manual planning, by contrast, is slow, error-prone, and risky for compliance.

Dispatch routes to drivers.

8. Track Truckers While Navigating Routes

Track progres in real time on a live map or review historical tracking as an animated replay. This visibility helps you improve accountability, safety, and efficiency across your fleet.

Tracking en route field service technicians and field service officers on a live map with route planning software

Last Updated: January 1, 2025September 5, 2025

About author: Daniel Archer

With a background in pedagogy and writing instruction, Daniel is a former tenured English Instructor who, after nearly 20 years of teaching, transitioned into content strategy and leading writing teams for global brands. Now, as Technical Documentation Manager at Route4Me, he translates complex logistics technology into clear, accessible content that empowers users.