Route optimization re-orders the stops on a technician’s day to minimize total drive time. PSS uses the Google Routes API under the hood and accounts for the real-world road network and your company’s preferences (for example, avoiding toll roads).
Set the technician’s starting point
Before running optimization, each technician needs a starting address so PSS knows where their day begins (typically the office, the warehouse, or the tech’s home).
- Open the technician’s profile under Team.
- Click Edit.
- Fill in Work Starting Address — wait for the Google geocode suggestion to appear and select it.
- Click Save.
Optimization uses this address as the default Starting Point and Ending Point for every route it sequences.
Run optimization
PSS exposes route optimization in three places, depending on how you like to work:
| Where | What it does |
|---|---|
| Top toolbar OPTIMIZE button | Opens the Routes Optimizer with no tech selected — choose the tech and day inside the modal. |
| Per-technician three-dot menu > Optimize Routes | Opens the same Routes Optimizer with that tech pre-selected. |
| Inside Manage Routes > OPTIMIZE LIST | Optimizes the day currently open in the modal, in place. Best for quick same-day reorders. |
The Routes Optimizer modal works like this:
- Choose the technician (Choose a tech…) and the weekday (Choose a day…). The number of stops on that day is shown between them.
- Leave Starting Point and Ending Point at Tech’s Starting Address / Tech’s Ending Address, or pick a specific stop as the start or end (for example, when the tech must finish at a particular property). The two cannot be the same.
- Click Load Optimized Route. The map redraws the day in the suggested order.
- Compare the three tiles below the map — Distance, Work Time and Gas Cost — each showing the new total and whether it is lower or higher than the current order.
- If the suggestion is good, click Save Optimized Route. If not, click Cancel.
Inside Manage Routes, OPTIMIZE LIST previews the new order directly in the stop list (the header reads [day] route optimizations); click Save Optimized Route to apply it or Cancel to keep the current order. The button is disabled when the day has fewer than two stops.
Jobs scheduled on the same day are included in the optimization and keep their position relative to the route stops around them.
Route configuration (gear cog, top-right of Routes page)
The Configuration modal exposes the settings that govern optimization and how routes are displayed:
- Average Gas Cost/Gallon ($) (or /Liter for metric companies) — used with the setting below to estimate fuel cost in the Manage Routes Detailed View and the Routes Optimizer.
- Truck Miles Per Gallon (or Truck Kilometers Per Liter) — used together with gas cost to estimate per-route fuel spend.
- Default Route Lines — the view mode the Routes page opens in: Line Mode, Nav Mode or No Lines.
- Service Visit Duration — the estimated time at each stop, used for the Est. IN/OUT times and the Work Time figures. Automatic uses the average of the last 5 service visits to the property (jobs do not count toward the average); Fixed lets you enter a number of minutes to use at every stop.
- Flag Visits More Than (feet) — when a technician’s check-in location is farther than this distance from the property, the stop card shows a warning with the approximate distance. Default 600 feet.
- Avoid Tolls — when checked, optimization avoids toll roads, even at the cost of some additional drive time.
Click Save to apply; the confirmation reads Configuration is successfully updated.
Behind the scenes
PSS uses Google Routes API v2 to power optimization. A few facts about how the request is constructed are worth knowing:
- Days with up to 25 stops are optimized in a single API call.
- Days with more than 25 stops are split into chunks of up to 23 intermediate stops each, optimized chunk by chunk, then stitched back together in order.
- When chunking is used, the cross-chunk ordering is not globally optimal — only locally optimal within each chunk. This is a known limitation we are working to remove.