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Route planning for multi-stop delivery days

Turn a day of deliveries into routes with real stops, put the stops in a sensible order, and see the distance and arrival times before a driver leaves. Every number Atlas works out here is an estimate, and it says so.

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The problem

Why multi-stop days drift

A delivery day is rarely one trip. It is twenty or forty stops across a city, a driver with a shift, a vehicle with a limit and customers who expect a time. When the order of stops comes from memory or a spreadsheet, the run zigzags, the driver doubles back, and the first sign of trouble is a customer calling to ask where the parcel is.

Planning on a map with real stops fixes most of that. You see where every stop is, which ones sit close together and roughly how long the run will take, before anyone starts the engine.

How Atlas plans a route

Everything here lives in the Routes section, with the stops on the map and the numbers beside them.

  • A route is a list of real stopsIn Atlas: Routes › New routeCreate a route and its stops in one step: pick each stop from your places, set the planned start, and assign a driver and a vehicle. A stop without coordinates stays in the list; it is never pinned at a guessed spot.
  • Optimise the order of stopsIn Atlas: Routes › StopsOptimise reorders the pending stops with a nearest-neighbour pass followed by 2-opt, on straight-line distance. Stops already done, arrived, failed or skipped keep their place, and you can reorder any stop by hand.
  • Distance and arrival times you can checkIn Atlas: Routes › MapDistance is the straight-line legs multiplied by your road factor; time is that distance at your average speed plus the time set for each stop. Arrival times run from the planned start. Both rates come from Settings › Rates, and both figures are labelled as estimates.
  • Compare before you change a live runIn Atlas: Routes › What-ifThe What-if tab sets the current order beside modelled alternatives, such as fastest arrival or compact distance, with the estimated change in time, distance, cost and a rule-based risk score, and the stops each one moves.
  • A clear status for every routeIn Atlas: RoutesA route moves through draft, scheduled, live, paused, completed or cancelled, and Atlas only offers the moves its current status allows. The list filters by day and by status.

Plan tomorrow in five steps

  1. Add your places

    Add customers, hubs and stores in Places by searching for the address, so every stop has a pin.

  2. Create the route

    In Routes, start a new route, add its stops, set the planned start and pick the driver and vehicle.

  3. Optimise and adjust

    Run Optimise, then reorder anything you know better, such as a customer who must be first.

  4. Check the estimate

    Read the distance and arrival times and the rates behind them; adjust your speed or road factor if they differ.

  5. Schedule it

    Move the route to scheduled. On the day, start it and follow it on the live map.

Honest limits

What route planning does not do yet

Better to read it here than to find out on a busy morning.

  • No road routing or live trafficDistances are straight-line estimates scaled by your road factor. Atlas does not follow roads, one-way streets or traffic.
  • One route at a timeOptimise orders the stops of one route. It does not split a day of orders across several vehicles for you.
  • Windows and priorities are not weighedThe optimiser looks at distance only, so check stops with a promised time or urgent work before you schedule.

Questions about route planning

Still have a question? Ask us

How does Atlas decide the order of stops?

It starts from the last stop visited, or the route's start place, and keeps going to the nearest stop not yet visited. Then it reverses stretches of the route wherever that makes the path shorter (2-opt). Both steps use straight-line distance, so the order is a good starting point rather than a road-perfect plan.

Are the distances and arrival times real road figures?

No. Distance is straight-line distance multiplied by your road factor, and time is that distance at your average speed plus the time at each stop. Atlas labels both as estimates and shows the rates it used.

Can I change the order of stops myself?

Yes. You can reorder stops by hand at any time, and Optimise only moves the stops that are still pending.

Does Atlas plan routes for several vehicles at once?

Not yet. You plan each route and pick its vehicle. The Load tab shows when a route is over its vehicle's capacity and suggests which stops to move.

More of what Atlas does. Each page names its limits.

See all of Atlas

See whether Atlas fits your delivery day. Atlas is part of Anslation One.

Tell us how your routes, drivers and vehicles work today, or read how the whole product fits together.

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