Docket's Route Optimization beta guide

Summary

We've started the beta testing phase for Docket's Route Optimization feature and will be gathering customer feedback over the next few months, prior to releasing this feature to our entire customer base.

Read the full article below to learn more about how Route Optimization works in Docket, and why we're excited to build this feature for you and your business.

Docket's Route Optimization Overview

We're excited to announce that the beta testing phase for Docket's Route Optimization feature has started, and will be continuing over the next few months. During the beta test, we will be listening closely to customer feedback and making changes to ensure that the optimization process helps customers generate more efficient routes, and run more profitable businesses.

Docket's Route Optimization feature aims to generate maximally efficient routes each day based on specific settings to allow customization for your business. As we move into beta, we will allow routes to be optimized based on either balanced loads, or least number of vehicles.

Before using optimization, there are several key areas that you will need to set up in your Docket account to ensure success.

Quick Start Guide to Docket's Route Optimization

1. Set up your Docket account with vehicle info, dump location materials & costs, a default yard, updated asset availability, and assign vehicles to your drivers (steps outlined below).
2. Navigate to Dispatch and click Optimize Day on the top right to optimize the whole day, OR click Optimize at the top of a driver's column to optimize just for one driver.
3. Complete the configuration settings for optimization and click optimize.
4. Once optimization completes, click Preview on the top right banner.
5. Click Apply to apply the optimized route(s).

Setting up your Docket Account for Route Optimization

Enter Additional Vehicle Information

To update your Vehicle fields, follow the steps below, or watch this video walkthrough.

1. 1. Log into your Docket account
   2. Click into Vehicles on the left navigation bar
   3. Click into a Vehicle from the list
   4. Scroll down on the right side of the page, and enter the information for each field
   5. Information auto-saves as you update it, so when completed, simply click out of your vehicle's settings

Configure your vehicle fields to help the optimization process create the most efficient routes. The most important field to complete for your vehicles is the Vehicle Carrying Capabilities field, which informs the optimizer which dumpster categories/sizes can be handled by each vehicle.

NOTE: With the initial release of beta, this field is not yet factored into optimization, but will be shortly, so please take the time to update this field for your vehicles to ensure the most efficient route generation.

Additional fields that are factored into optimization include:

1. Wheels
2. Gross Weight
3. Height
4. Width
5. Cost to Operate per Mile

NOTE: If these fields are not filled out, we will apply reasonable industry defaults for these fields.

Set up your Dump location Materials & Costs

To ensure maximally efficient routes through optimization, you'll want to make sure your dump locations have all materials and associated costs entered correctly.

To update or add materials and costs to your dump locations, follow the steps below, or watch this video walkthrough.

1. 1. Log into Docket
   2. Click on Dispatch on the left navigation bar
   3. Expand the Yard/Dump location column if it is not already showing
   4. Click onto a Dump location to expand the settings on the right of the page
   5. Click into the Materials & Costs tab
   6. Update and/or add new materials
   7. Update and/or add pricing per ton or per cubic yard
   8. Save changes

Set up your Default Yard location

To ensure maximally efficient routes through optimization, you'll want to make sure you have set up your default yard location. To set this in Docket, follow the steps below or watch this video walkthrough.

1. Log into Docket
2. Click into Account on the left navigation bar
3. Click into Settings on the top of the page
4. Click View for Dumpster Management
5. Click into Locations
6. Select Default on the left column for the yard that you want the optimization process to start from.

Update your Asset Availability

To ensure maximally efficient routes, you'll want to make sure your asset availability is updated. To do so, follow the steps below or watch this video walkthrough.

1. Log into Docket
2. Click into Assets on the left navigation bar
3. Click into Availability on the top right
4. Click Update Availability
5. Ensure yard counts are accurate and updated.

Assign Vehicles to your Drivers

1. Assign vehicles to your drivers if you have not already done so. This allows the optimization process to take into account which vehicles are assigned to which drivers.
2. To assign a vehicle to a driver, click the drop-down menu at the top of the driver's column on Dispatch and select "Assign Vehicle." Check out this quick video walkthrough to see the steps.

Now that you have your account configured for success with optimization, let's go through how to use Docket's Route Optimization to generate efficient routes.

Using Docket's Route Optimization

Access to Docket's Route Optimization starts on the Dispatch page in Docket, found through clicking Dispatch on the left navigation bar.

When creating tasks each day, you'll want to make sure to assign the expected Waste Materials during task creation. As long as the Waste Material assigned to the task exists at a Dump location, Docket's optimization process will be able to choose the optimal dump location when creating routes.

NOTE:

• If materials are assigned to Dump locations, but not to tasks, there will be no acceptable dumps for the optimization process to assign to the route.
• If accepted materials are not assigned properly to Dump locations, but are assigned to tasks, the optimization process will also not be able to optimally assign tasks to routes.

