The goal of any delivery management platform is to help logistics companies organize and plan their routes so that drivers know exactly what tasks they are assigned to each day, and the order in which they are supposed to do them.
In Parcelizer, tasks are called orders, each having an associated pickup and delivery location. After you add orders and drivers to a route plan, Parcelizer uses a route optimization algorithm to efficiently assign orders to drivers so as to minimize overall driving time, while respecting time windows, driver shift times, vehicle capacities, and other constraints.
Route optimization ensures that your drivers drive as efficiently (taking the shortest route possible) by making stops in the optimal order. This both saves fuel and provides your customers with definitive estimated arrival times (ETAs) they can use to plan their day around your deliveries e.g. they might want to be at home to receive an important package. Parcelizer's route optimization feature lets you do all this in a few simple steps.
Creating a Route Plan
Log in, and navigate to the Route Plans Listing page (https://dashboard.parcelizer.com/route-plans). Click the [New Route Plan] button on the top right.
After that, the app will prompt you to choose a name (use something descriptive e.g. "Daily Courier Delivery - Tuesday") and delivery date (the actual day that you are going to be making those deliveries).
Add Orders and Drivers
You are now in the Route Plan module. Add orders, drivers and press the [Optimize Route] button on the bottom right and you're done! You'll see the optimal route, together with stops and your driver start locations on the map.
View Routes on Map
The route for each driver is shown in a separate color and the numbers on each marker give you the sequence in which the driver is supposed to do each stop. Pickups are represented by round markers while deliveries are represented by square ones. A gantt chart below the map shows both the order as well as the ETA of the driver at each stop. You can drag the stops on the gannt chart horizontally to change the order in which they are done, or vertically to move stops from one driver to another.
Next step: How do I dispatch routes to my drivers?
If you have any questions about how to make Parcelizer work for you, don't hesitate to contact support@parcelizer.com.