How to optimise delivery routes (beyond drawing lines on a map)

Everyone who plans routes by hand develops the same instincts: group orders by area, keep the early time windows early, do not send the small van to the pallet job. Route optimisation is those instincts, formalised and computed across every order and every vehicle at once, which is exactly where human planning runs out of working memory.

What the optimiser actually decides

Given the day’s orders and the fleet’s constraints, optimisation answers three questions together:

1. Which vehicle takes which orders, respecting capacity by weight or volume.
2. In what sequence, respecting customer time windows and shift lengths.
3. On what path, minimising distance and drive time between stops.

The word “together” is the point. Sequencing changes which allocations make sense; allocations change which sequences are feasible. Solving the pieces separately, as manual planning must, leaves efficiency on the table in every direction.

The constraints are the plan

An optimised route that ignores reality is worse than a manual one, because drivers stop trusting it. The constraints worth modelling from day one:

• Vehicle capacity, so the plan never loads what does not fit.
• Time windows, so promised slots are planned rather than hoped for.
• Driver shifts and breaks, so routes end when the working day does.
• Service time per stop, because a delivery is not a point on a map; it is minutes at a door.

Systems learn service times from real execution data. That is one reason planning and execution belong in the same tool: measured stop durations from live tracking feed back into tomorrow’s plan.

Habits that keep optimised routes working

Re-plan when reality changes, not tomorrow. A cancellation at 9:10 should re-slot the route at 9:11. Optimisation that only runs overnight turns every disruption into improvisation.

Watch the exceptions, not the map. The value of a live board is not seeing dots move; it is seeing the one route that is falling behind while there is still time to shift a stop.

Close the loop with proof. A route is not finished when the app says so; it is finished when every stop has proof of delivery attached. Keeping plans, execution and evidence on one record is what makes the metrics trustworthy.

MLogTech’s route planning does the computing; the habits are yours. Together they turn the morning spreadsheet ritual into a few minutes of review.