Choose a clear and descriptive name aligned with your existing workflows and ERP naming conventions. Consider factors like delivery frequency, geographic zones, distribution centers, or days of the week. The name should help you easily identify the purpose and logic behind the rule set.

U-turns 

Allow drivers to make U-turns or enforce linear routes. Allowing U-turns might lead to shorter routes depending on traffic patterns and geographical limitations, but may create risk for drivers performing the maneuver, especially when driving trucks.

Unloading restrictions

Specify if drivers can unload from both sides of the vehicle or just one. Consider delivery density when deciding. If there are multiple deliveries on the same street, driving up the street first and returning to deliver on the other side might be preferred over delivering in a zig-zag pattern.

Indicate if drivers can use ferries or private roads for deliveries. Consider the delivery area and cost factors when deciding. If drivers need to cross borders serviced by both ferries and bridges, evaluate the cost and time priorities for each option.
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Set the parameters for the route's starting point (usually the pick-up location). Account for charging times (if driving an electric vehicle), paperwork, and uniform changes by defining how early drivers should arrive at the pick-up location. The loading time will then be planned based on the latest arrival time.

Designate specific orders for customer pick-up at designated locations based on Tags assigned to those orders.

Freestyle by typing in a name of your choice, or use one of the existing placeholders to automatically generate route names.

Route Tags

Assign default tags (e.g., city, zip code, delivery type) to categorize the routes.

Tick the "Manual Approval" box if you want to review and approve the route plan before routes are created, or leave it unchecked for automatic route creation based on your defined rule set.

Imagine streamlining deliveries within busy city centres or targeting deliveries with specific tags for priority handling.

Geographic Settings in the Rule Set allows you to do just that!

Just like combining orders by shared criteria optimises routes, Geographic Settings allows you to define unique delivery rules for designated areas on your map.

Use Geographic Settings to:

Need to make changes? No problem! Use the Pen icon to edit or the Trash Bin symbol to delete the area.

Specify the date range and/or the days of the week when the rule applies.

Order Tags

Indicate if the rule applies to orders with specific tags.

Limitations

Adjust task time and driving time for tagged orders within that area.
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Area Blocked

Completely restrict deliveries within the designated zone during the chosen timeframe (e.g. events like marathons, parades, or road works). The vehicle will go around it.
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Once you’ve defined your parameters, click “Create Area Rule” to activate it for that specific zone.

Example 1: City Center Furniture Deliveries
Furniture deliveries in the city center often encounter heavy traffic during weekdays. Define a Geographic Setting for the inner city, setting a rule to increase driving time by 30% for all deliveries within this zone during weekdays. This accounts for the additional time drivers might spend navigating congested streets.

Example 2: Limited Parking Areas
When executing grocery deliveries, drivers might report challenges delivering on time in an area with limited parking availability. Set a rule to apply to all deliveries in this area, increasing task times by 10 minutes to allow drivers extra time to find parking.

Vehicle Groups allow you to categorise your fleet based on vehicle types (e.g. cars, vans, trucks, lifts, bikes) and specify their characteristics and limitations. This information is crucial for the TMS to optimise routes by assigning the most suitable vehicle type for each delivery. Vehicle Groups are therefore a mandatory component of the Rule Sets.

Let's configure your first vehicle group step by step:
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1. In Rule Sets, go to Vehicle Groups and click on "New Vehicle Group"
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2. Name and Vehicle Type
Choose a clear and descriptive name for your vehicle group (e.g. Small Delivery Vans, Copenhagen Inner City Bikes, Amsterdam Warehouse - HOLL21) and select the corresponding vehicle type from the drop-down menu (bike, car, van, truck, lift).

3. Define Cost Factors
These settings help the system understand your priorities and balance efficiency with cost-effectiveness.
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​Cost Per New Route
This influences how many vehicles are included in one route. The higher the cost per new route, the fewer routes the system will generate. The generated routes will be longer (in distance and duration) and have more stops. This can be beneficial if you have a high volume of deliveries in a concentrated area and driver time is a significant cost factor.
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​Cost Per Time
Covers labor costs associated with driving, loading, and unloading. Assigning a higher value prioritizes route plans that take less overall time to complete, even if the distance travelled might be slightly longer. This can be beneficial if driver wages are a major expense.
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​Cost per Distance
Prioritizes shorter routes, potentially increasing overall route time and number of routes created. Assigning a higher value encourages the TMS to create routes with the shortest total distance travelled. This can be beneficial if fuel costs are a major concern.
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​Note: The route optimization engine will try to minimize the total cost of the route plan, which is a combination of cost per new route, cost per time, and cost per distance. This means that within a single route plan, you might obtain some apparently inefficient routes that are compensated by higher efficiency in other routes from the route plan. The system optimizes across all routes, not individual ones.
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By carefully considering these cost factors and setting them appropriately for each Vehicle Group, you can balance efficiency, cost savings, and delivery timelines in your route optimization process.​
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4. Define Limitations
Specify the maximum capacity of the vehicle group in terms of volume, weight, number of colli per route, stops, driving distance, and total route duration. Indicate whether the vehicle group functions as a pick-up location for customers.
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​Note: The limitations defined here are applied to an entire group of vehicles, not to individual vehicles. You cannot use this space to define limitations for a specific car, van, or other vehicle in your fleet.
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5. Locations
Define the starting and ending addresses for the specific vehicle group, including any associated task time at those locations. The Start Address is mandatory for rule set creation because the system needs a starting point to calculate routes. The End Address is optional.
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For each of these locations (start address, end address, and potential refills), you must also define time allocated to drivers for performing their tasks.

