Project Settings

When adding a new project or editing it, [Project Card - Edit] it is possible to modify its parameters in order to achieve the best possible fit to the conditions and assumptions. After clicking [Add project] we will see a form that we should fill out in accordance with our expectations and the conditions that the routes must meet.

At the top of the form we see fields such as:

[Name] – add a specific name for the project, it can be e.g. Route with date (Route Tuesday) or route direction. This name will allow you to distinguish this project from others, it will be displayed on the list of all projects.

[Time range] – specify the period for which you want to plan the route. Click on the calendar and select the start and end date of the project. You can set the project for one or several days, or even months. A more detailed description in Multi-day routes.

[Status] – shows the current status of the project. This can be “Preparing” if you are just starting to plan routes or “In progress” if drivers have completed at least one point on the route.

[Implementation] – expressed as a percentage, informs what percentage of the route has already been completed by drivers.

Map

[Optimization Goal] – whether the program should focus on saving time or reducing kilometers traveled when planning a route.

[Avoid toll roads] – turning it on causes avoidance of toll sections on the route.

[Avoid highways] – turning it on causes avoidance of highways.

[Traffic] – route variants are determined taking into account the traffic. Contact us if you would like to use this option. More detailed description in the tab Traffic

[Working days] – allows you to specify working days of the week. Particularly useful for projects with multi-day plans, where you can specify in advance that routes will not be planned on specific days of the week.

[Individual time of visit to the point] – Setting to “Yes” will cause the route to be recalculated based on individual completion times. If you service points for which you need to allocate more or less time for completion than at other points, you can set an individual time for them in the [Point Database]. For points for which such a time is not entered, the [Default completion time] will be adopted. If you select “No” [Individual time of visit to point], all points, even those with a set time, will be serviced according to the [Default completion time].

[Default lead time] – the time the vehicle stays at the point needed to complete the delivery or collection of the shipment, expressed in minutes. It will be taken into account if you do not set [Individual time of visit to the point] for individual points, or if you set individual times for points but do not select this option to "Yes".

[Planning routes for holidays] – allows you to specify days during the year for which the app will not plan routes. If the tile is set to "Yes" you will be able to mark non-working days in the calendar. If the tile is set to "No" all days, regardless of holidays and non-working days, will be treated as working days.

limitations

[Time windows] – They define the days of the week or hours on which the point can be planned. Some points that you serve may have non-standard working hours or work only on selected days. In order not to send transport unnecessarily, you can enter this information in the [Point Database] when creating a new point or editing it. If you set the tile to "Yes", the system will plan a route for you taking into account the days and hours of the point's work.

[Vehicle capacity] – taking into account the maximum vehicle capacity. The route will be planned so that the total value of [Shipment size] of subsequent points on the route does not exceed [Vehicle capacity]. [Vehicle capacity] is specified in the [Vehicle database], and [Shipment size] in the [Point database]. Failure to specify [Shipment size] is treated as zero. The interpretation of the unit (pieces, liters, kilograms, pallets, people, etc.) is the customer's responsibility. At the customer's request, it is possible to include up to three vehicle capacities.

[Vehicle capacity] – taking into account the maximum vehicle capacity. The route will be planned so that the total value of [Shipment weight] of subsequent points on the route does not exceed [Vehicle capacity]. [Vehicle capacity is specified in the [Vehicle Database], [Shipment weight] in the [Point Database]. Failure to specify [Shipment weight] is treated as zero. The interpretation of the unit (pieces, liters, kilograms, pallets, people, etc.) is the customer's responsibility.

If you enable the [Vehicle capacity] and [Vehicle payload] options at the same time, the route will be planned so as not to exceed both limits.

[Route length] – the length (in kilometres) of the planned route for the vehicle will not exceed the established limit.

[Order of points on the route] – allows you to force the order of some or all of the points on the route. The order can be:
– [Relative] – this defines the relations between the selected points (e.g. point A must always be before B, but it does not matter whether it is at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the route).
– [Absolute] – the order of the route point is specified directly as a specific ordinal number or allowable range.

In addition to selecting the order on the project card, the order of points is specified in the [Points] tab in [Project], in the [Order] column – selecting the check box for setting the order and manually moving the point to the selected position or entering the desired position. Description in Order of points on the route.

[Priorities] – priority treatment of selected points. This means that a point with a high priority will have priority in planning in relation to other "normal" points. When the [Priorities] function is enabled, in the [Points] tab in the project, select the check box in the [Priority] column next to the selected point.

[Assigning a point to a vehicle] – forcing the point to be serviced by a specified vehicle. When planning routes, a point with an assigned vehicle will be planned only and exclusively for the route of the specified vehicle. Assigning a point to a vehicle can be done both from the [Points] tab in the project card, and from the [Point database] level, in the [Vehicles] column using the [Add] button.

[Vehicle types] – forcing the point to be serviced by vehicles of a specific type or types. If an acceptable list of vehicle types is defined for a point, the routes will be planned so that the point is serviced by a vehicle of a given type (e.g. a refrigerator truck). The vehicle type is determined when adding or editing a vehicle in the [Vehicle Database] tab. The vehicle type, e.g. "Refrigerated Truck", is defined by the user by entering their own type in the form. A more detailed description can be found in the tab Vehicle types

[Regions] – planning within regions. Both points and vehicles can have a defined region. When the [Regions] option is enabled, optimization is performed independently for each region. Adding and setting regions is described in the tab Regions

Track

[Schedule of visits] – planning visits to points according to specific schedules. Particularly useful in multi-day projects (e.g. plans for the whole month). It allows you to specify how many times and at what intervals the driver is to visit the point during the project. A more detailed description can be found in Schedules

[Multi-day routes] – planning routes that last several days. Unlike multi-day projects, where you can plan routes for many days, but each route is a single day, in this case you can plan a route that, for example, starts on Monday and ends on Friday. Enabling this option requires defining the time intervals for the vehicle's operation. The intervals are set for each day of the trip in an hourly range. A more detailed description can be found in Multi-day routes.

[Working time start priority] – forcing the route to start exactly at the time the vehicle starts working. This option is useful when, for example, a specific time of vehicle departure is required for organizational reasons. By default, the optimizer itself selects the route start time during the vehicle's working hours to minimize downtime, etc.

[Reloading] – the ability for the vehicle to drive to a specified point during the route in order to unload/load the goods. Unloading will have a direct impact on the capacity and load capacity. After enabling, you can additionally define the address of the reloading point and its time. At least one of the options must be enabled: [Vehicle capacity]/[Vehicle load capacity] to use this function. Description in Transshipments.

[Customer Notifications] – informing customers about events related to planning and implementing points on the route. It allows you to send an e-mail or text message with individual content, e.g. about planning a route with a planned date of the driver's visit, or about completing a task with an attached photo from the visit. After enabling this option, you need to configure the type (e-mail/text message) of notifications, events and content of information to be sent. The configuration of notifications is set in the [Notifications] tab. You can also go to edit notifications from the [Project card]. A more detailed description can be found in Customer notifications.

[Use all vehicles] – forcing the planning of routes for all vehicles in the project. The optimizer usually tries to plan routes to complete deliveries with the fewest number of vehicles, but in this case it will use all available ones. This is often dictated by organizational reasons in the company.

[Work time balancing] – the planned routes will have a similar duration, even though they could be planned more optimally without this condition. This option is useful in organizations where the even workload of drivers is valued over the potential profits from shortening some routes or eliminating the need to use a given vehicle.