Intercity Overnight Routing With Driver Breaks

When you want to send one driver on the route that starts in one city and ends in another city, this driver may have to make an overnight break somewhere in the middle of the route. This will help the driver to comply with the local work schedule regulations and avoid getting fatigued. For example, you may have a refrigerator truck that needs to deliver goods in two different cities, you may run a mobile medical business that provides laboratory services and X-ray imaging and you need your vehicle with specialized equipment to travel around the state, etc. Depending on the particular needs of your business or unique business model, Route4Me will allow you to plan optimized overnight routes where the assigned driver will be able to make an overnight break after visiting all stops in one city and then complete the remainder of their scheduled route the following day.

To plan a single intercity route with an overnight driver break, first, go to “Plan New Route” from the navigation menu and then select one of the preferred route data import methods: Interactive Map Editor, Copy-and-Paste, Upload a File, or Import Data.

Next, go to the “Schedule” tab to set up the route’s schedule. If you want all stops on the route to have the same Service Time, define the preferred Service Time value in the corresponding field. If you want all stops on the route to inherit the Service Time defined in the imported route data spreadsheet, leave the “Service Time per stop (HH:MM)” field empty.

After setting up the route’s schedule:

1. Go to the “Optimization” tab;
2. Select the “Single Driver Route” optimization type for the system to plan and optimize a single route;
3. Select the “End route at any address” route-end option. When you select the “End route at any address” route-end option, the route will end at the most optimal address. To learn more about planning overnight routes that start and end at the same depot, visit this page.

After that, specify the rest of the route’s parameters to your preference, import route data into the system, and finish planning the route accordingly (learn more). To learn more about Route4Me’s spreadsheet requirements, visit this page.

When planning a single route with stops in different cities, provided that the route’s route-end is set to “End route at any address,” Route4Me’s optimization engine will automatically optimize the route in such a way that first, the driver will have to visit all stops in the city where the route starts, and after visiting the last stop in this city, the driver will have to travel to the next city for visiting the remainder of the route’s stops. NOTE: Exceptions may happen, when planning intercity routes, make sure that all stops in the first city must be visited before visiting all stops in the next city.

Once the route is planned, you can see the route’s Total Time, Estimated Travel Time, Service Time, and other route parameters in the route’s Summary Table. If the route’s Total Time, Service Time, Estimated Travel Time, or any other route parameter exceeds the daily working limit, you can insert an overnight break into any preferred position on the route. To insert an overnight break into the planned intercity route, first, go to “Insert” and then select “Insert Breaks” from the menu.

After that, in the Breaks Wizard, select the preferred break insertion method:

• After a certain number of elapsed minutes or hours: The break stop is inserted into the route at the most optimal position after the defined total elapsed time (total elapsed time = total travel time + total service time).
• After a certain number of service time: The break stop is inserted into the route at the most optimal position after the defined service time is passed (calculated based on the total service time).
• After a certain number of travel time: The break stop is inserted into the route at the most optimal position after the defined travel time is passed (calculated based on the total travel time).
• After a certain number of locations: The break stop is inserted into the route at the most optimal position after the defined stop number.

To learn more about each break insertion method, visit this page.

To insert an overnight break stop into the route after a certain number of locations, first, select the corresponding break type in the Breaks Wizard. After that, define the break duration and then input the sequence number of the route stop after which you want the break to be inserted into the route. If you want the new break to replace all the existing breaks in the route, check the corresponding box before inserting the break.

When inserting a break after a certain number of locations, the break is inserted into the route as a separate stop with the same address as the stop after which it is inserted. Thus, the driver will be able to find a place to stay overnight after visiting the defined route stop and then continue to complete the route the next day. Therefore, the Departure time of the overnight break stop can be considered the time when the assigned driver is supposed to continue completing the second part of the route on the second day. If you want the driver to stay overnight at a specific location, you can change the address of the inserted break. To do so, in the “Address” section of the break’s menu, input the new address of the break into the “Address” field.

Once the address of the overnight break stop is updated, Route4Me will automatically update the route’s ETAs and driving directions to accommodate the changes. NOTE: When you insert an overnight break stop into a route and then change the break’s address, do not re-optimize this route.