Route Scheduling Software Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, the Route4Me Route Planner offers you multiple methods to schedule a route. For example, you can input a route’s start time when specifying that route’s parameters. Alternatively, you can also plan recurring routes with a specific schedule up to a year in advance.

Schedule Daily Routes

When you plan a new route, Route4Me’s best route management software enables you to set various route parameters, including the route name, the type of route optimization, the travel mode, the route schedule, and more. So, you can set the route schedule when planning a new route. To do so, simply adjust the route start date, route start time, and route duration before adding your addresses.

Alternatively, with Route4Me, you can schedule routes after you plan them as well. Plus, you can change the schedule of your planned routes with just a click of a button.

Schedule Recurring Routes

In addition to route scheduling, Route4Me’s easiest route software can accommodate the needs of any last mile business with recurring routes. Namely, Route4Me gives you the ability to plan routes with a custom repetitive schedule.

For instance, Route4Me’s Scheduled & Recurring Routing feature enables you to plan routes for recurring deliveries with schedules that repeat daily, every other day, every two days, weekly, monthly, yearly, and more.

Moreover, recurring routing offers you the possibility to automate routing for repetitive orders that have little to no schedule modifications. Specifically, the easiest route planning software enables you to create a master route and a custom route schedule. Then the system takes care of the rest. This means that you will have automatically created optimized routes at the start of each day specified in your custom schedule.

Schedule a Route on Our Route Planner Apps

With Route4Me’s quickest route optimizer, you can also schedule and reschedule routes using the Android Route Planner and iOS Route Planner apps. You can even reschedule routes that have already been dispatched to drivers. If that’s the case, the route planner app dynamically syncs any route changes across all the devices associated with your Route4Me account.

Learn more about how you can:

• Schedule and reschedule routes on Route4Me’s Android Route Planner app
• Schedule and reschedule routes on Route4Me’s iOS Route Planner app

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Yes, Route4Me’s route optimization software offers multiple highly flexible last mile route scheduling tools. For example, with the Route4Me Route Planner, you can plan your routes months in advance, optimize routes based on recurring schedules, reschedule already optimized or even active routes, and more. In addition to recurring routing for repetitive delivery schedules, Route4Me enables you to schedule daily routes for dynamic last mile businesses. Moreover, both route schedule types can be dynamically adjusted at any time during the route planning and route management processes. Thus, Route4Me offers dynamic and flexible route scheduling tools that can effortlessly accommodate any last-minute route change.

Scheduling Daily Routes for Dynamic Deliveries

With Route4Me, you can schedule and reschedule routes when planning routes and after the routes have been planned. Specifically, after selecting the addresses to be routed, you can set up multiple route parameters. For example, you can set a custom route name, choose from multiple types of route optimization, add various routing constraints or business rules, and adjust the route schedule for your route. In the route schedule tab, you can fine-tune the following route settings:

1. Route start date
2. Route start time
3. Service time per stop
4. Travel time slow down
5. Service time slow down

For your convenience, you can also schedule your routes to start at sunrise or sunset.

Reschedule Daily Routes and Sync Last Mile Route Scheduling Changes

Furthermore, your planned routes can always be rescheduled using your Route4Me Route Editor, Routes List, or Routes Map. And thanks to Route4Me’s dynamic routing algorithm, you can also reschedule in-progress routes.

As soon as you make the desired route schedule changes, the system automatically updates the corresponding route across all the devices associated with your Route4Me account. Namely, your drivers’ Route4Me Android Route Planner and iOS Route Planner apps instantly pick up any route changes in near real time. In this way, you can rest assured that your drivers are always navigating updated routes.

Last Mile Route Scheduling for Recurring Delivery Schedules

Another flexible Route4Me last mile route scheduling tool is the Scheduled & Recurring Routing feature, which enables you to:

• Leverage auto-delivery and automate route planning
• Automatically plan routes days, weeks, months, or up to a year in advance
• Create custom route schedules for your repeat orders
• And much more!

Route4Me’s Scheduled & Recurring Routing will help you reduce your route planning time by automating repetitive tasks. Thus, you’ll spend less time scheduling and more time selling your products and services.

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Yes, you can use Route4Me’s enterprise route optimizer as a daily route planner. In fact, you can easily address your daily last mile needs using Route4Me’s flexible route planning and optimization solutions. Route4Me will help you solve your daily routing chaos and sort out any complex routing cases.

