Route Planning Plugin For Odoo V 18.0 – Master Software Solutions

Master Software Solutions has developed the Route planning Odoo plugin for versions 16.0, 17.0, and 18.0. The plugin is available for Odoo.sh and on-premises. You can download the plugin from the Odoo app store. To use this plugin, you need to install the Contacts, Discuss (Mail), Fleet, Inventory, and Invoicing (Account) modules.

In this blog, we’ll explore the Route planning plugin, examine its functionality, and discuss its benefits for businesses that make bulk deliveries to multiple addresses.

Table of Contents

What is route planning?

Route planning refers to using software to calculate and create the shortest and most efficient delivery routes for vehicles to travel multiple delivery points, minimizing turnaround time, reducing fuel costs, and increasing productivity.

It considers the number and locations of all stops, delivery time windows, driver availability, and vehicle capacities. The route planning utilizes sophisticated algorithms to determine the most efficient sequence for deliveries or pickups.

Why is route planning important?

Without route planning, most businesses rely on manual methods that fail to account for higher costs, poor time management, lowered customer satisfaction, and failed deliveries.

Here are the challenges your business faces without route planning.

Higher operational costs

Inefficient routes mean longer travel distances, which directly impacts a business’s finances. Manual route planning often results in longer distances, burning excess fuel, and increasing the fuel costs. An extended delivery distance also increases the driver’s overtime pay. Longer routes result in higher stress on vehicles and high maintenance and repair costs. Without route planning, businesses are required to hire more delivery drivers and vehicles to handle increasing demand.

Poor time management

Manual route planning is time-consuming and prone to errors, requiring delivery managers to create daily schedules that are based on incomplete data. This leads to either missing or delaying deliveries. As the business grows, manual route planning becomes impractical and can even cause a domino effect of delays (one delayed delivery delaying another, and so on).

Reduced customer satisfaction

Poor route planning makes it difficult to meet customer expectations, which harms the company’s reputation and increases customer churn. Inefficient routes extend delivery times and delays, frustrating customers who were promised delivery within a timeframe. It is impossible to provide an accurate ETA without real-time data. Inaccurate delivery address entries increase the rate of failed delivery attempts, which raises the costs of repeat trips and creates a negative customer experience.

Increased carbon footprints

Inefficient route planning increases turnaround time and fuel consumption, which ultimately raises carbon dioxide emissions and the impact of carbon footprints. Businesses must reduce their carbon footprints to fulfill environmental responsibility, save costs, and maintain a competitive edge.

Features of the Route Planning Odoo plugin

The Route planning Odoo plugin offers features and functionalities that ensure timely deliveries while reducing costs. The plugin aims to improve delivery efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Features of the Route Planning Odoo plugin are:

Route optimization

The system automatically optimizes the routes with a single click. It rearranges the delivery addresses, determining which order to deliver first and last and ensuring reduced travel distance. You can also drag and drop the addresses to change the sequence of the delivery addresses based on priority.

View orders and delivery routes on the map

You can view the created delivery routes on the map view. This single map view shows multiple optimized routes, each with numerous stops.

Order and route assigning

The system enables you to assign routes to the drivers. Based on the customer addresses, orders are then given to drivers.

Real-time driver tracking

The system enables you to monitor your drivers and orders in real time. It also shows the number of successful, pending, and failed deliveries in real-time.

Benefits of route planning

Route planning is a crucial component that enables companies to reduce operating expenses while boosting customer satisfaction and delivery efficiency.

Here are the benefits of route planning:

Reduced operational costs

Optimized routes minimize the travel distance, which significantly reduces fuel consumption and lowers vehicle wear and tear, cutting maintenance costs. It enables drivers to deliver more in less time, helping you to cater to a larger customer base and allowing better time management. You can allocate their drivers, vehicles, and other resources effectively, improving overall fleet management.

Enhanced customer experience

Faster, accurate, and on-time deliveries lead to improved customer satisfaction. Optimized routes reduce the chances of delays or missed deliveries, fostering trust and encouraging repeat business.

Environmental benefits

Businesses can efficiently monitor their fleet and drivers thanks to the route planning plugin’s real-time visibility into delivery operations. Reducing travel distance and fuel consumption helps decrease the company’s carbon footprint, contributing to sustainability.

How does the route planning Odoo plugin work?

You can use route planning by directly downloading the plugin from the Odoo app store. This section discusses the user manual for how route planning works.

Creating a new run.

Runs are based on the delivery areas where you deliver.

• Go to the route planning module.

• Click on “Route.”

• Add the name of the run and click on “Add.”

A new Run will be created.

You can create multiple runs and add customers to the runs based on their addresses.

Adding customers to the run.

Click on the “Plus” icon to add a new customer. A small form appears. You can select the customers to add to the run.

Click on the “Gear” icon next to the “Plus” icon. You can fold, edit, optimize routes, and delete runs. 

• Fold – Enables you to minimize the expanded view of the delivery details of the run.
• Edit – You can edit the name of the run, see and change the assigned vehicle, select the type (delivery for fulfilling an order or service to provide maintenance assistance. You can also add or remove customers in the run.

• Optimize route – You can sequence delivery addresses to create the shortest possible path from the warehouse to make all deliveries and come back.
• Delete run – You can also delete the entire run.

View all the deliveries. 

Step 1: Click on Jobs -> Run Board/List View/Map View.

You can view your deliveries in Run Board, List View, or Map View.

Run Board view

List view

Map View

View addresses on the map according to their runs.

Step 1: Click on the Master Route -> Master Route Map.

You can now see all the runs on the map. Each run is colored differently for differentiation. For instance, here, the red color represents Run 1, and green represents Run 2.

You can also add filters to view each run separately.

Optimizing routes

• Go to the master route.

• Click on “Optimize Route.”

The delivery addresses in that run will be sequenced to create the shortest delivery path from and back to the warehouse.

You can see that the delivery distance and time have reduced from 20 km and 48 minutes to 13.4 km and 37 minutes, respectively.

Conclusion

Master Software Solutions is a service-based IT company that offers comprehensive Odoo consulting services, including implementation, ERP migration, customization, website development, integration, module development, and support and maintenance. We are Odoo-certified partners who can help you implement Odoo or migrate from your legacy systems. You can explore our other Odoo plugins on the Odoo App Store. Book a brief call to discuss your business requirements.