Strategic Route Planner – Optimize Multi-Frequency Recurring Routes With Customer Locations

Route4Me’s Strategic Route Planner simplifies and automates complex optimization tasks for multi-frequency delivery and service schedules over extended planning periods. Sync data via SFTP for Customers and schedules, evaluate multiple optimization scenarios, and create recurring route plans for thousands of routes with weekly, bi-weekly, or other visit requirements with one click. All you have to do is upload your data, and Route4Me’s enterprise route optimization API will handle the rest according to the recurring schedules you specified. In this guide, you’ll learn about the Strategic Route Planner and how to use it for selecting the most optimal high-volume recurring route scenarios.

 

 

Route4Me Strategic Route Planner For Multi-Frequency Recurring Routes

Planning hundreds and even thousands of routes, all with different Recurring Schedules and visitation frequencies, is easy with the Strategic Route Planner. Simply sync your Customer Locations and schedule data via SFTP upload, and the Strategic Planner will automatically generate the most efficient Scenarios and Route Plans. Then, follow the steps below to evaluate and select the best Scenarios for your business needs:

  1. Open the Strategic Planner page.
  2. Open a strategic plan to see its associated scenarios.
  3. Pick and open a scenario that meets your requirements.
  4. Click to accept the Scenario Routes either as regular routes or master routes for Recurring Routing.

Your account’s Strategic Planner is where you can view, filter, and open Strategic Plans and their associated Scenarios. Keep reading to learn more about each of the above steps.

Open Your Strategic Planner

Planning hundreds and even thousands of routes, all with different recurring schedules and visitation frequencies, is easy with the Strategic Route Planner.

 

Filter And Customize Strategic Planner Data Table

To find a specific Strategic Plan on your account, you can use custom filters or search for a Plan by name with the “Search” field.

Click the “Created Date” button to open the calendar and filter Strategic Plans by their creation date or time frame. Then, you can further refine the Plans shown on the Strategic Planner by clicking the “Filters” button. Currently, you can filter Plans by the number of associated Scenarios and Customer Locations.

To find a specific strategic plan on your account, you can use custom filters or search for a plan.

 

Furthermore, you can customize the columns on the Strategic Planner to see only the data relevant to your needs. To do so, click the Display Columns Button and check the boxes next to the columns you wish to enable. After that, you can change their positions by dragging column names. Accordingly, columns listed from top to bottom are displayed from left to right on the Strategic Planner. Click the “Apply” button to save your data column settings.

Customize the data columns on the Strategic Planner to see only the data relevant to your needs.

ColumnDescription
NameUnique name or alias of the plan. You can use a plan’s name to find it via the “Search” field.
CreatedDate when the strategic plan was created via SFTP data sync.
Locations CountTotal number of locations included in the plan’s scenarios and routes.
Scenarios CountTotal number of scenarios included in the strategic plan.
Avg DistanceAverage combined distance of scenario routes included in the plan.
Avg DurationAverage combined duration of scenario routes included in the plan

 

Open Scenarios And Customer Locations From The Strategic Planner

The Strategic Planner provides an overview of your Recurring Routing Scenarios bundled into Strategic Plans. To view more detailed data about a specific Plan and its associated Scenarios, click the “Open” button.

The Strategic Planner provides an overview of your different recurring routing scenarios bundled into strategic plans.

 

On the “Scenarios” page, you can see the scenarios included in the Strategic Plan you opened and their associated data such as the number of routes, visits, average and total route durations, and more.

On the 'Scenarios' page, you can see the scenarios included in the Strategic Plan and their data such as the number of routes, visits, average and total route durations, etc.

 

Click the “Locations” tab to see the Customer Locations associated with the Strategic Plan and its Scenarios. Additionally, here’s where you can find data relating to the visit frequency and pattern of each location.

Click the 'Locations' tab to see the Customer Locations associated with the plan and its scenarios.

 

Customize Scenario Data Columns And Settings

Just like the Strategic Planner, you can customize the data shown for your Scenarios. To do so, click the Display Columns Button and check the boxes next to the columns you wish to enable. After that, you can change their positions by dragging column names. Accordingly, columns listed from top to bottom are displayed from left to right on the “Scenarios” page. Click the “Apply” button to save your data column settings.

The “Scenarios” and “Locations” tabs support different data columns. See the table below for more information about each tab’s supported columns.

Just like the Strategic Planner, you can customize the data shown for your Scenarios.