Use Route4Me as a Daily Route Planner

With Route4Me, you can plan new routes every day. Alternatively, you can also create recurring routes with a daily schedule. When scheduling routes, Route4Me’s Routing Calendar will help you gain insights into your fleet resources and workforce availability.

In addition, with Route4Me’s Enterprise Route Planning Software, you can effortlessly account for daily unplanned customer visits and other similar circumstances. For example, Route4Me can accommodate any route change and modify your routes in real-time. Specifically, Route4Me helps you address last-minute adjustments and enables you to:

• Insert new stops into in-progress routes
• Re-optimize the addresses your drivers didn’t manage to visit
• Refresh and update the driving directions of a route
• Dynamically change the sequence of stops on a route
• Delete stops from a planned route
• And a lot more!

Moreover, the edits you make to your routes will automatically sync with your drivers’ iOS Route Planner and Android Route Planner apps. This way, your drivers will instantly have the most recent updates right on their phones. And no extra effort from your side will ever be required.

Use Our Driver Apps for Daily Routing

To solve your daily routing challenges on the go, you can also use our Android and iOS Route Planner apps as daily planners. You can plan routes on our apps for daily needs.

Learn how you can plan your daily routes with:

• Route4Me’s iOS Route Planner
• Route4Me’s Android Route Planner

With this in mind, you can most certainly count on Route4Me’s route planning software to help you manage your dynamic last mile operation.

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Yes, depending on your route scheduling requirements, the enterprise route optimization software can present multiple scheduling options. For example, Route4Me’s Time Windows constraints allow you to optimize routes that account for your customers’ availability hours, Route4Me’s Dynamic Stop Insertion provides auto-suggestions for inserting your visits and destinations into the most optimal active routes, and so on.

Yes, Route4Me’s Service Times feature allows you to define custom loading and unloading times for each route stop or predefine the preferred service time for all route destinations at the depot level.

Yes, the best truck routing software allows you to insert contractual breaks into the duration and sequence of your routes at the depot level and at any stage of your route planning process. Moreover, Route4Me’s Driver Breaks feature also permits you to insert contractual breaks into already planned routes. The Driver Breaks feature provides high insertion flexibility, allowing you to insert breaks into the route sequence and duration after a certain elapsed time, a specific number of stops, a particular amount of service time, and more.

Yes, Route4Me provides flexible integrations with various types of third-party software, allowing you to frictionlessly integrate your Route4Me planned and optimized routing results with your company CRM calendar.

Yes, Route4Me’s solutions are designed to be flexible and meet your specific routing requirements. Route4Me’s Service Times allow you to comply with your customer-specific visitation intervals and Route4Me’s Time Windows allow you to comply with your customer-specific visitation times.

Yes, depending on your industry and particular business requirements, you may need to schedule your routing activities far more in advance than in other industries. Route4Me allows you to plan your routes much more than 3 months in advance with the best route management software.

Yes, Route4Me allows you to schedule and reschedule your routes at all stages, from the stage of data entry and optimization to already optimized and active routes. Individual visits can also be rescheduled at any time by being inserted into the most optimal and efficient active routes.

Yes, Route4Me provides the ability to start your routes at any preferred time, allows you to set up a default starting time for your routes, start your routes at the sunset or sunrise in your service area, and more.

Yes, Route4Me allows you to optimize routes with customizable breaks at the depot level when planning your journeys. Route4Me’s Driver Breaks feature permits you to insert breaks into already optimized routes and define a custom duration for each break, as well as choose the preferred sequence position or elapsed time after which you want the new breaks to be inserted.

Yes, when planning your last mile routes with the fastest route optimizer, you can configure the duration of your routes at the depot level. Route4Me’s Max Route Duration constraint allows you to import hundreds of thousands of addresses into the system and predefine the maximum duration of each optimized route you want to get. After that, Route4Me will automatically process all imported addresses and output the most optimal number of routes with the most efficient stops sequence where each route will not exceed the predefined duration.

Yes, Route4Me combines such advanced constraints as Service Times and Time Windows with its proprietary optimization and sequencing algorithm to enable you and your staff to identify the most mutually convenient visitation times.

Yes, Route4Me provides multiple tools for planning routes that can account for various business time restrictions. For example, you can use Route4Me’s Recurring Scheduling feature to account for specific office and vacation days by planning routes with fixed recurring visits and appointments. To optimize your routes accounting for specific working hours, you can use Route4Me’s Time Windows. You can also use multiple optimization types with the preferred advanced constraints for planning and optimizing overnight routes that start and end in different cities or in the same city.

