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 . . .

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You can optimize your daily route on the mobile app. In the app, let’s look at a route. Check the Map tab and you’ll see it’s a bit scattered, probably not in the best order right now. 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.

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

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With Google Maps, you can also start or stop the route based on other addresses. For instance, maybe you want to start the day from your house, or your 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 can create them, label them, and have them available for when you’re optimizing here on the app. To USE those company addresses, tap the route optimization button (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 where you want to start and stop. 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.

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Let’s look at another option on the Optimize Route screen – the Choose Defaults button. This 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, then 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 come in to optimize, notice it’s already starting from and ending at my house. 

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You also have another option. 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 process for the last stop.

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What if you’ve already finished a few stops but then decide you want to re-optimize. Click the same 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, please 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. So, those are the basic ways to optimize your route with Skimmer. We hope you enjoy using it to create more efficient routes.