PR-3601 · Live
Route Builder
The Dispatch Manager sits down for the next planning cycle and the route book is already in a workspace, every recurring Route on a row with the prior sequence, the proposed sequence, the drive-time change, and a side-by-side map. She works the rows, locks the stops her techs have asked her to, and commits the cycle back to the schedule of record on Saturday night.
The promise
The Dispatch Manager's planning Saturday stops including the spreadsheet. The route book is already optimized on her screen with the drive-time listed for each Route, ready for her to lock in on the schedule.
How it works
The path from input to value.
- 01
The route book is pulled in
At the start of each planning cycle, every recurring Route is loaded into one workspace, one Route per row. Each row shows who is running it, what stops it has, and when each stop happens today.
- 02
Each Route is optimized automatically
Every Route gets a better-ordered version worked out for it automatically, shown next to the current one. Each row shows how much drive time and how many miles the new order saves, and a before-and-after map is available for any Route.
- 03
The plan is open for edits
The Dispatch Manager can adjust any Route before it goes live: dragging stops into a different order, locking stops that should stay put, and re-running the suggestion on just the Routes that were changed. The running totals at the top update as edits are made.
- 04
The approved plan is saved back
Once the plan is approved, the new stop orders, tech assignments, and start times are written back into the company's scheduling system on a set schedule, by default the Saturday night after approval. This happens on its own, with nothing to watch.
- 05
Any Route can be undone
For a set period after approval, any Route can be returned to exactly how it was before the cycle. The earlier version is written back into the scheduling system the same way the new one was.
The day before. The day after.
Same moments. Lived differently.
Coffee, second monitor, the planning spreadsheet kept in a tab. Exports today's schedule out of the system of record one Route at a time.
8:00 AMCoffee, one monitor. The workspace is already showing the proposed cycle, every Route on a row with the drive-time change named.
8:00 AMBefore
Coffee, second monitor, the planning spreadsheet kept in a tab. Exports today's schedule out of the system of record one Route at a time.
After
Coffee, one monitor. The workspace is already showing the proposed cycle, every Route on a row with the drive-time change named.
Re-sequencing stops by hand in the spreadsheet, eyeballing the map in a second tab. The drive-time change is a number calculated on the side.
10:30 AMWorking the rows the optimizer's confidence is low on, dragging stops where needed, watching the plan-level totals update at the top.
10:30 AMBefore
Re-sequencing stops by hand in the spreadsheet, eyeballing the map in a second tab. The drive-time change is a number calculated on the side.
After
Working the rows the optimizer's confidence is low on, dragging stops where needed, watching the plan-level totals update at the top.
Two techs have texted asking to keep the same Monday stops they've been working. A note on the sticky pad next to the keyboard.
1:00 PMLocks the Monday stops the techs flagged. Re-runs the optimizer on the surrounding subset. Texts the techs back the same hour with the new shape.
1:00 PMBefore
Two techs have texted asking to keep the same Monday stops they've been working. A note on the sticky pad next to the keyboard.
After
Locks the Monday stops the techs flagged. Re-runs the optimizer on the surrounding subset. Texts the techs back the same hour with the new shape.
Re-keying the new sequences back into the system of record, one Route at a time, watching for the field that doesn't save right if you tab through it too fast.
3:00 PMCycle committed. The writes are queued for tonight. Spends the next hour with the schedule-buffer numbers there's finally time to look at.
3:00 PMBefore
Re-keying the new sequences back into the system of record, one Route at a time, watching for the field that doesn't save right if you tab through it too fast.
After
Cycle committed. The writes are queued for tonight. Spends the next hour with the schedule-buffer numbers there's finally time to look at.
Two techs call the office because their Monday stops moved without warning. The dispatcher fields the calls.
8:00 AMNo surprise-move calls. In the huddle coaching the dispatcher on the same-day reschedule pattern there's finally time to work on.
8:00 AMBefore
Two techs call the office because their Monday stops moved without warning. The dispatcher fields the calls.
After
No surprise-move calls. In the huddle coaching the dispatcher on the same-day reschedule pattern there's finally time to work on.
What it doesn’t do
The edges we drew on purpose.
A product that tries to do everything ends up doing nothing well. Here’s what we left out, and why we don’t feel bad about it.
- ×Does not push the new Routes to technician mobile devices.
- ×Does not send customers a notification when their visit day or window changes.
- ×Does not validate skill matches during optimization. Locked stops and tech-Route assignments come in as inputs the optimizer respects.
- ×Does not track GPS or live technician location.