Yes, Route4Me allows you to evaluate real-time, forecasted, and historical optimization and routing scenarios that can be analyzed and applied to your new appointments, deliveries, and visits.

Yes, Route4Me’s Route Planner features multiple ad-hoc routing tools that enable you to perform multiple actions with just a click of a button. Namely, with Route4Me, you can use simple shortcuts for accessing almost any route planning feature on the platform. For example, you can dynamically insert your latest orders into the best route, plan a new route, open your Routes Map, and much more.

Moreover, Route4Me’s routing software can help you accommodate any unpredictable event or last-minute change in customer requirements. Specifically, the system gives you the ability to make dynamic changes to your routes and automatically sync the edits across the devices associated with your account.

Ad-Hoc Routing With Route4Me’s Quick Actions

With Route4Me, you can instantly access a wide range of advanced route planning and optimization tools through the Quick Actions feature. To access the Quick Actions menu, you simply have to press the following combination of buttons:

• Command + G (macOS)
• Control + G (Windows)

Then, the system displays a searchable catalog of ad hoc routing, route optimization, and team and fleet management features that you can access with just a click of a button. For example, with Rotue4Me’s Quick Actions, you can instantly:

• Insert addresses into planned routes
• Dynamically insert stops into the most optimal route
• Share, delete, re-optimize, and reverse the opened route
• Edit the route settings
• View and add notes to routes
• Open the Routes Map and Routes List
• And much more!

Last-Minute Dynamic Route Changes

And to help you save even more of your valuable time, Route4Me automatically syncs any route changes with your drivers’ Route4Me Android Route Planner app and iOS Route Planner App. Namely, the routing apps automatically pick up the latest route changes and update your drivers’ routes automatically. This means that you don’t have to waste time to manually send updates to drivers.

Moreover, Route4Me’s Activity Stream displays notifications with the latest routing and performance updates on all the devices connected to your organization’s Route4Me account. Plus, you can also use the Activity Stream for messaging your drivers in real time. Thus, Route4Me offers you all the tools you need for effective ad-hoc routing.

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Yes, Route4Me’s route optimization software enables you to track multiple types of route ETAs. Specifically, you can view the planned, predicted, and the actual estimated time of arrival parameters for each stop on a route. By comparing different ETAs , you can easily identify and further investigate gaps between the planned and the actual route duration.

Planned, Predicted, and Actual Route ETAs

To ensure maximum accuracy, Route4Me’s Interactive Route Editor Map can display three types of last-mile ETAs:

• Planned ETA: It showcases the estimated time when a driver is expected to arrive at the given stop/address;
• Predicted ETA: It indicates the estimated time when a driver is expected to arrive at the given stop/address based on the dynamic ETAs of all previous stops on the route;
• Actual ETA: It displays the actual arrival time of a driver at the given stop/address.

Moreover, to make sure that your field employees don’t deviate from their routes, Route4Me also highlights such service violations as:

• Late arrivals
• Missed time windows
• Not completed service times
• Alternative routes
• And more!

Learn more about Route4Me’s Dynamic Route Deviations Detection feature.

Planned Vs Actual Route Metrics

But since a last mile business needs more than accurate ETAs, Route4Me gives you the ability to take your performance audit to the next level.

So, in addition to viewing ETAs on the interactive map while tracking your drivers, Route4Me gives you the ability to assess multiple planned vs actual route metrics. Namely, Route4Me’s analytics and reporting Dashboard offers you an overview of your team’s and infrastructure’s efficiency through multiple key performance indicators (KPIs), such as:

• Planned vs. actual route time
• Visited vs. not visited stops
• Planned vs. actual route distance
• Total number of planned routes
• Average planned service time
• Carbon dioxide emissions
• And more!

If you liked this request for proposal (RFP) post about Route4Me’s different types of estimated time of arrivals, check out more Q&As!

Yes, the Route4Me Route Planner enables you to schedule routes, create delivery schedules, plan and schedule routes automatically for repeat orders, and add all the scheduled routing events to the Route Calendar. Additionally, when using the Route4Me Android Route Planner and iOS Route Planner apps, you can also add your planned routes to third-party calendar apps.

