The Route Optimiser

One of the benefits of setting up scheduled jobs as a route is that the BigChange Job Management System can then journey plan for you, by analysing the jobs’ locations. BigChange can optimise the route for a series of jobs, finding the most efficient order for the resource to complete them, usually reducing route duration, mileage, cost, and CO² emissions.

The route optimiser feature can be particularly effective for collections and delivery, haulage, transport, refuse collection, regular maintenance/inspection visits and many more.

After adding jobs to your schedule, you can use the route optimiser to sort the stops (jobs) into the most efficient order, helping to achieve the reductions outlined above.

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Optimising a route

On the schedule tab, in both the resource or vehicle view, add all the jobs planned for your resource for the day onto the schedule.

Select the three-line (burger) menu for that particular vehicle or resources, followed by “Optimise Route”.

The following pop-up window will appear:

You will be able to see the travel distance, travel time and the start times (by location) before and after optimising your journey.

You can also see job information displayed from within the route optimiser, including job reference and current job flag. By selecting the job flag column, you can add a flag to a job, or edit an existing one.

To change the route start time, select the drop-down menu and choose the desired time. The start time of each individual job will then be amended.

Please note, route optimisation does have some limitations and won’t be able to help in situations where:

• You want a route to be completed over multiple days
• The route is impossible e.g. too many jobs to complete within the resource’s working hours
• The route is in the past e.g. you cannot log in at 11am and optimise a route to start at 9am

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Editing route information from within the Route Optimiser

You will see that the start and end location of the route are highlighted in grey, in addition to all the route stops, which are all the individual planned jobs.

It is possible to set some default behaviour for the start and end locations of the routes determined through optimisation.

For example, you may wish a route to begin from the last previous location of your resource, or, you may decide that the route needs to end at the location of the next shift start location of your resource.

Finally, you may choose to not set system wide default behaviour, but instead choose to determine the starting location of your resources at an individual level.

To set system wide start and end locations for your Resources, from the top menu, select "Accounts Settings", followed by "Settings". From the quick links menu, select "General account settings". Scroll to the "Schedule" section.

You will see a field titled "Shift end location". You can choose from the following options:

• Current shift start location will default the route start location to the previous location of your resource (the location of the last job on their previous shift).
• Next shift start location will default the route end location to the planned location of your resources first job on their next shift.
• None will apply any starting location rules set at an individual resource level.

To set the start location for an individual Resource, either at a contact (for example a depot, your office or the resources home address), or from their previous job location.

From the top menu, select "Account Settings", followed by "Settings". From the side menu select "Resources" and then "Add - Edit". Choose the relevant Resource from the list and select to "Edit". Go to the "Working hours" field. You can enter and/or edit the daily working hours of an individual Resources, including setting start location.

Please note that if your resource is starting from their home or office location each day, the contact/address will need to be added to the CRM.

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Fixing first job(s) of the day within a route

When planning routes, there may be occasion where you need to “fix” your first job or jobs of the day. For example, your first job may be a “Collection,” which involves picking up parts or equipment to fulfil jobs later that day. To ensure the first job or jobs is not moved by the optimiser, you can use the new “fix” feature within the route optimiser.

To fix a job in the route optimiser, select the relevant job, followed by “Fix Job”.

Please note, to apply the route optimisation changes to the live schedule, you must select “Save”.

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Manually setting the start and end location of a route

When planning complex routes, you may need to manually set the start or end location. These locations do not need to be associated with a job, or contact, and can be entered in a number of ways.

To set the start or end location of an optimised route, select the edit icon next to “Route start” or “Route end” and either enter a contact from your CRM, a physical address (e.g. 3150 Century Way), or a what3words location.

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Adding a Job Flag to a job

Should you wish to add a Job Flag, select the relevant job from within the current flag column, select a flag, add any necessary comments, and save.

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Editing job information from within the Route Optimiser

You can view and edit job information from within the optimiser; to do this, select the relevant job, followed by “View Job”.

The following pop-up window will open:

Please note, If you make any changes to the job and save them, the route optimiser will automatically update.

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Visibility of reductions in cost, mileage, time, and CO2 emissions of optimised routes

Visual indicators of the proposed route distance, time and cost following route optimisation are available alongside the estimated savings in the “Difference” column in the Route Optimiser pop-up.

This will give you an overview of the distance, travel time, route total time but also cost before and after using the route optimiser.

You will see coloured arrows indicating either an increase or reduction:

• A green down arrow indicates a reduction or saving.
• A red up arrow indicates an increase, whether that be distance, time, or cost.

In addition to these visual indicators, you will see a short text summary of the impact of the changes made to the route by the route optimiser.

From there, you can also view the CO² emissions of your vehicle.