Start Address (mandatory)
The departure point for routes using this vehicle group. You must define the task time for loading activities at this location.
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​End Address (optional) and Return Stop Planning
If you configure an End Address, the system will automatically plan a Return Stop as the final stop on every route. This ensures drivers always conclude their route at the Distribution Center, even if pickup failures occur during route execution.
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When configuring the End Address, you'll need to define:
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​Fixed Route Closing Time (mandatory if End Address is configured)
Time allocated at the last stop for the driver to complete closing tasks, such as vehicle inspection, debriefing, or administrative work. This field is required when an End Address is configured and must be greater than 0.
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​Fixed Unloading Time (optional)
Time assigned to deliver inbound orders at the End location (such as returns or failed deliveries brought back to the Distribution Center). This time will be proportionally split across all delivery stops at this location. If not configured and deliveries to the Distribution Center are planned, the system will default to 1 second per stop.
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Note: Orders from multiple pickup locations going to the same delivery address will be grouped into a single delivery stop on the route, streamlining the delivery experience for your customers.
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6. Define Loading Time
Here's where things get interesting! The loading time at the Start Address can be configured to be fixed for all routes or variable, depending on the number of colli, weight, or volume the drivers will have to handle (Dynamic Loading Time).
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The configuration allows to define a base loading time (for the setup and standard tasks), and then add extra time based on the amount of colli, total weight, or volume. This ensures that routes reflect the real effort required to start the day — without overestimating time for small loads or underestimating time for larger ones.
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This setting is optional and applies only to the Start Location of the Route.
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​Extra loading time
Define how much extra time (in seconds) should be added for every unit of:

Use the dropdown to select the relevant factor.
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Example: Add 240 seconds for every 5 colli
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​Maximum loading time
Enter the upper limit for loading time in minutes. This ensures that even large loads do not receive excessive loading time.

7. Route Refill
Specify if drivers can return to the starting location for refills (i.e., pick-up of additional orders) before continuing on the route. If yes, define the earliest arrival time, latest departure time, and task time for refilling.
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8. Order Tags (Include / Exclude)
If you use Tags to organise and label your orders (e.g. CityCentre, Perishables, 2ManDelivery), you can use this section to instruct the system to group orders that belong together on the same route, or to ensure that orders tagged with specific tags are not included on the route.
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Assign default tags to routes planned using this specific vehicle group (e.g. vehicle group name).
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You can easily duplicate existing vehicle groups as a starting point for creating new ones. Additionally, you can edit or delete vehicle groups at any time to adapt your TMS settings to your evolving fleet and delivery needs.

It is important to differentiate between Vehicle Groups in Rule Sets and individual vehicles as Resources.

This two-tiered approach allows for efficient delivery planning with Vehicle Groups and real-world route execution with Physical Vehicles.

Departure Times enable you to create gate reservations for vehicles at your warehouse (or any designated start location).

This allows you to orchestrate smooth staging and coordinate vehicle loading with maximum efficiency and minimum driver waiting times.

​2. Define Start Location
Click "New Start Location" to specify the starting point for your deliveries (e.g., your warehouse). Ensure that the address matches the one added as Start Address in Vehicle Groups.
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3. Configure Additional Pickup Address (if applicable)
If you want to use an Additional Pickup Address in your Vehicle Group settings, you'll need to configure its location details here. This ensures the route planning system knows where drivers need to go for secondary pickups.

4. Create Gate Reservation
After setting the location, click "New Reservation" to establish a new gate reservation.

Note: The maximum number of times a Vehicle Group will be used by Route Planning is computed as (Latest Arrival - Earliest Arrival)/Time between departures, rounded up to the next whole number. If you only want to use your vehicle group once (e.g., because you have only one vehicle of that type), make sure that only one departure is possible for that gate and vehicle group.

You can create multiple starting locations and gate reservations within a single rule set to accommodate different vehicle groups or departure times.

Task Time allows you to define the expected duration a driver will spend at each stop along a route. It takes into account multiple factors, such as the stop's start time, floor task time, and the number of Transport Units (formerly known as Colli). By incorporating these variables, Task Time enhances route optimization and improves delivery efficiency.

Configuring Task Time

1. Navigate to Rule Sets > Select your rule set > Task Time

You can define how Task Time is determined by selecting one of the following options:

As part of the Route Planning feature, you can improve recipient satisfaction and optimize delivery efficiency through two key capabilities: grouping orders for the same recipient and prioritizing important orders to ensure they're planned first.

Order Grouping allows you to combine orders that need to be delivered to the same recipient. This helps you achieve:

You can choose to group orders by:

When orders or services are grouped, the stops within the group will be prioritized in the following order:

If maximizing route efficiency is your priority, you may want to plan orders separately, as this can lead to more efficient results, though resulting in multiple stops for the same recipient.

Order Importance allows you to assign importance levels to orders based on tags, ensuring that critical orders are planned first when capacity is tight. This feature helps you:

Order prioritization uses a weight-based system where you assign numerical values to specific order tags. The system calculates each order's total priority by summing the weights of all matching tags. When vehicle capacity is limited, the optimizer uses these priority values to plan more important orders first, reducing the likelihood that critical orders are left unplanned.

How it works:

Orders Importance is particularly valuable when you need to:

Select the relevant grouping option: Consider whether you want to group by recipient information or order ID and click on the relevant toggle to activate it.

Choose how to handle conflicting delivery times: While the system attempts to find a delivery window that works for all grouped orders, there might be situations where times clash. In these cases, you can choose how to proceed: