MyWayRoute planning vs route optimization: what's the difference?
4 min read
Short answer: route planning means deciding which stops you visit and putting them in order yourself; a map app then draws the road between them. Route optimization means software tries the possible orders of your stops and picks the one with the fewest miles or minutes, within limits you set, such as delivery time windows. Planning is enough for a short, familiar route. Optimization pays off once you have more than about ten stops or new addresses every day.
The difference at a glance
| Route planning | Route optimization | |
|---|---|---|
| Who puts the stops in order | You | Software |
| What it needs | A list of stops and knowledge of the area | The list of stops, plus time windows, service time and the start and end points |
| Typical tools | Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, paper | Route optimization apps such as MyWay, Spoke or Route4Me, and dispatch software |
| How many stops it handles well | A handful; map apps cap the number of stops (limits by app) | Dozens to hundreds per route |
| When the day changes | You re-order by hand | You add the stop and re-optimize in seconds |
| How good the result is | As good as your guess | The shortest order the software finds |
What route planning is
Route planning is the part every driver does: you decide which addresses are on today’s list and in what order to drive them. Most people group stops by neighborhood and drive the groups in a loop. Map apps help with the next step, the road between two stops. Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze show the fastest way from one stop to the next, but they keep your stops in the order you typed them. They don’t look for a better order. They also limit how many stops one route can hold: Google Maps takes 9 stops including your destination, Apple Maps 14 and Waze only one.
What route optimization is
Route optimization starts where planning stops. You give the software all your stops, and it searches for the order that makes the whole route shortest. It uses real road distances and travel times, not straight lines. It also respects your constraints: a customer who is only home after 3 pm, a pickup that must come before its delivery, or a fixed end point such as your depot.
The search is harder than it sounds. With 15 stops there are more than 1.3 trillion possible orders, so no app checks them all. Instead it uses methods that find a very good order in seconds. We explain how in why route optimization is so hard.
A 15-stop example
Say you have 15 deliveries spread over a town. Planning by hand, you would probably start with the nearest cluster, work outward and drive back. That is a reasonable plan, but it is one guess out of 1.3 trillion. Optimization compares that guess with many alternatives and often finds a shorter loop. Typical gains come from crossing a main road once instead of three times, or from finishing at the cluster nearest to home. By our own figures, MyWay makes routes about 30% shorter on average. Your number depends on how good your hand-made order was to begin with.
When planning is enough, and when you need optimization
Planning by hand is fine when:
- you drive the same loop every day and already know the best order;
- you have only a few stops;
- the order is fixed for you, for example by appointment times that leave no choice.
Optimization is worth it when:
- you get a new list of addresses every day;
- you have more than about ten stops;
- some stops have time windows, or you pick up and deliver on the same route;
- you add or cancel stops during the day and need a new order quickly.
How MyWay does it
You add your stops by typing them, importing a spreadsheet or taking a photo of a list, then tap optimize. MyWay puts the stops in order, and you drive each leg in the navigation app you prefer: Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze or another. MyWay is free for routes of up to 15 stops, and the Pro plan takes routes of up to 200 stops. To see how many miles and dollars a better order is worth on your own routes, try the cost per stop calculator.