planificador de rutas

One of the most important and, at the same time, tedious tasks to perform in a company with logistics and transportation is the calculation and planning of routes for a specific day or week. With the increasing number of challenges in the industry such as low-emission zones, high fuel prices and higher demands for satisfactory customer service, it is necessary to re-manage routes to adapt and become more efficient.

Para encontrar la ruta definitiva que hará llegar antes a tus clientes se deben de tener en cuenta varias características de las paradas, vehículos y restricciones, entre otras. Además de mantener una comunicación sólida ante cualquier incidente que pueda ocurrir, ya sea un factor interno o externo.

If you want to know the key factors for optimizing delivery routes and how to reach your customer faster, take a look!

Distances between delivery points

Entre los principales factores que se piensan primero cuando se habla de optimizar rutas de reparto son las distancias entre el centro logístico y los puntos de entrega. Además de que es más sencillo calcular una ruta concreta en cuanto echamos un vistazo a la proximidad entre varios puntos de entrega.

Generally, if other factors and constraints are not taken into account, one of the best routes is the one that starts with the stop closest to the warehouse. And then follows the second stop close to the first, and so on until you have finished with all orders and return to the logistics center.

However, a simple glance at delivery points can hide narrow and difficult to navigate last-mile streets that can significantly delay deliveries. Consequently, this factor is one of the first to be considered when creating a "sketch" route and then assigning drivers, vehicles and other constraints.

Delivery and staffing schedules

It is known that, with a number of batches or individual orders for a specific day, a delivery time zone is agreed with the users when calculating routes. However, these customers are increasingly requesting more precise time zones, according to their needs. Therefore, such orders must be assigned to the carrier with shifts and agreements that are compatible with the assigned time slot.

It should be noted that special attention must be paid to labor restrictions for carriers. For example, drivers are not allowed to work more than 6 hours at a time without a break in a day, so they must rest for a minimum of 30 minutes. If it is a very long route, the appropriate time slot would be assigned in accordance with the regulations and, if necessary, another carrier would be assigned to cover the shift. Not to be forgotten are the hours when loading and unloading is allowed in the cities or at the logistics center receiving the delivery.

Punto de entrega concepto abstracto ilustración vectorial. cómo llegar antes a tu cliente vector

Meritxell Vázquez

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Tips for using the route planner

If you want to know how to get the most out of this familiar route planner, here are the tips that may be useful:

1. Set departure time or arrival time.

Most users who open the application create their route based on the actual time. However, Google Maps also gives us the option to change the date of departure or arrival, giving us room to start planning and arrive on time.

This proves to be very advantageous to get more information about certain roads and highways on which we may encounter setbacks more frequently. Apart from the fact that all possible routes are known in advance by means of the route planner.

2. Use several stops

Not only can routes be created from point A to point B, but it is possible to add multiple stops along the way and optimize in the process.

Although this function is widely used by tourists who want to make a customized tour, it is also very useful for transport and logistics. In this way, additional drop-off and pick-up stops can be added to generate the best delivery route.

3. Consult regular or real time traffic

Once the route is prepared, additional information may appear that can be very helpful. The traffic consultation on the routes may be one of the most useful tools of this application.

The traffic level is colored from green (very little traffic) to dark red (a lot of traffic) to better interpret the main routes and other alternatives.