Overview
The Route optimization feature allows route managers to optimize the order of stops on an individual route in Routing. It helps dispatch teams reduce drive time and distance when creating daily routes and helps crews complete more work each day.
To optimize across many routes at once and review the result before it reaches your live routes, see Assign and optimize jobs in bulk with Advanced Route Optimization.
Who uses this feature
Office employees
Applies to all business types
Primarily for Pool, Pest, and Lawn
Feature configuration
This feature is currently in Private Preview and available for specific accounts. It is subject to change.
The Edit Arrival Window permission is required to set default arrival windows by business unit. Please contact the account administrator on your team.
Things to know
Optimization considers driving time and driving distance.
If jobs overlap or conflict, the system will prompt you to resolve these before finishing.
Jobs with fixed arrival windows may limit the optimization flexibility.
Only assigned stops on a route are optimized.
This feature does not replace route optimization in Dispatch.
Optimized routes can still be manually adjusted after optimization.
Assignment and optimization both happen on the bar at the bottom of the screen. The assignment window that used to open in the middle of the screen has been removed.
If you assign appointments without optimizing, they go to the Need to Assign section of the route. They are not booked until you place them in a time slot or optimize the route.
Best practices
Review arrival windows and service durations before optimizing to avoid unnecessary rework.
Use optimization as a starting point, then fine-tune the route to match operational needs.
If your recurring work is booked without arrival windows, set default arrival windows by business unit. Wider windows give optimization more room to build an efficient route.
Use cases
A dispatcher has 10 jobs on a single route and needs to find the most efficient driving order.
A route manager needs to reduce fuel costs by minimizing "back-and-forth" driving between neighborhoods.
A pool service company books recurring visits without arrival windows and wants Routing to apply a consistent window per business unit automatically.
Set up technician start and end locations
Route optimization uses technician start and end locations to calculate the most efficient driving order. In order for route optimization to work, you need to configure these locations from the technician profile.
Note: Start and end location setup is required.
Go to the top navigation bar and click Settings
.In the side panel, click People > Technicians.
Select the technician profile you want to update.
In the Profile tab, scroll to the Routing section.
Here you have three options for setting up the start and end location.
Option 1: Use Dispatch Pro start and end locations
If you’re using Dispatch Pro, enable Use Dispatch Pro settings for start and end locations toggle. Routing automatically pulls the technician’s start and end locations from Dispatch Pro.
Note: This toggle is enabled by default if you’ve Dispatch Pro enabled.
Option 2: Set default start and end locations (without Dispatch Pro)
If you do not use Dispatch Pro, follow these steps:
Note: Use Dispatch Pro settings for start and end locations toggle is turned off by default, if you do not have Dispatch Pro.
Select a default location in the Start Location dropdown.
Default
Office
Home
Custom
Select a default location in the End Location dropdown.
Default
Office
Home
Custom
These default locations are used for all routes unless you configure weekday-specific locations.
Option 3: Set start and end locations
If a technician starts or ends their day at different locations depending on the weekday, you can set start and end location by the weekday.
Enable the Start and End locations will vary depending on the day of the week toggle.
Select the days of the week.
Set the Start and End Location.
Default
Office
Home
Custom
You can repeat the same steps for other days as needed.
Routing uses the locations that match the route date when optimizing.
Assign and optimize at the same time
You can optimize appointments as you assign them, instead of assigning first and optimizing afterward.
From Dispatch > Routes, use the Selector or Lasso tool to select the appointments you want to assign.
Click Route and select the route you want to assign them to.
Turn the Optimize toggle on.
Click Assign.
The appointments are assigned to the route and sequenced in driving order in one step. Sequencing respects arrival windows, non-job events, and shift times.Note: Leave the Optimize toggle off to assign without sequencing. The appointments then go to the Need to Assign section of the route, and you can optimize the route afterward.
Tip: The Lasso tool can select appointments that are already on a route, so you can move part of one technician's route to another.
Optimize an individual route
You can optimize a route regardless of whether appointments are already on the calendar. Optimization reorders stops to minimize driving time and distance.
As an overarching rule, route optimization will respect all of the configurations below. For example, if a job has been confirmed for 10am, the optimization will not optimize that job to another start time. Likewise, an appointment with an arrival window between 7am-11am won't optimize outside of that arrival window.
Arrival window
Job status
Shift times
Non-job events
Option 1: Optimize appointments not yet on the calendar
Use this option when appointments exist on the route but are not scheduled on the calendar.
From Dispatch > Routes, select a route with unscheduled appointments in the Route section.
In the right side pop-up window, click Optimize.
What happens:
Appointments are automatically placed onto the calendar.
Stops are ordered based on optimal driving sequence.
You can manually adjust appointment times after optimization if needed.
Option 2: Optimize appointments already on the calendar
Use this option when all appointments are already scheduled.
From Dispatch > Routes, select a route with scheduled appointments in the Route section.
In the right side pop-up window, click Optimize.
What happens:
Appointments remain on the calendar.
The system reorders stops to create the most efficient route.
Option 3: Optimize a partially scheduled route
Use this option when some appointments are scheduled and others are not.
From Dispatch > Routes, select a route with partially scheduled appointments in the Route section.
In the right side pop-up window, click Optimize.
What happens:
Unscheduled appointments are placed onto the calendar.
