Route optimiser for businesses and fleets

A route optimiser is software that optimises transport, distribution or delivery routes by assigning orders efficiently to vehicles and calculating the best visit sequence for each journey.

Its role is not simply to find the shortest path between several addresses. In professional operations, it must also decide which vehicle handles each order, how its capacity is used, when it should arrive at each customer and which constraints must be respected.

LOGISPLAN is designed to optimise transport, distribution, delivery and service operations involving multiple vehicles, orders and real-world constraints.

What is a route optimiser?

A route optimiser is a tool that analyses different planning alternatives and searches for the combination that delivers the best overall result.

To do this, it can take account of variables such as:

Distance travelled.
Driving time.
Number of vehicles used.
Cost of each route.
Weight and volume capacity.
Delivery and collection times.
Working day duration.
Service priorities.
Compatibility between orders and vehicles.
Loading and unloading times.
Access restrictions.
Departure and return points.

The aim is to build routes that not only look efficient on a map, but can also be carried out in real operations.

What software for optimising routes should do

Software for optimising business routes must solve far more than the sequencing of a list of addresses.
It must analyse orders, vehicles, capacities, schedules, costs and operational constraints together to produce efficient overall planning.
Its main functions include:

Assigning orders to the right vehicles.
Calculating the optimal stop sequence.
Meeting time windows.
Managing weight and volume capacities.
Avoiding overlapping journeys and areas.
Balancing workloads.
Reducing mileage, time and costs.
Comparing different planning scenarios.

For this reason, choosing route optimisation software should not depend solely on how many addresses it can sequence, but on its ability to represent the company’s real operating conditions.

Much more than sequencing addresses

Basic routing tools usually start with a list of addresses already assigned to a vehicle and simply change the order of the stops.

That may be sufficient for a simple route, but it does not solve an operation involving multiple vehicles, different capacities, schedules, priorities and constraints.

A professional route optimiser must solve two related decisions:

Which orders each vehicle should handle.
The order in which it should visit its destinations.

Both decisions must be calculated together. Assigning orders well but sequencing stops poorly produces inefficient journeys. Correctly sequencing a route is also of little use if orders have been distributed incorrectly among vehicles.

Automatic assignment of orders to vehicles

One of the main functions of a route optimiser is to distribute orders among the available fleet.

The system analyses the characteristics of each order and each vehicle to find an efficient and feasible assignment.

This assignment may consider:

Available capacity.
Vehicle type.
Operating area.
Driver schedule.
Compatibility with the goods.
Operating cost.
Departure point.
Access limitations.
Order priority.
Time available to complete the route.

This prevents several vehicles from covering the same areas unnecessarily, routes from becoming overloaded or part of the fleet from being used inefficiently.

Route optimisation with multiple vehicles

When a company operates several vehicles, the problem is not to calculate an isolated route for each one.

The entire fleet must be optimised.

A seemingly small change can improve the whole plan. For example, moving an order from one vehicle to another can reduce mileage, avoid waiting time, balance working days or allow fewer resources to be used.

LOGISPLAN analyses routes together to find a global solution, rather than optimising each vehicle separately without considering the rest of the operation.

Optimisation with time windows

Many customers can only receive goods or services within a specified time period.

These time windows affect order assignment and the visit sequence. A geographically short route may be unfeasible if it arrives too early or too late at certain destinations.

The optimiser must calculate expected arrival times and consider:

Strict time windows.
Preferred time windows.
Waiting times.
Service duration.
Time-based access restrictions.
Available working time.
Possible penalties for non-compliance.

Incorporating schedules from the outset makes it possible to generate more realistic routes and reduce failed deliveries, delays and unproductive time.

Weight, volume and compartment capacities

A vehicle’s capacity cannot always be represented by a single value.

An operation may need to control weight, volume, units, pallets, tanks, chambers or compartments at the same time.

The optimiser must verify that each route is feasible from a loading perspective and that the specific conditions of each vehicle are met.

It may also be necessary to consider:

Incompatible products.
Independent compartments.
Goods that cannot be mixed.
Loading and unloading sequence.
Different capacities depending on the vehicle.
Collections that change the load during the route.

These conditions directly affect which orders can travel together and the order in which they must be handled.

Real-world transport and distribution constraints

Every company has different operating rules.

A route optimiser must therefore be able to adapt to specific constraints rather than working with distance and time alone.

Among other things, LOGISPLAN can model conditions relating to:

Vehicles authorised for specific customers.
Drivers with specific skills or permits.
Orders that must be handled together.
Services that must be kept separate.
Maximum duration limits.
Breaks and working hours.
Commercial priorities.
Fixed and variable costs.
Delivery areas.
Linked collections and deliveries.
Multiple depots.
Open routes or routes with a return.
Visit frequencies.

The result must comply with the conditions that make a plan genuinely executable.

How the LOGISPLAN route optimiser works

The process can be adapted to each company’s operations and systems.

1. Importing orders and resources

Orders, customers, vehicles, drivers, schedules, capacities, costs and all other required information are imported.

The data may come from files or existing management systems.

2. Configuring objectives and constraints

The conditions that must be met and the objectives to be improved are defined.

