How to Create an Optimized Route

Headlight Solutions takes unorganized order data and allows you to easily make efficient routes that minimize costs down to the penny.

Optimized vs. Manual Routes

There are two ways to route orders, manually or by using our AI-assisted optimized routing. You can toggle between the two by clicking the Route orders dropdown.

When building routes in the Optimized Routing Mode, you create a route that automatically considers all special requirements, hazardous chemicals, traffic, truck types, or schedule/appointment times and provides the best-consolidated routes.

Alternatively, when building routes in the Manual Routing Mode, you will determine the exact sequence of the route as you select the orders to be added. The manual route you build will not consider any special requirements, hazardous chemicals, traffic, truck types, or schedule/appointment times. Review our help article here for more details on manual routing.

Create an Optimized Route

To begin building an optimized route you would first need to select orders that will be included in the route. 

There are several ways to select orders for a route:

• Click an order tile checkbox on the left

• Click the order pins on the map, and click the order checkbox

• Draw/name a region with the draw tool on the map

The orders selected will be highlighted in orange within the order tile on the left and will display a green outline on the order’s pin within the order map on the right. 

Edit Orders

If needed, you can edit settings for all orders delivered to an address, or change the settings for just one order, one time only. 

When editing orders, you can: 

• Update the Delivery Window

• Add an Appointment Time

• Modify your Delivery Time (time to offload)

• Make the order a First Stop

• Select any Ship Rules that apply to the order (straight truck, lift-gate truck, etc.)

You can quickly Edit Orders as needed by clicking on the edit icon here. 

Applied Filters

Apply additional filters to narrow the scope of displayed orders. Specify the Region of displayed orders with the Region Select dropdown. Select between All, None, or any User-created regions you have made yourself.

Display different order types by applying filters in the Selected Data Dropdown:

• Type: Display sales, pickups, or transfers 

• Manifests: Display Orders/Pickups assigned or unassigned to a manifest

• Other: Display any unroutable Orders

• Hold Code: Display orders with or without hold codes

• Flexible Ship Date Orders: Display orders with or without flexible ship dates, and highlight/include Recommended Orders.

The Expected Ship Date will default to the next business day and is simply the day you are building routes for. Alternatively, the Promise Date Range is when the customer needs the orders delivered. This could be a set date, or it could be a range of dates if the order has a flexible ship date.

Once you have refined your orders for routing, click Select All/Unselect All to interact with all visible order pins.

Create an Optimized Route

Now that you have selected the orders for routing, click the Route Orders button.

The default will be to create an Optimized Route, but you can click the dropdown to select Manual Route Mode if needed. The next screen will display the Routing Parameters for your General Warehouse info & Common Carrier Truck Constraints if you need to make any updates.

Once reviewed, click Next to view your Fleet Logistics & Availability. This section displays the company fleet so you can mark trucks as active/inactive, edit trucks, make a copy of a truck, or add new trucks.

Click Next to move to the last step, and click the Optimize Routes button once you're ready to generate the routes. Once Processed, the optimized routes will be displayed for your review.

Click each order tile on the left to have the route displayed on the map, and the GANTT chart below. No manifests have been created yet, so you can still easily change the stop order, delete a stop, change trucks, etc. We cover the Route Optimization screen in more detail here.

Assign Manifests

When you are ready to finalize a route and commit it to a manifest, click the route’s colored warehouse tile. Within the new window, click the Assign Manifest button. Give the manifest a description if you wish, and then click Confirm and Submit to finish.

Next, we will cover how to assign drivers to your routes with manifests assigned in the Planned Loads Overview here.