A route is created by calculating the best path using Directions. Once you achieve the calculated best path, you will see the following:
At this point, you have the best path calculated, and the next action is to choose the vehicle to which you want to assign the concerning route. For this, you have two options:
- Choose the vehicle manually;
- Find the nearest vehicles to the starting point of the route and choose one from the list.
Choose the vehicle manually
Choose the vehicle to which you want to assign the route, by choosing from the vehicle combo box on the route's bottom panel:
If necessary, Frotcom will rearrange the route in case the vehicle type selected brings additional constraints for the calculated path (e.g., heavy vehicle vs. light vehicle, etc.)
Find the nearest vehicle to the starting point of the route
With your best route calculation displayed on the map, go to the Nearest vehicles and Frotcom will automatically calculate the nearest vehicles to the start point of the route:
Since the closest vehicle is not located exactly on the starting point of the first step of the route, it is also necessary, to add to the route a new first step: from the vehicle position to the previous start position. For that, click on Add to route link of the respective vehicle on the Nearest vehicles tab:
The following confirmation panel will pop up:
After you click Yes, a new step will be added, and the concerned vehicle will be pre-selected for the route.
In other words, by clicking Yes, Frotcom will rearrange the route in case the vehicle type brings additional constraints for the calculated path (e.g., heavy vehicle vs. light vehicle, etc.)
The top bar of the Route bottom panel displays the following fields:
- Vehicle
This is the pre-selected vehicle, as result of the previous step. You can change it by clicking on the drop-down list and choose another vehicle. If you do so, the route needs to be recalculated to accommodate this modification. The following panel will pop up and notify you about this:
- Driver
This is the vehicle's driver. It will be empty if no driver is associated with the concerning pre-selected vehicle. - Distance
This is the mileage of your path calculated using the current options defined in the Directions tab of the map view. - Time to travel
This is the total duration of your path calculated using the current options defined in the Directions tab of the map view.
Inside the Route bottom panel, you have the following information:
| Field | Description |
| Starts from | The physical address where the vehicle will start a particular step of the route. |
| STD |
Scheduled time of departure. This is the starting time of each step of the route. The starting time of the first step is, obviously, the starting time of the route itself. In case you want to schedule it for a later period, you can modify the STD of the first step. For that, click on the blue link and the following fields will become available to you:
If you change the STD of the first step of the route, the STD of the remaining steps will be updated according to STD (step n+1) = STA (step n) + Stopover (step n) |
| Mileage | Estimated mileage for your path |
| Breaks | Time that the driver stops during the path, suggest by driver restriction breaks. You can change this time, by clicking on the respective blue link: Note that the information icon  is identifying the respective break time as a suggestion from Frotcom. If you modify the breaking time, the icon will disappear since it is no longer a Frotcom suggestion. Note that if you modify the Break time, the STA of the current step will change:STA (step n) = STD (step n) + estimated time to travel on step n + Brake (step n) and consequently the STD of the remaining steps as well.NOTE: the default value is 00:00 or, if you have a driving restriction, it will be according to the mandatory breaks and rests periods defined in Administration > Account > Driving conditions. |
| Arrive at | The physical address where the vehicle will end a particular step of the route. |
| STA | Scheduled time of arrival |
| Stopover | Time that the vehicle will be stopped at the destination when it gets there.NOTE: By default, Frotcom considers a stopover time of 00:00. |
| Corridor | If you wish to create a corridor around a particular step, you can define its width. It will present the conditions defined in Administration > Account > Routes. If the vehicle deviates from the route and moves out of the corridor, an alarm will be triggered. |
You will also have up to four additional icons available to you:
These are the Information to the driver (NAV), Jobs/Tasks (WFM), Notifications and Alarms panels. To know more about these icons, click here.
If you are creating a route based on a Job, you might as well check the information in this article. However, you don't need to associate a route to a job before sending it to a Workforce Management terminal - a new task is automatically created on Frotcom when you send a route to the device.
Note that the route is not yet assigned to a vehicle. You only have a pre-selected vehicle and a calculated route to match the vehicle type constraints. To confirm the assignment, click now the Assign this route button, located in the Directions panel:
The following panel will be shown to you:
It contains the following information:
| Field | Description |
| Route name | Description of the route that has been just created. |
| Vehicle | Vehicle to which a particular route will be assigned. |
| Send route to WFM/NAV |
Definition of the method through which the route will be transmitted to the driver's terminal. Can only be selected if the vehicle has either WFM or NAV associated with it. |
After you click the Assign button, the route will be assigned to the vehicle you selected and the information transmitted to the driver's terminal - if available - through the option you chose. The following confirmation will pop up:
In some situations, assigning multiple routes to a vehicle may result in an overlap of routes. If you want to know more about overlapping routes, click here.
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