Once you have your tasks created for a day, you can click on the Optimize Day button on the top right of the Dispatch page to open the configuration modal, where additional options are set to make the generated routes work best for you. Optimize Day allows you to generate routes for all tasks on that day that are not completed, and are not yet in progress.

Alternatively, you can choose to Optimize for an individual driver by clicking Optimize for that individual driver column, which will only optimize that driver's assigned tasks, which are not yet completed or in progress.

Optimize the day to generate route(s) for all tasks for that day:

Optimize for an individual driver:

Docket's Route Optimization Configurations

When optimizing the entire day, you will have additional configuration options. Configuration starts with two main paths, built to suit your preferences and business needs:

1. Balanced Loads: Optimizing around balanced loads means that the optimizer looks at how many total drivers and vehicles you have available, and then generates routes so that tasks are evenly distributed to ensure a balanced workload for each driver.
2. Least Number of Vehicles: Optimizing around the least number of vehicles means the optimizer looks at the tasks for the day, and generates routes that require the fewest number of vehicles, while respecting the maximum hours per driver setting that you define. 

Either option also allows additional configurations, such as the maximum number of hours per driver, and the ability to exclude specific tasks, zip codes, and vehicles. 

Once you have your configurations set, you can also choose to save those settings as company defaults, or as your defaults, to help save you time the next time you run optimization. When you're ready to proceed with your selected options, click Optimize on the bottom right of the modal.

Once Optimize is clicked, Docket's Route Optimization process will run in the background. Keep in mind this process can take several minutes to complete. There is a status bar at the top of the page showing the progress of the optimization as it happens in the background. Once complete, you will see a banner at the top of the page, and you can click Preview to continue forward.

Optimize Day progress banner

Optimize Day Preview button

Docket's Route Optimization Preview Modal

In the preview modal, you will see statistics related to the route(s), including the number of stops (tasks), the estimated time for that route, and the mileage of the route.

Optimization Preview Modal

Within the Preview modal, you are able to Apply or choose to reject the generated routes. Additionally, you can expand the routes to view more details, including the list of tasks included and view the routes on the map view.

When you're ready to accept the generated route(s), click Apply.

Once applied, tasks will be assigned accordingly, and your drivers will be ready to go for that day. 

Best Practices and Important Notes for Route Optimization

1. If you have less than two tasks, optimization will fail - make sure you have more than two tasks for the day before running optimization.
2. The optimization process can take anywhere from 2-10 minutes to complete, depending on the number and complexity of your tasks. For this reason, we recommend running the optimization when you are planning ahead, such as in the evening for the following day's tasks.
3. The maximum number of tasks per driver is 15, even if you are optimizing an individual driver vs. the entire day. If your drivers typically handle more than 15 tasks in a day, please share that feedback with us through our Feedback Form.
4. If running optimization on a day before today, the generated route will be a review, rather than an actual optimization, which means it cannot be applied.
5. Ensure you have updated your asset inventory before running optimization. If your asset inventory is not updated, the optimization process will not run properly.
6. When running optimization for a date prior to today, we assume infinite inventory and ignore "ready" states for tasks.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What happens if certain tasks cannot be optimized?
   1. They are moved to Unassigned, so that you are able to re-assign those tasks individually. An example where this might occur is if a 20 yard task exists, and no vehicles are able to take a 20 yard beyond the current capacity for the day. Rather than assign this task to a vehicle that cannot handle it, it will be moved to Unassigned Tasks.
2. What happens to a task that is included in an optimized route if it's marked In Progress before the route is applied?
   1. If a task is moved to In Progress, it will NOT be re-assigned, even if the generated route includes that task in the route. This ensures that In Progress tasks are not moved once they're in progress.
3. What’s the difference between optimizing an entire day and optimizing for an individual driver?
   1. Optimizing the day means the optimization will run for all tasks in the current day that are not completed, and not in progress, and assign tasks to routes accordingly. Optimizing for an individual driver will take that driver’s assigned tasks for the current day and re-order those tasks in an optimal way to allow the driver to complete them most efficiently.
4. How can I trust the optimizer?
   1. The optimizer was built from the ground up to work well for our customers and our industry. We are confident that the data we’re using provides an increase in efficiency and productivity for you and your drivers. We provide a before and after preview before optimization is applied, and you can accept (or not accept) moving forward. If there’s any doubt in the optimized route, share that with us, and why you doubt the results.
5. What factors are included in optimization today?
   1. Dump materials and material costs
   2. Vehicle characteristics
      1. Vehicle carrying capabilities
      2. Wheels
      3. Gross Weight
      4. Height
      5. Width
      6. Cost to Operate per Mile
   3. Default yard
   4. Default dump
   5. Employee hourly pay rates
   6. Dump location hours of operation (coming soon)
6. If optimization fails because not enough tasks are located near the primary yard, what does that mean?
   1. The optimizer requires at least two tasks located within 100 KM of the primary yard to run successfully.
7. Where can I provide feedback on Docket's Route Optimization feature?
   1. You can share your feedback through our Feedback Form.