Understanding Master vs. Daily Route Sequences is key to managing your routes effectively. Both methods allow you to modify routes, but you get to decide whether to apply those changes for the current day only or make them permanent. The Master Sequence acts as your permanent route template, while the Daily Sequence is an editable copy for a specific day, giving you both consistency and flexibility for your operations.
What Master and Daily Sequences Are
Your routing is managed through two types of sequences: the Master Sequence and the Daily Sequence. Each serves a distinct purpose in your planning and execution. This flexibility allows you to handle both one-time adjustments and long-term updates to your master route sequences.
The Master Sequence
The Master Sequence is the foundational, long-term plan for a route. Think of it as the default schedule that repeats over time, ensuring consistency for your recurring services.
Permanent Template: It serves as the primary template for recurring services.
Long-Term Planning: Changes made to the Master Sequence are permanent and will apply to all future routes generated from it.
Optimized Foundation: It should represent your most efficient, standard route plan.
NOTE: Master Sequence operates at the day-of-week level, not a specific-date level. So if you select a specific date in the Master Route Sequence view or map, you will actually see every stop assigned to that general day of the week (including every other week stops or one off stops).
The Daily Sequence
A Daily Sequence is a temporary, one-day copy of the Master Sequence for a specific service date. This is the route your drivers will actually follow on that particular day.
Single-Day Use: It exists only for the scheduled date and does not affect any other day.
Flexible and Editable: You can reorder stops, add or remove stops, and make other adjustments to the Daily Sequence without affecting the Master Sequence.
Real-World Adjustments: It’s designed for handling daily variations like traffic, last-minute customer requests, or unexpected delays.
Why This Separation Matters
Separating the Master and Daily sequences gives you powerful control over your operations. It allows you to maintain a stable, optimized plan for your recurring services while still having the flexibility to adapt to day-to-day changes.
For example, if you need to add a one-time stop for a customer, you can add it to the Daily Sequence for that day. This ensures the stop is completed without permanently altering your optimized Master Sequence for all future dates. Conversely, if a customer permanently changes their service day, you would update the Master Sequence to reflect this change for all future schedules.
How They Work Together
When a route is scheduled for a specific date, the system automatically generates a Daily Sequence by creating a copy of the corresponding Master Sequence. Any edits you make on the route board for that day—such as assigning or unassigning stops—are applied only to that Daily Sequence. To make a change permanent across all future dates, you must explicitly edit the Master Sequence itself.
With our most recent update, you’ll now see three different options when you’re making changes to routes and sequences.
Save current day: this is a one time adjustment (not a permanent ongoing change for future instances). This is similar to the Temporary mode you can toggle on from the Routing manager page.
Publish master sequence: This is a permanent or long-term update to the master route sequences. Master Sequence works on a day of the week basis, not an exact date. So if you publish a change to master sequence for Wed April 22, it will apply for ALL future Wednesdays as well.
Edit master sequence: Choosing this option will pull up a draft page of the Master Sequence so you can reroute and arrange before publishing.
Temporary versus Permanent Route Changes (Daily versus Master Sequence)
How to make a temporary route change for the current day
This is a general overview of making temporary route changes. The exact process steps will vary, based on what action you’re taking (Assign, Unassign, etc.). Specific process steps for the actions themselves can be found in our other Routing related articles.
Start from the Routes tab (Route manager page).
Click the Bulk button in the top right corner and select an action, such as Assign stops. (See What are the actions I can take with the Bulk button in Route Manager? for more).
Follow the onscreen instructions specific to that action until you’re ready to finalize.
At the bottom of the screen, click the Save current day button. This will apply your changes only to the route for the date you selected.
How to make a permanent route change to the master sequence
This is a general overview of making temporary route changes. The exact process steps will vary, based on what action you’re taking (Assign, Unassign, etc.). Specific process steps for the actions themselves can be found in our other Routing related articles.
Start from the Routes tab (Route manager page).
Click the Bulk button in the top right corner and select an action, such as Assign stops. (See What are the actions I can take with the Bulk button in Route Manager? for more).
Follow the onscreen instructions specific to that action until you’re ready to finalize.
At the bottom of the screen, choose one of two options for a permanent change:
Publish master sequence. You’ll be prompted to confirm and then it will put you back on the main Routing manager page. You’re done!
If you chose Edit master sequence, review the changes in the Master column.
Click the Update button, select a publish destination, and click Publish.