For example:

Reduce mileage.
Reduce costs.
Use fewer vehicles.
Balance routes.
Meet schedules.
Maximise load utilisation.
Prioritise specific services.

3. Generating alternatives

The optimiser analyses different ways of assigning orders and building routes.

In real-world problems there are too many combinations to review manually. Algorithms are therefore used to explore the solution space and find efficient alternatives.

4. Evaluating results

The different alternatives are compared using operational and economic criteria.

A route with fewer miles is not always the best if it requires more vehicles, creates waiting time or breaches important conditions.

5. Presenting the plan

The result makes it possible to review routes, stop order, expected times, utilisation, costs and compliance with constraints.

The planning manager can validate the result, make adjustments and compare different scenarios.

Which objectives it can improve

A route optimiser can work with several objectives simultaneously.

The most common include:

Minimising total mileage.
Reducing driving time.
Reducing transport costs.
Using fewer vehicles.
Improving fleet utilisation.
Avoiding overtime.
Reducing waiting time.
Balancing workload.
Improving on-time performance.
Reducing failed deliveries.
Improving cost per order.
Increasing the number of services completed.

The priority of each objective depends on the company. In some operations, using fewer vehicles will be more important; in others, meeting schedules or reducing the risk of incidents will take precedence.

Free route optimisation software versus a professional solution

A free route optimiser may be useful for sequencing a small list of addresses or calculating a simple journey.

However, a business operation usually needs to solve additional problems:

Distributing orders among several vehicles.
Managing capacities.
Meeting time windows.
Managing collections and deliveries.
Considering service times.
Applying specific constraints.
Working with different costs.
Comparing scenarios.
Integrating with company systems.
Planning hundreds or thousands of services.

The difference is not simply the number of addresses. It lies in the ability to represent the operation correctly and generate a plan that can be executed under real-world conditions.

Difference between a route optimiser and a route planner

The two concepts are related, but they are not exactly the same.

A route planner makes it possible to organise an operation and build journeys. An optimiser adds the ability to compare many alternatives to find a better solution according to the defined objectives.

In practice, a professional solution must combine both functions:

Planning to obtain feasible routes.
Optimising to improve costs, mileage, time and resource utilisation.

LOGISPLAN integrates planning and optimisation into the same process, but this page focuses specifically on how the optimiser works and what it can do.

You can learn more about the planning side in our transport route planner.

Sectors and operations where it can be used

The route optimiser can be applied in a wide variety of companies and operations.

These include:

Transport and distribution.
Last mile.
Food distribution.
HORECA sector.
Hydrocarbon distribution.
LPG distribution.
Waste collection.
Technical services.
Sales forces.
Passenger transport.
Collection and delivery operations.
Animal feed distribution.
Distribution using owned or contracted fleets.

The optimisation model must adapt to the characteristics of each activity, because constraints and objectives differ from one sector to another.

Integration with ERP, TMS and other systems

The optimiser can integrate with the applications used by the company to automate the exchange of information.

Orders and resources can be imported from:

ERP systems.
TMS platforms.
WMS platforms.
Order management systems.
Sales applications.
Fleet management platforms.
Data exchange files.

Once the plan has been calculated, the resulting routes can be returned to the systems responsible for execution, tracking or communication with drivers.

Integration avoids duplication, reduces manual tasks and incorporates optimisation into the normal workflow.

Daily optimisation and scenario analysis

A route optimiser is not only used to prepare daily distribution.

It can also be used to analyse strategic decisions and compare scenarios.

For example:

What fleet will be required if order volumes increase.
How the result changes when different vehicles are used.
The effect of changing schedules.
The cost of adding a new area.
How an additional constraint affects the result.
What savings can be achieved with a different organisation.
Whether it is better to use an owned fleet or hauliers.
How many resources a new operation requires.

This capability makes it possible to use optimisation to support decision-making, rather than solely as a route calculation tool.

When a company needs a route optimiser

Using a route optimiser is particularly advisable when:

Manual planning takes too much time.
There are many orders or vehicles.
Routes change every day.
Vehicles cover overlapping areas.
There are problems meeting schedules.
The fleet is used unevenly.
Unnecessary mileage is being covered.
There are numerous constraints.
It is difficult to determine the true cost of routes.
Last-minute changes disrupt the operation.
Alternatives need to be compared before decisions are made.

The greater the complexity, the harder it is to find a good plan through experience and manual review alone.

Benefits of optimising routes

Applying an optimisation process can improve several aspects of the operation:

Reduced mileage.
Lower fuel consumption.
Reduced transport costs.
Better vehicle utilisation.
Less time spent planning.
Better on-time performance.
More balanced routes.
Fewer manual errors.
Greater adaptability.
Better control of costs and resources.
More consistent plans.
Greater capacity to take on new orders.

Results depend on the data, constraints and characteristics of each operation. It is therefore important to configure the optimisation model to reflect the company’s actual circumstances.

Request a LOGISPLAN demonstration

Discover how LOGISPLAN can optimise order assignment, vehicle use and stop sequencing in your operation.

Request a demonstration to analyse your routes, constraints and objectives and learn how the optimiser can be adapted to your company’s needs.