How To Plan The Fastest Route For Delivery Drivers

Finding the fastest route is essential to reduce costs, improve delivery times, and stay competitive. Manual route planning or using Google Maps for multiple stops is time-consuming, error-prone, and inefficient. A route planner designed for optimization handles multiple stops, driver constraints, and delivery time windows in seconds. This guide shows how to use a route optimization software  to plan, dispatch, and navigate routes efficiently, saving time and resources.

Discover how to plan, dispatch, and track optimized delivery routes to boost efficiency and cut costs.

 

Table of Contents

 

How to Plan the Fastest Route Using a Route Planner

 

1. Import Customer Addresses

Easily upload customer addresses using multiple methods. Sync with eCommerce platform or CRM contacts, copy-paste addresses, choose locations straight from the map, or import spreadsheets from your computer or cloud storage, and more. Addresses are automatically geocoded and displayed on the map, giving a clear visual overview for route planning.

Geocode uploaded addresses.

 

2. Select Your Preferred Route Optimization Type

Choose whether to plan the route for a single delivery driver or split the route into optimally-sized routes for multiple drivers.

Planned and optimized multi stop routes on truck routing software for retail distribution and commercial vehicle fleets

 

3. Set Route Optimization Constraints

Fine-tune the route to meet your business requirements. Route4Me lets you control:

Direct Store Delivery route planning with business routing rules and customer and fleet variables.

 

4. Dispatch The Route To Your Delivery Drivers

Dispatch planned routes to directly to drivers iOS or Android route planner apps. Drivers can: collect electronic proof of delivery; mark stops as visited and departed; and communicate with the headquarters with ease.

Dispatch routes to drivers.

 

Drivers follow the route using built-in-app voice-guided navigation. The app accounts for live traffic, updates driving directions in real time, and ensures safe and efficient deliveries.

Navigating multi stop driver routes on route planner app with voice GPS navigation.

 

6. Track Couriers In Near Real-Time

Monitor drivers on a live map or via a tracking history video. This lets you spot detours, extended breaks, or inefficiencies and ensures adherence to planned routes.

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

 

7. Analyze Driver Performance And Delivery KPIs

Use Route4Me’s route analytics and reporting tools to measure

Tracking field service KPIs and field service technicians' performance metrics on field service management software

 

Ready to automate your route planning processes? Sign up for our 7-Day Free trial today.

 

Last Updated:

About author: Alex Yasko

Alex Yasko is the Go-to-Market Product Manager and Information Architecture Manager at Route4Me. With thousands of hours of experience, Alex specializes in breaking down complex last-mile optimization and routing scenarios into simple, actionable instructions, helping last-mile businesses streamline their operations effortlessly.

Other Questions in "How-To Last Mile Guides"

Route4Me

About Route4Me

Route4Me has over 40,000 customers globally. Route4Me's Android and iPhone mobile apps have been downloaded over 2 million times since 2009. Extremely easy-to-use, Route4Me's apps create optimized routes, synchronize routes to mobile devices, enable communication with drivers and customers, offer turn-by-turn directions, delivery confirmation, and more. Behind the scenes, Route4Me's operational optimization platform combines high-performance algorithms with data science, machine learning, and big data to plan, optimize, and analyze routes of almost any size in real-time.