Load capacities let you set how much a vehicle can carry. This can be based on weight, volume, units such as boxes or pallets, or the number of passengers. OptimoRoute uses these limits when planning routes. This article explains how to create load capacities and apply them to vehicles and orders.
| Who can use this feature | |
|---|---|
| All plans | |
| Users that have administrator privileges | |
| All regions | |
What are load capacities?
Load capacities let you set how much each vehicle can carry. These are customizable, so you can represent a variety of units and values. For example, a vehicle may have limits based on:
- Weight
- Volume
- Number of boxes
- Number of pallets
- Number of orders
- Number of passengers
- Number of trailers
OptimoRoute uses these limits when planning routes. It adds orders in a way that helps use the available vehicle space without going over the set limits.
Defining vehicle load capacities
In OptimoRoute, you can define load capacities that will serve as constraints in your routing to make sure your vehicles are not overloaded. You can activate up to 4 capacity constraints and have the freedom to decide how they are labeled.
By default, weight and volume are used. To change this:
- Go to Administration→Vehicles
- Choose “Capacities” from the left sub-menu
- Edit the labels for load capacities and units
- Activate the ones you want to use in routing by using the checkboxes
Activating and deactivating capacities
There are 4 capacity labels with check boxes. The check boxes indicate that a capacity is activated for use in routing.
In the example below, you can see that weight and volume are activated and boxes and pallets are not. This means that weight and volume are the only ones that will be shown on orders under load parameters (see below).
| Tip: Using load capacities is optional. If vehicle load/capacity is not relevant (i.e. if you are performing field service instead of deliveries, or vehicle capacity is never a limiting factor) simply disable all capacity labels. |
Changing capacity labels
You can rename capacity labels at any time. Changing a label name will also update that label on past orders. Renaming a capacity label does not change the quantity data.
If you delete a capacity, its past data will remain in the account history and on past orders.
| If you rename a capacity label, past data will show with the new capacity label. |
Enabling route load limits
When you define vehicle capacities, you can also enable route load limits. Route load limits let you set a maximum total load for the entire route. Depot visits do not reset this limit, as they do with vehicle capacity limits.
After enabling route load limits, you must also set the limit for each vehicle.
Define capacity limits
After we have configured the load/capacity constraints we want to use, it’s time to indicate each vehicle’s maximum capacity.
To do this:
- Go to Administration→Vehicles
- Choose “Capacities” from the left sub-menu
- Click into each vehicle profile
- Edit the capacity field(s) that appear under the vehicle’s details tab
This can also be performed in bulk by selecting multiple vehicles and clicking "Edit vehicles".
| Make sure each driver profile has a default vehicle assigned. You can find driver profiles in the "Administration" menu. This step is required when using vehicle capacities. |
Define route maximum capacity
If you have enabled the route capacity limit option, then you will also see the ability to set route limits on the vehicle. By default, these will have “No limit”.
To change this:
- Go to Administration→Vehicles
- Choose “Capacities” from the left sub-menu
- Click into each vehicle profile
- Change the route limit
- Click “Save”
Example: When setting order limits for an entire route, you can use the route limits to limit the number of orders for the whole route, not just per depot trip.
| If a vehicle or route capacity limit is set to zero (0), OptimoRoute will not assign orders with that load type to the vehicle. |
Define order load
Finally, we are ready to enter the load for the orders.
- Go to "Plan & Optimize"
- Select the order(s) you want to modify
- Enter the load in the order detail in the "Load parameters" section
You can also specify the load parameters during import from MS Excel by entering the values in columns Load #1 to Load #4. In this example, we are using only Load #1 (No. boxes) so columns load #2-#4 are empty.
Order type and capacity behavior
Depending on the order type, capacities will behave in different ways.
- Delivery and Task - Capacities will load onto the vehicle at the depot, and then decrease after each order
-
Pickup - Capacities will be zero when the vehicle leaves the depot, and then increase after each order
Using capacities in routing
So now that we have:
- Defined capacities
- Defined each vehicles maximum load capacity
- Assigned vehicles to drivers
- Input order loads on orders
It's time to actually see how it is used in routing.
When you plan routes, OptimoRoute uses vehicle capacities as routing constraints. This means each route can only include orders that fit within the assigned vehicle and route capacity.
For example, if a vehicle has a capacity of 5,000 lbs, it will never carry more than 5,000 lbs at one time. To let the driver reload during the route, use the “return to depot” option.
If the vehicle has a capacity of 5,000 lbs and a route load limit of 8,000 lbs, the vehicle will never carry more than 5,000 lbs at one time. The full route will also never include more than 8,000 lbs total, even if the driver returns to the depot to reload.
If an order cannot be scheduled because of load capacity limits, it will appear in the "Not Scheduled" orders tab.
| Tip: The planning setting to allow drivers to return to depot to pick up more orders will allow more orders to be fit onto a route when capacity is limited in a vehicle. |
Viewing order capacities
In the order table you can add capacities to the overview by adding the columns for each parameter. You can also see capacities when editing an order in the "Load capacities" section.
In the timeline, you can also view the load capacity over the entire route by enabling the capacity display from the "Options" menu.