ColumnDescription
Scenarios
DescriptionFunctions as the alias of a scenario and includes schedule details and parameters.
RoutesNumber of routes included in the scenario.
VisitsNumber of visits to be planned for routes in the scenario
Avg Duration per RouteAverage duration of routes in the scenario.
Total DurationTotal duration of routes in the scenario.
Total Travel DurationTotal combined duration of scenario route travel time.
Total Service DurationTotal duration of route Service Time in the scenario.
Avg Distance per RouteAverage travel distance of routes in the scenario.
Total DistanceTotal combined distance of scenario routes.
Optimization PeriodThe period of time across which scenario routes will be scheduled.
Avg Distance Between DestinationsAverage travel distance between scenario route destinations.
Avg Time Between DestinationsAverage travel time between scenario route destinations.
StatusCurrent status of the scenario depending on whether it was accepted. If a scenario hasn’t been accepted, it will have the “Pending” status.
AcceptedDate on which the scenario was accepted.
Created Routes CountTotal number of scenario routes that have been successfully created.
Failed Routes CountTotal number of scenario routes that were unable to be created.
Locations
AddressAddress if the location which will be used as the destination address when scenario routes are accepted.
AliasName or alias of the location. You can use a location’s name to find it in other Route4Me interfaces.
FrequencyHow often the location will be planned for visitation when scenario routes are accepted.
DaysWeekdays on which the location will be planned for visitation when scenario routes are accepted.
Starting CycleOn which cycle of the scenario schedule will the location first be planned for visitation when scenario routes are accepted.
Days Between CycleNumber of days between planned visitation cycles.
Days RangeTBD

 

Open And Accept Scenario Route Plans For Regular Or Recurring Routing

To see detailed information about a Scenario’s associated Route Plans, click the “Open” button next to a Scenario. This enables you to evaluate Strategic Scenarios in detail before accepting and adding routes to your account.

To see detailed information about a scenario's associated route plans, click the 'Open' button next to a scenario.

 

Once you open a Scenario, you can see the routes associated with it, including details like start time, planned distance and duration, number of destinations, etc. The combined totals for these metrics are shown in the Summary Panel on the left. For your convenience, Scenario Routes are grouped by week, giving you an overview of their recurring schedules and visitation patterns.

If the Scenario Route Plans meet your requirements, simply click the “Accept All as Master Routes” button to add those routes to your account as Master Routes for Recurring Schedules. Alternatively, click the “Accept All as Ad Hoc Routes” button to use add the routes to your account as regular, non-recurring routes. NOTE: Ad hoc routes will be scheduled for the dates and times shown in the Scenario and won’t repeat.

Once you open a scenario, you can see all the routes that are associated with it, including details like start time, planned distance and duration, number of destinations, etc.

 

To get a detailed breakdown of the visitation frequency and schedules for all destinations included in a Scenario, click the “Destinations Schedule” tab. Here, you can see the Customers and Customer Locations associated with destinations in the Scenario Route Plans. Additionally, you can see the visitation frequency and weekday schedules of each destination.

To get a detailed breakdown of the visitation frequency and schedules for all destinations included in a scenario, click the 'Destinations Schedule' tab.

 

Customize Route Plan Data Columns And Settings

You can easily customize the data shown for your route plans. This streamlines the process of evaluating a Strategic Scenario and simplifies decision-making. To do so, click the Display Columns Button and check the boxes next to the columns you wish to enable. After that, you can change their positions by dragging column names. Accordingly, columns listed from top to bottom are displayed from left to right on a Scenario’s page. Click the “Apply” button to save your data column settings.

The “Routes” and “Destination Schedules” tabs support different data columns. See the table below for more information about each tab’s supported columns.

You can easily customize the data shown for your route plans. This streamlines the process of evaluating a strategic scenario and simplifies decision-making.

ColumnDescription
Routes
Route NameName or alias of the routes. You can use a route’s name to easily find it in other Route4Me interfaces.
Week NumberFor how many weeks the route will be planned when scenario routes are accepted.
Week DayFor which days of the week the route will be scheduled when scenario routes are accepted.
Start DateDate for which the route will be scheduled when scenario routes are accepted.
Start TimeTime for which the route will be scheduled when scenario routes are accepted.
DurationTotal duration of the route, including travel time and Service Time.
DistanceTotal distance of the route.
Number of DestinationsTotal number of destinations that will be included in the route when scenario routes are accepted.
Avg Distance Between DestinationsAverage distance between destinations on the route.
Avg Time Between DestinationsAverage travel time between destinations on the route.
Destinations Schedule
CustomerCustomer or contant person associated with the destination.
Customer LocationCustomer Location associated with the destination.
FrequencyHow often will the destination be planned for visitation when scenario routes are accepted.

 

 

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About author: Kristian Andreev

Kristian is a Technical Writer at Route4Me. With over a decade of experience in writing and localization, he's an expert at communicating complex technical data in a clear, concise, and user-friendly way. Passionate about bridging the gap between engineers and users, he specializes in creating documentation to streamline onboarding, enhance product usability, and support global teams on the path to success.

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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.