All stops are reordered to produce an optimized route.
Mass optimize routes
To select multiple routes and optimize them simultaneously:
From Dispatch > Routes, click Actions under the Route filter.
Click Optimize Routes.
Select the routes you want to optimize. By default, all eligible routes are selected.
Click Optimize. Each selected route has the Optimizing status until the process is finished.
Note: Mass optimize resequences each selected route and commits the result immediately. To choose an optimization goal, apply road restrictions, or review a proposed plan before it takes effect, see Assign and optimize jobs in bulk with Advanced Route Optimization
Configure optimization settings
To customize what your route optimization prioritizes:
Navigate to Dispatch > Routes.
From the toolbar, click Optimization Settings.
Under Preferences, select or deselect the following options:
Optimize for curbside: Routing attempts to have the technician approach the location with the passenger side of the vehicle facing the property so they can park on and unload equipment from the curb.
Shift starts and ends at appointment locations: The technician's first and last appointments of the day can coincide with the shift start and end times. Drive time to the first appointment and from the last appointment is still factored into the route, but it's not counted as part of the technician's shift.
Prioritize farthest appointments first when start and end locations match: Routing prioritizes the jobs farther out first and then works its way back in toward the start/end point.
Hazmat Restrictions: Routing avoids roads that prohibit the classes of hazardous material your vehicles carry. Select the checkbox, then choose the classes from the dropdown.
Explosives
Gas
Flammable Gas
Flammable Liquid
Organic
Toxic
Radioactive
Corrosive
Other
(Advanced Optimization Only) Optimize across routes for best density: Mass optimization can move jobs from one route to another so routes can be packed as densely as possible. Arrival windows are still respected.
Under Restrictions, for each road feature, select how you want the optimizer to treat it:
Allow: Use the road feature normally. This is the default.
Avoid: Use the road feature only when there is no reasonable alternative.
Exclude: Do not use the road feature.
Set any of the following restrictions:
Tolls
Ferries
Highways
U-turns
Left-hand turns
Service roads
Sharp turns
Under Goals, Select one of the following goals:
Minimize drive time: Minimizes total drive time.
Maximize revenue: Optimizes routes for highest production value.
Balanced number of appointments: Distributes the workload evenly across routes.
Minimize driving distance: Minimizes total distance driven.
Note: You can only select one goal per optimization. Drive time and driving distance can produce different routes, so choose the one that matters more to your business.
When finished, Close the Optimization Settings window.
Set default arrival windows by business unit
When a recurring service event (RSE) or service agreement visit (SAV) is booked in Routing without an arrival window, Routing fills one in for you. You can tell Routing which window from your existing arrival window list to apply and set that choice separately for each business unit.
Choose a default arrival window strategy
Go to the top navigation bar and click Settings.
In the side panel, click Dispatch Board > Routing. The Routing settings screen opens. Each business unit is listed with its current Default Arrival Window.
For each business unit, click the Default Arrival Window dropdown and select one of the following:
No selection: Keeps the current behavior. Routing uses the appointment's own start and end time.
Most general: Uses the widest arrival window in your list that contains the scheduled time.
Most specific: Uses the narrowest arrival window in your list that contains the scheduled time.
Repeat for any other business unit you want to change. You only need to set this once. Routing applies your choice from then on, unless you change it.
How the default is applied
For example, the Pool Service business unit has three arrival windows: 7:00 AM–12:00 PM, 12:00 PM–5:00 PM, and one covering 7:00 AM–5 PM. You book a recurring pool cleaning with no arrival window onto a route at 1:00 PM.
With Most specific selected, Routing applies the 12:00 PM–5:00 PM window.
With Most general selected, Routing applies the 7:00 AM–5 PM window.
The window then appears on the job details in Routing and on the Dispatch Board. This only affects RSEs and SAVs booked using Routing without an arrival window. Appointments that already have one keep it, and appointments already on your schedule are not changed.
Note: Arrival windows are only set by Routing once. If Routing assigns an arrival window and then you move the job to a different time, you must manually change the arrival window as well.
If the scheduled time does not fall inside any of your configured arrival windows, Routing keeps the current behavior and uses the appointment's start and end time.*
Note: Strategies are set per business unit. You cannot set a different strategy by job type or by day of the week.
Identify and resolve route conflicts
Identify route conflicts
When optimization results in a conflict:
The route instance is highlighted in red in the left-hand panel.
Conflicts can occur for a variety of reasons, such as limited availability, scheduling constraints, overlapping appointments, or situations where the route cannot be optimized within the current parameters.
View conflict details
In the Route section, click the highlighted route.
Review the conflict details in the right-side panel.
Appointments that cannot fit within route constraints are moved to the Unassigned appointments and marked with the Need to Assign section for that route as shown on the image above.
Resolve conflicts
You can resolve conflicts in one of the following ways:
Reassign appointments: Manually move the conflicting appointments to a different route.
Remove from route: Remove the appointments from the current route. This places them back into the job pool, ensuring they aren't lost and remain available for reassignment.
Manual Calendar Adjustment: Use the calendar view to manually place the appointment back into a specific time slot, using the locations of other appointments on the route as a visual guide for the best fit.
Re-optimize: Click Optimize again. The system attempts to keep the appointments on the same route while rebalancing the schedule to potentially eliminate the conflict.