This article covers the following scenarios:
building a route for yourself,
following a route using the Trip mode,
loading a previously saved route,
permanently deleting a previously published route.
The following topics are covered in other articles:
using job constraints,
Concept: build routes via records of any objects, or prospects
In Mapsly you can build routes through up to 1000 "jobs", with or without waypoint sequencing — automatic re-shuffling of route activities to minimize the drive time or meet your custom optimization goals.
A route can contain:
records of any object with a location, including custom objects from your CRM,
a prospect,
an arbitrary location identified by an address, GPS coordinates, or the name of a place, like a hotel or mall.
You may have records from multiple different objects in your route simultaneously.
Records in your route may have the same location - in this case Mapsly will automatically group them into a single waypoint.
You can save any number of routes and load them later.
A route can also be (re-)assigned to another Mapsly user at any time. Re-assignment of routes is covered in this article.
1- Creating a new route
1.1- Adding jobs to the route
You may add a record of any object with a defined location as a job, or a map location. Learn more about jobs, their types, and how they relate to resulting route activities.
NOTE: On the Pro and Enterprise plans, you may add up to 500 jobs, both in case of optimized (with automatic points' re-shuffling, see #1.4 below) and non-optimized (fixed-sequence) routing. On the Essential plan, you may have up to 100 jobs for non-optimized routing, and up to 25 for optimized.
1.1.1- Adding a record to the route
A record can be added to the Route panel in several ways:
by selecting points using the Lasso-Add tool:
by clicking To route in the record's map popup:
by clicking Add to route in the record's context menu in the Table view:
start typing the name of a record into the Add point input here, then select the record from the list (it works exactly like the search bar):
1.1.2- Adding an arbitrary location, or a place by name, to a route
To add an arbitrary location — by an address, GPS location, by the name of a place, or by the name of any record in Mapsly:
bring up the Add point panel by clicking this icon button at the bottom of the Route panel:
and start typing a location, the name of any record, or paste GPS coordinates here (similar to the Search bar), and then select one of the auto-complete items that will show up above:
1.1.3- Add a previously saved place
To add a previously saved location to the route, click the Star icon button in the Add point block and select a location from the list:
1.1.4- Add your current location as a waypoint
To add a point with the coordinates of your current location, in the Add point block click this icon button:
1.1.5- Adding your calendar meetings
If your data source supports calendar meetings and you added the meeting/appointment object to Mapsly, you can add your meetings planned for the selected departure date to the job by checking the Add from calendar box in the Route panel's menu:
IMPORTANT! Currently:
checking this box simply adds your meetings planned for the selected departure date (see #1.3 below) to the route job list, but will NOT preserve their planned date or time in the resulting route(s);
also, Mapsly will only add meetings planned for the departure date, but not for future dates for which Mapsly may produce a route (if you're planning routes for multiple days at once, see #1.4 below).
Learn more about using calendar meetings (appointments) in Mapsly in this article.
1.2- Choose your start and finish location
Use the Start location gray block on top of the Route panel to select your starting location in one click:
The following options are available:
Your current location (this option requires a GPS sensor module in your device, otherwise your location will be determined based on your IP which may be quite far away from your actual location)
Your default starting location (from your Traveling preferences)
One of your saved places
An arbitrary location (you can enter an address, GPS coordinates, the name of a place like a hotel or mall, or the name of a record)
Similarly, use the Finish location gray block at the bottom of the Route panel to quickly select your ending location:
The Finish location panel offers the same options as the Start location, as well as a 5th option (selected on the screenshot above) — to leave the ending location undefined.
When the finish location is undefined, a route for the departure date will end at one of the route activities. If a route is optimized, Mapsly will determine the most efficient ending location automatically.
NOTE #1: The Start location and Finish location are visible only when planning for one user, are hidden when planning for multiple ones (see #1.4.2).
NOTE #2: When planning for one user for multiple days, locations selected in the Start location and Finish location blocks will only affect the departure date, while the rest of the days will use the default start and finish locations for the target user's traveling preferences.
1.3- Optionally, name your route, and choose your departure date and time
You may name your route by clicking on the current name at the top of the Route panel:
NOTE #1: Strictly saying, this is the name of the routing session, so when planning for multiple days and/or multiple users, all the resulting routes will inherit this name. You may then change the name of a particular route while it is in the draft state.
