Introduction
This guide provides an overview of the Route Planning feature in the Mover TMS, empowering you to optimise your delivery workflows. We will explore both manual and automated route creation options, providing you with the information you need to choose that best fits your needs.
What Is Route Planning
In a previous article, we compared the Mover TMS to a control tower. We described how a control tower operator might be meticulously plotting flight paths for airplanes, considering factors like weather patterns, air traffic density, and plane capabilities to ensure safe and efficient journeys. The Route Planning feature in our TMS operates on a similar principle.
To understand it better, think of routes as individual flights, your deliveries as the passengers, and the route plan as the flight path.
Route planning allows you to define a set of conditions based on which routes will be created to carry out your deliveries in the most efficient or meaningful way for your business.
A route plan can consist of only one or a gazillion routes, depending on:
Number of Orders and Services from the system
Rule Sets you define
Validation rules for route feasibility (technical boundaries)
How to Create a Route Plan
There is no right or wrong way to create a route plan, and yours is the best! The ideal method depends on your specific delivery objectives, so we recommend spending some time defining what you hope to achieve by using Mover to plan your last-mile deliveries, whether that is more economical routes, full automation, less CO2 emissions, or higher customer satisfaction - you name it!
Mover TMS offers three options for creating routes.
Manual Route Creation
Think of this type of route planning as your favourite video game - it's you with the controller, making all the moves.
This option is ideal for situations where you have a small number of deliveries to plan, or when all your deliveries can be grouped into a single route. It's also a good choice if you don't need the system to optimize the order in which stops are visited.
Here's what to keep in mind: Stops will be added to the route in the order you select them. This may not always create the most efficient route, but it's a quick way to plan your deliveries. As a planner, you can still manually re-arrange the stops for better optimization.
Partially Automated Route Planning: Create an Optimised Route Plan from a Rule Set
Imagine having a co-pilot who knows your preferences and takes care of the tedious bits so that you can focus on the bigger picture. That’s what our partially automated route planning offers: it allows you to set specific rules that guide the TMS in creating optimised delivery routes.
This is the recommended route planning method for most businesses who adopt our TMS because it offers a good balance of automation and control. Especially suited for non-repetitive deliveries, route planning with a rule set offers configuration options that are complex and specific enough to accommodate the various ways companies organize their delivery windows and possibilities.
Fully Automated Route Planning: Group Orders and Use Rule Sets to Plan Them on a Route
This option is the autopilot of route planning - we call it "Set it and Forget it!"
Automated Route Planning helps you save time by streamlining operations for deliveries that happen regularly, like daily bread deliveries, weekly subscription boxes, etc. The route planning for designated orders starts by itself based on a pre-defined planning schedule.
Use if you want the route planning to start during the night, or if you have a significant number of recurrent deliveries on a daily or weekly basis.