"Route Plan" is a feature that allows you to plan routes with tasks ahead of time without assigning them to a driver or team. A driver can be assigned to a Route Plan any time before the route is started, and a driver can also be changed before the route is started. Route Plans also allow the flexibility of naming and assigning a color to the route.
Route Plans also provide benefits such as optimizing task assignment, improving delivery efficiency, and standardizing driver dashboards for a consistent experience.
Route Plan Video
Enabling Route Plans
Tasks are assigned to a route manually or through the Route Optimization process when a user ‘Accepts’ the Route Optimization results. Once "Route Plans" have been enabled for your organization you can immediately create Manual Route Plans.
To enable Route Plans, log in to the Onfleet dashboard as an organization admin, navigate to the "Settings" section, select "Add-Ons" and enable the Route Plan Add-On.
Route Plans will not be automatically generated through Route Optimization until you enable the setting for your organization. This setting was created to give you the flexibility of testing Routes, without impacting your day-to-day Route Planning operations:
Note: It is a best practice recommendation that once you enable route plans to be auto-created after route optimization, Onfleet recommends using Route Plans to assign all tasks to a driver.
Route Plan Features
As a new feature, the Route Plan has planned features that will be rolled out over time; please take a look at this feature matrix for more information.
The primary features available in the Route Plans are:
Display Route Plans and Task pins in different colors
Display Route Plan State and Task Count per Route
Create Route Plans across different time zones
Multiple ways to create and update Route Plans
Track Planned Mileage and Planned Time vs. Actual Milage and Time via API integration
Route Plan States
Route Plans have 3 states, which will display in the sidebar:
Pending: A Route Plan that has been created, has not been started, and may or may not have assigned Tasks.
In Progress: The Route Plan has been started. This Route Plan state will automatically change once the first Task is started.
Completed: The Route Plan and all assigned Tasks have been completed has been completed by the Driver.
Tasks may be dragged and dropped into a Route Plan and this can be done no matter how a Route Plan was created. In the sidebar, select one Task and drag and drop into a Route Plan or use Shift and click multiple tasks to drag and drop into a Route Plan.
Manually Create a Route Plan
Tasks are added to a Route Plans, you can add or upload tasks to Onfleet, as usual. To manually create a route plan, select the "+" symbol on the upper right corner of the dashboard, then select "Create Route".
In the ‘Create new route’ modal, enter the required fields, then click ‘Create route’.
The route will now display in the sidebar based on the ‘Assigned team’ or ‘Assigned driver’. All Tasks assigned to a Route Plan will display in the sidebar, even when a Task is marked Successful or Failed by the Driver.
You can also view the planned route on the map, and the driver's route line to the in-progress task will appear as a dashed line from the driver's current location to the next task in the route.
Automatically Creating a Route Plan
You can automatically create Route Plans by using the Onfleet Route Optimization tool by selecting the check mark for "Automatically create route plan after route optimization" under your organization's settings.
If you are using the legacy Route Optimization tool, you can follow the Route Optimization process found in this article.
If you are using the Advanced Routing tool, you can follow the steps in this article.
Regardless of which method you use to optimize your tasks, once they have been optimized and assigned to a driver, the task pins on the Map will display with the auto-assigned Route color and the Route Plan, including color, name, and any other setting can be edited by double-clicking the Route Plan header.
Route Plan Names
By default, route plans generated through route optimization are named using standard system conventions (e.g., DriverName_Date_Time or VehicleType_Count_Date_Time).
Enterprise organizations can request a custom naming template through Onfleet Support to better align route plan names with their existing business processes.
Available naming tokens:
{driverName} — Driver's name
{teamName} — Team name
{hubName} — Starting hub name
{serviceAreaName} — Service area name from optimization
{routeZoneName} — Route zone name (for route zone type routes)
{vehicleType} — Vehicle type (e.g., Car, Bicycle)
{startDate} — Route start date
{startTime} — Route start time
Tokens can be combined to create a naming pattern that fits your operations. For example: hubName_vehicleType_startTime_startDate or routeZoneName_vehicleType_startTime_startDate.
Note: The {driverName} token output depends on your organization's useFullDriverName setting. When enabled, the full name is used (e.g., JohnDoe); when disabled, an abbreviated version is used (e.g., JDoe). Custom route plan naming is available to Enterprise plans with route optimization enabled. To request configuration, contact Onfleet Support.
Driver Apps & Route Plans
The Route Plans can be used in the Onfleet Driver App with no changes needed to the driver app settings. In its current format, the tasks on a driver's route will display as usual; however, in future iterations of Route Plans the driver app will include Route Plan information such as Route Name, planned time and distance, etc.
Driver dashboards may vary depending on task assignment methods. With Route Plans, tasks are structured and include real-time ETA updates, offering a consistent and optimized view. Without Route Plans, dashboards may lack this structure, leading to a different layout.