Optimize Routes For Time and Distance (App)

To learn how to optimize your routes with the Skimmer app, see the video below. Or, if you prefer, scroll past the video to view our step-by-step text instructions.

Step-by-step instructions . . .

1

You can optimize your daily route on the mobile app. Check the Map tab and you’ll see it’s a bit scattered. This order would have you running all over. But for the current day or a future day, look to the blue bar on your route screen and you’ll see a lightning bolt on the right. You’ll also see this if you have enough stops on the route to warrant optimization. If you have two or three stops, that’s not really enough for this kind of optimization, and it also won’t work for a day that’s already passed. But for anything else, you’ll have this option. Let’s say you want to start the day with what’s currently stop Number 5 and finish the day with Number 8. Tap the lightning bolt, and up comes a screen that says Optimize Route. You’ll see the tech, the day, and how many stops you’re working with. Then you get to choose Start From and End At. So, click on each one to make your choices.

2

Once you’ve chosen, tap Optimize Route, let it process, and now look how that route order has improved. You can save this as default if that’s what you want. That’s how you optimize using just what you have in the route.

3

With Google Maps, you can also start or stop the route based on other addresses. Maybe you want to start the day from your house, office, or even your favorite Starbucks. You can do that, and we call those Company Addresses. The company addresses are something you’ll set up on the web portal by going to Settings and then General. There you create them, label them, and have them available for when you’re optimizing on the app. To use company addresses, tap the lightning bolt, then tap Start From. Note that we have two tabs at the top of the screen. The default is Route Addresses, but you can also choose the tab for Company Addresses. So for instance you can choose to start the day at the Scottsdale office, and also end at the Scottsdale office. That will change how the route is laid out. Optimize that and you’ll see the route has adjusted again to accommodate. You’re not seeing the pin drops for the company address locations, just for the route stops, but this current optimization is still based on those company addresses you chose.

4

The Choose Defaults button will apply to whomever’s logged in, not the whole company. It’s a default for each unique user. If I’m John, and I always want to start the route from my favorite Starbucks and end the route at my house, here’s how I can set that up so that they are now my default. So the next time I optimize, notice it’s already starting from and ending at my house. 

5

Maybe you want your default starting point to be the first stop on the route. If that’s the case, go to Default Start From and tap the First Stop button in the top right corner. If you want the default end to be the last stop on the route, do the same for the last stop.

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What if you’ve finished a few stops but decide you want to re-optimize? Click the lightning bolt. Now you’ll see a toggle that lets you choose whether to include finished stops in the optimization. By default, it won’t. It’ll just optimize what you haven’t completed, but you can choose to have them included. Also, note that Google Maps has one particular limitation. It will only optimize up to 25 stops in a route. So you can choose a start and an end, plus 25 locations. If you have a route with more than 25 stops and you tap the optimize button, you’ll get a note that says Google Maps will only optimize the first 25.