Upload Addresses to Google Maps and Plot a Route

Nigh all businesses we talk to with a small delivery armada start off using something like Google Maps Route Planner or Mapquest Route Planner. It makes a lot of sense. When you lot merely have a handful of deliveries, say 10 or 15 a 24-hour interval, it's fairly easy to use Google Maps Road Planner to make multiple stops.

Only what happens when your business is growing and you lot take too many stops? In this post we'll walk yous through how to use Google Maps to plan your delivery routes and highlight when you might desire to consider route optimization software.

Managing local delivery routes is simple & profitable with Routific

Trusted worldwide. Powering 5 million deliveries a month.

No credit card required.

Does Google Maps have a route planner?

The short answer is yes. Google Maps is great when you lot accept a pocket-sized number of deliveries to make. It's free, fast, and extremely user-friendly. To apply Google Maps as a route planner, look no further than this helpful guide Google has put together.

With that said, there are some limitations when you're trying to programme routes for deliveries.

• Your routes need to be 10 stops or less
• You can only plan for one driver at a time
• Yous can't optimize routes using constraints similar delivery time windows, vehicle load capacities, driver breaks, etc.
• You lot need to eyeball and manually determine an efficient club for your stops (this gets tricky when you need to cistron in things like the constraints mentioned higher up)

How do I plot multiple routes on Google Maps?

Fifty-fifty with those limitations in heed, many businesses with small-scale delivery fleets choose to use Google Maps Route Planner. Just keep in listen that you can't programme multiple routes at the same fourth dimension. Y'all'll need to programme your routes in batches.

If you're trying to utilize Google Maps to road multiple locations hither are a few tips:

1. Driver territories: If you accept more one driver, cluster stops into driver territories. This can be done by assigning postal codes to your drivers, or by dividing the city up into neighborhoods or zones (northward, south, east, west).

   This ensures your drivers use the least amount of fuel for a ready of deliveries. They cover ane area completely instead of driving all around the city.

   Also, by giving your drivers the same territories each time, they'll build upwardly their knowledge of the area. This will help both of you to map out the most efficient routes as you become more familiar with the area.

2. List your stops in the club you desire to consummate them: Now, within each territory, exercise your best to list each terminate in the order you want it completed. You can do this in Google Maps directly or past using a spreadsheet.

   Download this handy excel template to help you list your stops in the right club

   The social club of stops should be based on proximity to the next cease, also equally things similar commitment time windows (when your customer wants something delivered) or function/store hours, if y'all're delivering to a business organization

3. Give your drivers delivery instructions: To brand your routes more than efficient, compile notes for your drivers well-nigh where to park, drop off the commitment, delivery times, ETAs, etc. This will speed upward your driver's routes meaning you either pay less wages or tin fit more than stops into a single route.
   
4. Build routes in batches of 10: Now utilise Google Maps to find the shortest path betwixt each finish. Y'all'll need to do this in batches of 10.
   
5. Dispatch routes to drivers: Google Maps gives yous the selection to send a route via email or SMS.
   
   
6. Repeat steps 2-5: Since yous tin only route 10 stops at a time, you'll need to echo steps ii-5 a few times until you lot've planned all your stops in an order that makes sense. What we mean by this is that your drivers don't prove upwardly at a cease at the wrong time, that they don't have to double-dorsum unnecessarily, etc

Road Optimization Calculates Quattuorvigintillion Possible Solutions In Seconds

At present for those of yous who've made information technology this far, yous might be thinking the steps listed in a higher place don't seem very efficient. And you'd be correct. Google Maps is great for personal route plans and minor delivery routes. But equally your business organization grows, route planning with Google Maps can become extremely complex, non to mention fourth dimension consuming.

That's because you're now dealing with something called the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) or Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). This is a complex problem mathematicians and figurer scientists take been trying to solve for years. Information technology'southward too happens to be i of our favorite topics of chat here at Routific.

Essentially, the more stops you lot have to brand and the more drivers y'all accept, the more complicated it gets. In fact, the possible routing solutions grow so exponentially, it becomes impossible for any human to accurately calculate the most optimal society of stops without some assistance. The closest we've come up, albeit imperfectly, is algorithms.

Route optimization algorithms are able to rapidly calculate a massive number of dependencies, including addresses, delivery time windows, driver speeds, vehicle load capacities - you proper name information technology!

You'll find route optimization algorithms in a variety of unlike route planning software - everything from free online tools to enterprise-grade armada management solutions.

When to consider route planning software?

Using Google Maps when your delivery operations are pocket-size makes a lot of sense. Merely it becomes harder to manage as your delivery operations grow. Some signs that it's time to make a switch could be:

• You're spending more than an hour planning and dispatching your routes.
• Y'all only discover out about late or missed deliveries when a customer contacts y'all to mutter.
• Your customers keep contacting you about the status of their delivery.
• You're concerned about how much you're spending on fuel and driver wages.
• Your delivery operations feel messy and inefficient.

Route planning software, peculiarly if it includes route optimization, is like Google Maps on steroids. It will allow you lot to handle complex route optimization scenarios that include:

• Multiple routes with unlimited stops.
• Planning for commitment time windows, driver schedules, vehicle capacity, and more.
• Easily adjusting routes to use fewer vehicles, take less time, or reduce the distance traveled.
• Re-optimize fast when last minute changes happen.

Route planning software designed specifically for delivery businesses often comes with additional features like:

• Commitment status notifications
• Commuter apps
• Live GPS tracking of drivers
• Proof-of-commitment

So if your commitment operations take started to outgrow Google Maps, congratulations on your success so far! Investing in route planning software might be the logical next step. It can save yous time, assistance you train & manage drivers, and ameliorate the commitment experience for your customers.

Managing local commitment routes is simple & assisting with Routific

Trusted worldwide. Powering 5 million deliveries a month.

No credit card required.

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Source: https://blog.routific.com/google-maps-route-planner-for-deliveries

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