Predictive Weather Routing Business Rule and Weather Map Layers

Weather conditions can significantly affect your delivery, field sales, field service, and other logistics operations in a number of ways. When it is raining or snowing outside, your vehicles have to drive slower and your employees have to walk slower which can delay deliveries and leave your customers dissatisfied. Moreover, under certain weather conditions, your employees have to wear bulky clothing and thick gloves for staying warm which can make loading and unloading items take longer and increase the time it takes to service each customer.

Checking different weather forecasts every time you want to plan a route seems time inefficient and not very reliable. Route4Me’s Predictive Weather Advanced Constraint automatically gathers weather data from multiple sources and notifies you about poor or dangerous weather conditions in the area where you are planning routes.

Moreover, Route4Me’s weather travel route planner enables you to set up weather-related slowdown for travel and service times. Furthermore, Route4Me’s weather map layers enable you to see the current weather along a route in real time. Thus, you can easily get weather conditions for travel route before the route is started and dispatched. Additionally, all layers are displayed as an overlay over the weather route planner driving directions on the map.

Plan Routes with the Predictive Weather Constraint

To plan routes with the Predictive Weather Constraint using Route4Me’s weather travel route planner, first, go to Plan New Route from the navigation menu.

Next, select one of the preferred route data import methods (Interactive Map Editor, Copy-and-Paste, Upload a File, Import Data, or Upload Scan(s)).

After that, specify the route parameters to your preference and then click on the Create Route and Proceed to Add Addresses button.

In the Verify Addresses on Map window, you can view all imported and processed addresses on the map, as well as check their geocoding statuses. Green-colored dots indicate that the corresponding addresses were successfully geocoded with High Confidence. Addresses that have yellow colored dots next to them should be reviewed and fixed accordingly. Click on the Finish Import button to plan the route.

Set Up Weather Route Slowdown

After that, Route4Me checks multiple sources with different weather forecasts for the area in which you are planning the route. If the weather conditions in the corresponding area are expected to be poor or dangerous, you are automatically prompted with the summary of the weather on route forecast where you can adjust the weather route slowdown for the total travel/driving time, as well as for the total service time of the route.

Adjust Service Time Slowdown

To adjust the Service Time Slowdown, select the preferred slowdown percentage from the corresponding drop-down list. Defining the Service Time Slowdown increases the service time of each stop on the route by the selected percentage.

Adjust Travel Time Slowdown

To adjust the Travel Time Slowdown, select the preferred slowdown percentage from the corresponding drop-down list. Defining the Travel Time Slowdown increases the total travel/driving time of the route by the selected percentage.

To apply the selected slowdown constraints, click on the Apply Changes button. If you do not want to apply the weather slowdown, click on the Skip/Continue button.

Once your weather travel routes are planned, they are automatically opened in the Route Editor where you can modify them, as well as added to the Routes List with all your routes. After that, you can view how the applied Travel Time Slowdown and Service Time Slowdown affected the total travel and service times of the route. Learn how to adjust the Summary Table to display all time-related data.

Weather Map Layers

In addition to the weather-related slowdown, Route4Me’s Predictive Weather Constraint also provides a variety of weather map layers that display the current weather along a route on the map. Weather map layers allow you to check multiple parameters of the current weather in route in real time so that you can send the right vehicles to the right areas, properly equip your fleet and employees, etc.

To enable weather map layers on the weather travel routes opened in the Route Editor, go to “Map Settings” and then check the “Current Weather” box. Once enabled, the map will show the selected weather on route type.

The Current Weather layer displays the current air temperature on the map. You can zoom in and out and rotate the map to check weather along route in real time.

Radar Route Weather Map Layer

The Radar layer on Route4Me’s weather driving route planner displays the overlay that differentiates between rain, snow, and a rain/snow/ice mix, where the color of the shade indicates intensity.

Satellite Route Weather Map Layer

The Satellite layer displays a visible satellite overlay of clouds over the weather route planner driving directions.

Winds Route Weather Map Layer

The Winds layer displays the current wind speed as a gradient on the opened weather conditions travel route.

Storm Reports Route Weather Map Layer

The Storm Reports layer on Route4Me’s weather driving route planner displays severe storm reports as dots on the map. The four types of different colored dots indicate four levels of increasing severity, heavy rain, hail, severe thunderstorms, and possible tornados.

Snow Depth Route Weather Map Layer

The Snow Depth layer displays the current snow depth observed on the ground (as a gradient) on the opened weather conditions travel route.

Temperature Route Weather Map Layer

The Temperature layer displays the current temperature weather conditions for travel route.