Plan customer visits taking into account service frequency, time window, sales potential, and vehicle capacity.
Route planning determines which customers a field worker will visit, in what order, and within what time frame. While fixed routes ensure consistent customer service, dynamic planning can optimize the daily schedule based on orders, traffic, capacity, and urgent requests.
Planning shouldn't just be about finding the shortest route; it should also consider customer service days, delivery time windows, vehicle capacity, product specifications, driver working hours, and visit priorities.
Planning inputs
Customer location and geographic coordinates
Frequency of visits and preferred day
Delivery or negotiation time window
Order volume, weight, and vehicle capacity
Product temperature or transportation requirements
Representative skills and customer responsibility
Working hours, breaks, and local restrictions.
Traffic, road and access information
Route types
Fixed periodic route
Route created based on daily orders.
Sales and distribution mixed route
Urgent delivery or additional mission route
Regional or rural long-distance route
Sales booth and event support route
Daily rescheduling
If a customer is unavailable, a vehicle breaks down, a delivery is delayed, or a new priority order arises, remaining visits can be rescheduled. The impact of these changes on the promised timeframe to the customer, driver working hours, and vehicle stock should be visible.
Comparison of the plan and the actual result.
Planned and actual visit time
Visit duration
Skipped and unplanned visits
Distance covered
Delivery and sales result
Reasons for delay and deviation
Manage the route plan not as a static customer list, but as a daily operational plan that balances service level, cost, and field capacity.