NowGo offers powerful tools to help you optimise your delivery routes, using job, vehicle, and shift details to streamline your operations. The dispatch dashboard acts as a central hub where these three components converge. You can use the solver to organise your planned routes, the Sequencer to update and optimise throughout the day, and Smart Assign to allocate jobs to the best driver. Dispatchers can then monitor progress, make adjustments, and ensure smooth execution of deliveries.
This article explains the key components of NowGo's route optimisation system and how they work together to maximise efficiency.
Route optimisation tools
There are three primary route optimisation tools:
Solver
This is the brains behind NowGo's route optimisation. It uses advanced algorithms to calculate the most efficient routes for your drivers, taking into account various factors including:
Ensuring deliveries occur within specified time frames
Optimising loads to maximise vehicle use
Assigning routes based on driver schedules and working hours
Traffic conditions, including the road network, and speed and weight limits
Minimising overall distance traveled 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 finds the most optimal solution.
For more information about using the Solver, see the Solving routes article.
Smart Assign
Smart Assign automates the process of assigning drivers to the optimised routes generated by the Solver. Smart Assign considers factors like:
Assigning drivers to routes that start near their current location
Matching drivers with specific delivery requirements
Matching routes and loads to appropriate vehicles
Distributing tasks evenly among drivers to prevent overloads
Smart assign is a tool that allows you to automatically assign jobs to shifts without entering planning mode. It makes it easy to automatically consider the sequence of the job or jobs that you are inserting into a shift or set of shifts.
This feature is accessible in dispatch when jobs are selected, and you can use it to assign jobs across all shifts, or a selection of shifts. If some selected jobs are already assigned, you can leave them as they are, or choose to reassign them to a more appropriate shift. You can also insert jobs between existing stops, or allow shifts to be reordered for a better result.
For more information about using Smart Assign, see the Smart assigning jobs article.
Sequencer
Sequence solving only works for stops that are assigned to a shift. When stops are assigned to a shift, drivers can use the sequence option to reorder the stops in a more appropriate order based on their details and stop locations.
For more information about using the Sequencer, see the Sequencing stops article.
Route optimisation for dispatchers
A typical day for a dispatcher using NowGo's route optimisation tools might look like this:
Daily planning:
Generate optimised routes using the Solver for the day's deliveries based on the latest information about orders, drivers, and constraints.
Examine the suggested routes and make any necessary manual adjustments by hand, or using Smart Assign. This might involve re-ordering stops, assigning specific drivers to certain routes, or accommodating special requests.
Dispatching:
Let Smart Assign automatically assign jobs to the best routes and shifts, ensuring you are staying within vehicle capacity.
Manually override automatic assignments when necessary to account for specific situations or driver preferences.
Ongoing management:
Handle new orders and stops as they come in, using Smart Assign to assign them to the best driver and shift.
You can use the Sequencer to reorder stops as needed, and keep an eye on driver progress and any potential delays. You can also allow drivers to sequence their own stops throughout the day.
Make real-time adjustments to routes to accommodate unexpected events like traffic congestion, driver unavailability, or customer requests.