The NowGo Solver is a powerful tool designed to help you plan the most efficient delivery routes and allocate jobs effectively. By considering various factors like delivery time windows, vehicle capacity, and driver availability, the Solver calculates optimal routes and job assignments to minimise travel time, reduce costs, and ensure timely deliveries.
This article discusses the Solver mechanism for route optimisation. For more information about the various route optimisation tools within NowGo, see the Understanding route optimisation article.
How the Solver Works
Solver uses advanced algorithms to calculate the most efficient route and job allocations for your drivers, taking into account various factors including:
Ensuring deliveries occur within specified time frames
Optimising loads based on vehicle capacity
Assigning routes based on driver schedules and working hours
Ensuring routes take into account the road network, including speed, weight, and height limits
Minimising overall distance travelled and time spent on the road.
The Solver is typically run daily by dispatchers to generate optimised routes for the day's deliveries. It's a powerful tool for planning ahead and ensuring your drivers are set up for success.
Solver is intended for larger-scale route optimisation. It calculates the various possible route combinations based on the job information for the day, and allows you to reallocate work between different drivers and shifts to find the most optimal solution.
Use the Solver
Dispatchers typically run the Solver as part of their daily planning routine.
Running a solve
In the NowGo dashboard, make sure you have the date and channel that you want to solve open. You can adjust the date and channel in the top left hand corner, underneath the NowGo logo.
Navigate to the Dispatch tab, and click Solve to run the solve and open planning mode. You can also open the solver from any plan you have already created. Navigate to the Planning tab, open the existing plan, and click Solve. Alternatively, if you want to solve a subset of stops or shifts, you can select them by holding Shift while clicking the stops or shifts, or dragging the map.
When the solve has completed, check the calculated routes, and make any manual changes. While you are in planning mode, no changes are sent to drivers, so feel free to experiment.
Optional: If you want to roll back your changes, click Discard changes to discard your changes and return to your previous screen.
When you are happy with the result, click Dispatch plan to send the changes live.