Route Optimization Software

[BWhite]

My route is tight but I think I am not as efficient as I could be . What routing softwares are available ? Does MS street and Trips work for 50 +/- destinations ?

[rgrimes945]

Hey Bill, Thats a great question. I'd like to see some replies to this myself.

[Pelican]

The company I worked for used this type of software, but it often did not make the routes out in the most efficient manner. They were so far off it was obvious to anyone who knew the store locations. I'll add that this was 10 years ago, I'm sure there have been improvements since then.

[Wizard]

Streets and trips will route them for you, and it will avoid back tracking, and does the routing in what it thinks is an efficient manor, but it isn't perfect, and you have to tell it the beginning and end points. I use streets & trips daily before I leave the office, but I dont use the "optimize route" feature. What I like streets & trips for is being able to visualize the route, and where each stop is along the route. From there I put them in order manually, using my own brain. While you could try it, I dont know that it would be a wise investment. If you're running 50 stops, chances are you already plotted them all out on a map, no? If not, that would be a good start, print off a map or buy a big one (you can by 3x4' or bigger maps that hang on a wall) where you can see all 4 "boundaries" along the edges and start putting pins where each stop is, and you'll be able to arrange them in the best order. S&T is a good electronic way of doing this, and when you have 30-50 different stops a day, it's an invaluable tool, but if your 50 stops are the same all year, I'd do the paper map idea instead. I haven't seen or used any other routing software that looks to be worth a darn.