You may also customize your departure date and time — by clicking on the current date or time on top of the Route panel:
1.4- Adjust your routing parameters
To bring up the routing parameters panel click the Cog at the bottom of the Route panel:
NOTE #1: On the Essential plan the Period will be fixed at 1 day and the Ignore job/vehicle constraints box will appear disabled in the checked state — to reflect that on the Essential plan, only simple-user/single-day routing is enabled, and that the Job duration is the only job constraint that will be used. Learn more about multi-day/multi-user routing and using job constraints.
On this panel you may indicate the following parameters:
For: one or multiple Mapsly users for whom Mapsly should build routes.
NOTE #1: For the purpose of this article (building a route for the user themselves) we'll leave the default value here (Me). Planning routes for other users, including multiple users at once, is described in this article.
Period: one or multiple days for which Mapsly should build routes. When the Period is 1 day, Mapsly will plan a route for the departure date.
NOTE #2: For the purpose of this article (building a route for the departure date) we'll leave the default value here (1 day). Planning routes for multiple days is described in this article.
Mode: the travel mode that should be used to build routes. The first value in the list is Default, which means that Mapsly will use the travel mode from your Traveling preferences, of Car if your preferred travel mode is selected.
For the Full-sized truck mode, you may also indicate the truck parameters:
Optimize: check this box to have Mapsly re-arrange activities in the resulting route in the most optimal way.
NOTE #3: When waypoint sequencing is enabled, you may have up to 25 points in the route including your starting and finishing locations. When it is disabled, you may have up to 50 points.
NOTE #4: When planning for multiple users and/or multiple days, you may also customize the optimization objective in the selector that will appear on the right on the checkbox, see this article for details.
Use traffic data: check this box to use the traffic data when planning the route. Mapsly will use real-time traffic data if the departure day/time is Today/Now, and historic traffic data if the departure time is in the future.
Replace existing routes: check this box to automatically delete existing routes planned for the departure day, once the new route is published.
NOTE #5: This setting does not affect today's routes: Mapsly will not automatically delete route(s) planned for TODAY.
1.5- Click Build, make changes to the draft route, if needed
To build the route, press Build — and Mapsly will show you the resulting draft route:
At this stage, you may:
return to the route design (to the previous screen), so you can add/remove jobs and re-build your route), by clicking:
Re-design on top, in the Route panel's header:
or Discard at the bottom:
rename your route by clicking the current route name:
change the departure date of the route by clicking the current departure date:
edit the route activities directly (without re-designing the route) by clicking the Edit route activities icon button in the Route panel's header:
NOTE #1: Editing route activities lets you make small changes like removing some activities or changing their sequence. After every such change, Mapsly will update the forecast departure and arrival times for each activity automatically.
NOTE #2: At both the design stage (when you're adding/removing route jobs) and at the draft stage all changes that you make in the Route panel are automatically saved to the server.
1.6- Publish your route
When you're done creating your route, you need to press Save or Save & Go to publish it — this will make your route available in the list of published routes, and you'll be able to load it later (see #3 below).
IMPORTANT! Clearing the Route panel before publishing your route will permanently delete your draft route.
To publish your route:
press Save at the bottom of the Route panel:
if the departure date is today, you may publish the route and start following it (switch to the Trip mode) in 1 click by pressing Save & Go at the bottom:
2- Following a route using the Trip mode
See the full description of the Trip mode in this article.
3- Loading an existing route
To load a published route that you or your admin/dispatcher created for you, press Load route in the Route panel's header:
NOTE: If there's another route loaded in the Route panel, the Load route icon button will not be immediately visible in the Route panel's header, but will move to the Route panel's menu:
4- Deleting a published route
To delete a route, open the list of existing routes as described in #4 above and press the Trash icon button near the route you'd like to delete:
5- Editing an existing route
After clicking the Edit button for a saved route, you'll notice the Re-Optimize button becomes available. Click this button to initiate the route re-optimization process for the specified route. You can adjust optimization parameters like the Round Start Time and the Use Traffic Data as needed.
