Route Groups

Planning routes as a group unlocks additional flexibility and efficiency, allowing users to manage and track key details of any number of routes in a centralized manner. A Route Group could contain all the routes for a specific day or week, all the routes assigned to a particular driver, or can be organized in any manner that supports your route planning workflows.

Click any link below to jump directly to the corresponding section of this article:

Creating a Route Group

To generate routes contained in a Route Group, from your EasyRoutes Orders page, configure your How many routes? route option, select and add your orders to the map, and create your Route Group:

One or more existing routes can also be added to a new or existing Route Group from the Routes page:

From the Routes Page, any routes contained within a Route Group will display with the same coloured bar next to their names - click this bar to jump directly to the group's All Routes summary view, and use the controls in the upper right-hand corner of the page to navigate between individual routes in the group:

The All Routes view contains a table of summary data for all the routes included in the group, as well as route lines representing the different routes and the stops they contain, in colours that match each route displayed on the map above:

Editing a Route Group

Route names can be edited from the All routes view, or from the Route Page for any individual route within the group:

The group's Route Options can be reviewed in the panel immediately below the map. Click the Additional actions (three dots icon) button within this panel, and select Edit route options to enable or disable additional route options:

Route tags can also be updated from the All routes view of any Route Group. Use the checkboxes to select which route(s) you'd like to apply tag(s) to. From the menu that appears at the bottom of the page, click into the More actions menu (three dots icon), and select Add tags or Remove tags:

Working with Route Group Orders

New stops can be added to an existing route group from the Add orders tab found on the All routes view, or any individual route contained in a group. After adding new stops, you'll have two options for route optimization:

  • Add without optimizing: If adding from the All routes view, newly added orders will be placed into a new route, within the existing group; if adding from an individual route page, these orders will be added at the end of the route. This will not affect the stop order & optimization of any existing routes in the group.
  • Add and re-optimize: If adding from the All routes view, newly added orders will be placed into the existing routes within the group, and all routes will be re-optimized to find the most optimal route including any new stops; if adding from an individual route page, these orders will be added and the individual route will be re-optimized (all other routes in the group will not be modified):

You can also drag and drop stops on the route lines either to move certain stops earlier or later within a route, or to shift stops from one route in the group to another:

Stops can also be dragged into the Unrouted drop zone below the group's route lines. Any unrouted stops will be combined for centralized review in the group's Unrouted tab:

From the group's Unrouted tab, use the checkboxes to select stops to add back to any of the routes in the group, or to remove from the group entirely:

You can also use the visual map selection tools to select stops from one or more routes in the group, and use the Optimize as new route tool to quickly optimize selected orders as their own individual route within the group:

Scheduling a Route Group

Routes contained within a Route Group can be scheduled individually or in bulk from the All Routes view:

  • Use the Start time dropdown menu on any individual route's listing in the All Routes table to configure that route's scheduled start date/time.
  • Use the checkboxes to select multiple routes, and use the Schedule routes button at the bottom of the page to configure and apply a scheduled start date/time to all selected routes:

Once a schedule has been added for routes in the group, use the toggle above the route lines to switch to that group's dynamic timeline view, with each stop's bar reflecting the actual amount of time it will take to complete:

Optimizing a Route Group

Route Groups are always optimized when first created, but can be re-optimized after adding new stops to any route within the group. Note that any re-optimization operations may undo any manual re-ordering of stops in order to place stops in the most optimal order.

  • Re-optimize one or more individual routes: From the All routes view of any existing route group, use the checkboxes to select route(s) requiring re-optimization; from the menu that appears at the bottom of the page, select Optimize route(s) to re-optimize only the route(s) that have been selected.
  • Re-optimize the entire Route Group: From the All routes view of any existing route group, click the Re-optimize button found below the map. If no manual changes have been made to the group's stop ordering since it was last optimized, this button will not be available:

Assigning Drivers & Dispatching a Route Group

Drivers can be assigned (or unassigned) to routes from the All routes view by clicking the dropdown selector within the Driver column on any route within the summary table, and choosing any active driver in your roster to assign:

Routes can be dispatched in bulk directly from the All routes view of any Route Group, so long as they already have a driver assigned. Use the checkboxes to select which route(s) to dispatch. From the menu that appears at the bottom of the page, click into the Actions (three dots icon) menu, and select Dispatch routes. Once successfully dispatched, routes will update to display with a checkmark icon next to the assigned driver's name:

Did this answer your question? Thanks for the feedback There was a problem submitting your feedback. Please try again later.

Related Articles