Routes: General Information

The route contains common information for route executions (such as the starting and ending route locations, the schedule, and the staff members involved). A route execution is a predefined path with appointment stops to perform services or deliver and receive inventory items. Each stop in the route execution is a route appointment—that is, an appointment with a service order type of the Route behavior.

You can enter all the information about each execution of a route, such as its start and end locations, time, appointments to be attended, and the staff member (driver) and vehicle used to execute the route. With this information in the system, users can quickly process customers' orders that require route planning.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn how to do the following:

• Create a route execution on the fly
• Review the appointments of a driver assigned to the route execution
• View the route execution on a map

Applicable Scenarios

You create a new route execution on the fly when you received a request from a customer for the delivery of some products or materials.

Route Processing Workflow

In general, the processing of a route and its executions in the system consists of the following steps:

1. Creating a route: If a route has not been created yet, a manager creates a route with the common details of the route to be executed. For details, see Routes: Entry of a Route.
2. Creating route service contracts for the customers who require recurrent service appointments to be included in a route (optional): The scheduler creates a route service contract. For each service contract, the scheduler specifies a customer, a schedule with services to be provided, and other details received from the customer. The scheduler also activates the contract.
3. Setting up route sequences for scheduled appointments in contracts (optional): The scheduler checks in what order the customers will be visited when the route is executed, and changes the order if necessary.
4. Generating or creating route executions with appointments: If route service contracts have been created for customers, the scheduler generates appointments in the corresponding route execution in the order that is defined in the route sequence. If route service contracts have not been created, the scheduler creates a route execution manually.
5. Adding details to the route execution: The scheduler assigns drivers and vehicles to the route execution defined in the system. The scheduler can manually add or delete appointments if he or she received customers' reactive calls.
6. Starting to perform route services: On the day of the route execution, the driver finds in the system the route execution that he or she is assigned to, checks the details, goes to the start location, and starts executing the route.
7. Attending the appointments of the route: At each appointment location, the driver starts the appointment, performs services, and adds to the system additional information (such as any items that are picked up or delivered), if necessary. After all the work on the appointment is done and all information has been entered into the system and checked, the driver completes the appointment in the system. The driver then proceeds to the other appointments that are associated with the route execution and performs them.
8. Completing the execution of the route: After all appointments have been completed, the driver goes to the end location of the route, specifies the end time, and competes the route.
9. Closing the execution of the route: The accountant verifies information on the route document and its appointments, and closes the route.
10. Generating billing documents for the customers: An accountant generates billing documents for the completed or closed appointments and processes them in the system.

The general process is shown in the diagram below.