Building a Daily Route — Step by Step

Building a route follows the same steps every day: create, filter, verify, add, order, and publish.

Step 1 — Create the route

Go to Routes → your location folder → New Route.

Fill in the creation dialog:

• Name — use a clear, consistent naming format (your organization may have a standard; check with your manager)
• Start Date and Start Time — typically the driver's start of shift
• Type — select the appropriate service type for your operation
• Depot — your branch or home base

The route is saved as a Draft. You won't assign the driver or vehicle until the final step.

Step 2 — Filter the map and identify your stops

Open the new route. The map displays every generator color-coded by service status:

• Maroon — overdue (past due date)
• Red — due within 3 days
• Yellow — due within 7 days
• Green — not yet due (7+ days out)
• Blue — already scheduled on another route
• Grey — no due date (capacity or fill rate is missing)

Before filtering anything, take a quick look at maroon generators — some may need attention or a data correction. Once you've reviewed them, you can filter them out to focus on your working list. Then move through reds and yellows.

Two useful ways to identify the best stops to add:

• Sort by Fill % descending — surfaces the fullest tanks relative to their capacity
• Sort by Volume (gal) descending — shows the stops with the most material on site, regardless of tank size

Use both views. A large tank at 70% fill may have more gallons waiting than a small tank at 95%.

Step 3 — Verify each generator before adding

Before adding a stop to the route, open the generator's record and check the Oil tab:

• Is the capacity correct?
• Is the fill rate reasonable?

If either is clearly wrong, fix it before adding the stop. Bad data here means bad scheduling downstream.

Step 4 — Add stops to the route

Click a generator on the map or in the table to add it to your route. The route panel shows your running stop list, estimated total volume, drive time, and miles.

Over-schedule slightly. You won't collect every gallon the system estimates — tanks are sometimes emptier than predicted, or stops get skipped. A route targeted a bit over your truck's capacity is normal. Ask your manager what buffer is appropriate for your operation.

Step 5 — Lock, Star, and Optimize

Once your stops are selected:

Consider locking your farthest stop as the first stop. Check where Optimize would naturally place it — if it would end up last, locking it first makes sense. The driver goes out to the far end and works back toward the depot. This way, if the truck fills up before all stops are complete, the skipped stops are closest to home rather than far out in the territory.

Lock your offload as the last stop (if the offload is a separate location from your depot).

Star any stop you want flagged as high priority. The star is visible to the driver in the phone app.

Click Optimize. Route Simplified reorders the unlocked stops using truck routing. Drive time and total miles should drop noticeably. Locked stops stay fixed.

Step 6 — Schedule (publish) the route

When the route looks right, change the status from Draft to Scheduled. At this step, assign the driver and vehicle.

Scheduling sends an email to the driver with a link to the route in the phone app.

Note: If the scheduler and driver are different people, walk through the route together before scheduling, especially in the early weeks. The driver knows the territory and can flag stops that don't make sense. Agreement before the route runs is what makes the data accurate after.