Types of Scheduled Route Planning Events on the Route Calendar

With Route4Me’s route scheduling and route optimization solutions, you have the ability to:

• Schedule daily routes
• Create recurring routes
• Add recurring visitation schedules to addresses and contacts in your Address Book List
• Import, generate, and schedule orders

Accordingly, you can view the following scheduled routing events on your Route4Me Calendar:

Scheduled Daily Routes

You can schedule daily routes during the route planning process by simply adjusting the “Route Start Date” and “Route Start Time” in the “Schedule” tab within the Route Parameters menu. Plus, you can always go back and readjust your route’s schedule with a click of a button.

Recurring Route Schedules

In addition to daily route scheduling, Route4Me offers you the possibility to automate route planning and scheduling for repeat orders. Specifically, you can create route schedules for days, weeks, months, or up to a year in advance! To do so, you’ll only need to create a master route and customize the route schedule as per your unique business needs. Then, Route4Me’s route planning software will create your recurring routes automatically.

Scheduled Addresses

In like manner, Route4Me gives you the possibility to create custom visitation schedules for Address Book contacts that require regular service. Essentially, you can create daily, weekly, monthly, and annual visitation schedules for any address stored on your Route4Me account.

Scheduled Orders

Moreover, Route4Me’s routing software can integrate with almost any eCommerce platform on the market. For example, Route4Me offers plugins for Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, etc. These plugins enable you to sync your eCommerce orders with Route4Me with just a click of a button. Moreover, Route4Me gives you the ability to generate and schedule orders with your customers’ addresses right on the Address Book Map.

Managing Scheduled Routes on the Route Calendar

As soon as you’ve scheduled your routes and imported your orders, you can get a visual overview of your upcoming scheduled events on the Route Calendar. Furthermore, the Calendar enables you to view and plan routes with multiple events scheduled for the same day.

Moreover, with Route Calendar, you can select the events scheduled for a specific day and load them into the Hybrid Editor as well as the Routes Map. Besides, Route4Me’s Routes Map also allows you to move stops between your scheduled and current routes using the timeline and map in real-time.

Sending Planned Routes to Calendar Apps on the Route Planner

Along with the web-based calendar, Route4Me provides mobile solutions as well to help you keep track of your routing timetable. Precisely, the Route4Me Android Route Planner and iOS Route Planner apps enable you to send scheduled events to third-party calendar apps.

For example, you can sync your Route4Me routes with Google Calendar or any other calendar app.

Learn more about:

• Sending Route4Me routes to third party calendar apps on the Android Route Planner app
• Syncing Route4Me route planning events with your favorite calendar app on the iOS Route Planner app

If you liked this request for proposal (RFP) post about Route4Me’s route calendar, check out more Q&As!

Yes, Route4Me’s route planning software automatically calculates, logs, and displays multiple types of predicted time of arrival indicators. Furthermore, all Route4Me plans offer you the ability to view a precise time of arrival for each stop on your routes. The predicted time of arrival takes travel time and service time into consideration. So, estimated and predicted ETAs are heavily influenced by the service time you manually set up on the platform as well as the real-time traffic on the respective route.

Learn more about Route4Me’s pricing models for Dynamic Routing and Scheduled & Recurring Routing.

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Types of Route Time Indicators and Parameters

To help you keep a close eye on your business’s overall performance, Route4Me provides multiple types of ETAs and other route time indicators. Specifically, with Route4Me, you have access to the following travel time and route duration parameters:

• Estimated Travel Time and Actual Travel Time
• Wait Time (inactive time between stops)
• Stem In (the time it takes to drive from the depot to the first stop)
• Stem Out (the time it takes to drive from the last stop to the depot)
• Time in Traffic, Total Service Time, and Actual Time on Site
• Total Route Time

Furthermore, you can decide which of these indicators you want to display in your Route Summary so that you’ll always have the most useful information at hand, displayed on the interactive map.

Learn more about other route metrics you can access on your customizable Route Summary.

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How to Access the Predicted Time of Arrival for Individual Route Stops

When it comes to the predicted time of arrival and time parameters for particular route stops, Route4Me provides three types of ETAs, including:

• Planned ETA
• Predicted ETA
• Actual ETA

To access these ETA types, go to “Routes List” or “Routes Map” and open the corresponding route. Then, the system opens the selected route in the interactive Route Editor, where you can start tracking the driver assigned to the respective route.

By doing so, you’ll be able to see your driver’s exact location and route progress in near real-time. Moreover, you can click on any route stop to view the Planned and Predicted ETAs. The Actual ETAs are available only for stops that have been already serviced.

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