A typical morning: import, optimize, dispatch
The 15-minute daily loop, end to end — from a pile of orders to drivers on the road — plus what to do when the day changes at 11am.
Every article in this help center covers one piece. This one plays the whole song: a real morning at a delivery operation running Routerra Teams. Coffee optional, but recommended.
7:45 — Orders in
Today's orders are sitting wherever they always sit — a spreadsheet export, last night's emails, a paper manifest from the warehouse.
Create today's plan
New plan, named by date. One plan = one day's work.
Import the stops
Paste the list, upload the file, or photograph the manifest — every way in is covered in Import stops. 60 stops land on the map, geocoded.
Scan the pins
One pin sits in a river — a typo'd address. Open it, fix it, done. Two minutes now saves a lost driver at noon.
8:00 — Optimize
Three drivers today. Assign drivers & optimize, Balanced Mix, go. Twenty seconds later: three color-coded routes, each respecting shifts, vehicle capacity, arrival windows, and the zones you've drawn. One stop lands in Unassigned — its 9:00–9:30 window can't fit anyone's morning. You hand it to the driver passing closest and accept the tight squeeze. (Why stops go unassigned →)
8:10 — Eyeball and dispatch
Quick sanity pass per route: order makes sense, ETAs are humane, nobody's day ends at 9 pm. Then Send routes to drivers. Three phones buzz. Drivers see their stops in order and start navigating — you see the plan flip to Approved. Details in Send routes to drivers.
8:15–11:00 — The quiet part
The dashboard does the watching: delivered counts tick up, ETAs update, and you do other work. The rule of thumb: don't watch the map, watch Needs attention — it stays at zero until it doesn't. (How live progress works →)
11:05 — The day changes anyway
A customer calls: nobody answered the door at stop 14 — the driver marked it not delivered with a photo of the closed gate (that's proof of delivery working). And driver Marta texts: her van won't start after lunch break.
The mid-day playbook:
- Open the plan — it's sent, but not frozen.
- Edit the stops that changed — the plan shows Has Changes.
- Re-run Assign drivers & optimize with the two remaining drivers (delivered and failed stops keep their statuses), then press send again. Both drivers get their updated routes in the app; nobody calls anyone to dictate addresses.
- Stop 14 gets a retry at the end of its route, or moves to tomorrow's plan.
17:30 — Close the day
Routes complete. Failed stops have reasons and photos. The Activity log has the audit trail if anyone asks who changed what. Tomorrow morning: same loop, 15 minutes, less coffee-dependent every week.