A Quick Guide to GPS Route Planning

Using GPS route planning to find and plan routes
Featured image credit: alexsl/iStockphoto.com

The rising consumer demands for same-day or even same-hour deliveries have made GPS route planning critical for any field service business. The current Coronavirus pandemic has only made it more important. And if you’re still not serious about route planning, then you put yourself at risk of losing out to your competitors. Can you afford that?

To help you get started, we explain GPS route planning, its importance, and the most common terms related to it. Read on.

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What Is GPS Route Planning?

GPS route planning is the process of finding the most efficient route for traveling from a starting point to a single destination or multiple destinations.

However, planning routes for multiple stops isn’t easy, and using pen and paper or adopting a free route planner cannot guarantee either accuracy or efficiency. So, many field service businesses started adopting advanced GPS route planners that provide optimized routes for multiple locations, with turn-by-turn directions. Such route planners even factor in constraints, such as weather, traffic, and one-ways, without putting in much effort. The best route planners such as Route4Me route planner, can, in fact, plan the shortest routes in just 30 seconds and put GPS route planning on auto-pilot.

Why Is Route Planning Important in 2020?

Efficient route planning helps your field reps show up on time, reduce fuel expenses, increase driver satisfaction, and improve customer experience. Learn more about route planning’s importance in our article Why Is Route Planning Important?

Below are some common terms related to GPS route planning which you must be familiar with as well.

What Is GPS Tracking?

GPS tracking is the remote monitoring of the location of a vehicle, using Global Positioning System (GPS) signals. Learn more about it in our article What Is GPS Tracking?

How Does GPS Tracking Work?

A GPS tracking system uses the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) network, which incorporates a range of satellites using microwave signals, to transmit data to a GPS device. This data includes the device’s location, speed, time, and direction in real-time. Learn more about it in How Does GPS Tracking Work?

What Are the Different GPS Tracker Types?

The different GPS tracker types are cellular- and satellite-based trackers, asset trackers, and personal trackers. Take a quick look at the different types of GPS tracking.

Why Is GPS Tracking for Construction Equipment Important?

GPS tracking protects your construction equipment from being stolen, reduces fuel expenses, ensures your workers’ safety, and lowers your insurance premiums. Learn the Five Compelling Reasons Not to Ignore GPS Tracking for Construction Equipment.

Want To See For Yourself How Route4Me Can Boost Your Profits?

Whether you want to slash the time it takes you to plan routes for your drivers, increase the number of stops they can make, or keep your customers satisfied knowing that your drivers show up on time… Route4Me helps you achieve that!
Start Free 7 Day Trial
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What is GPS Routing?

GPS Routing is when the GPS location of a mobile device and/or vehicle is incorporated into the route planning and/or route optimization process.

The precise geolocation, typically retrieved by a routing app from a device’s built-in GPS coordinates, is transmitted into a route optimization algorithm, so that the entire routing workflow and lifecycle is as accurate as possible.

About author: Rahul Dasgupta

Rahul Dasgupta is a content writer with over 20 years of work experience. He holds a master’s degree in computer science and has written thousands of blog posts on route planning and scheduling, making it easy for readers to learn about these complex topics. Rahul enjoys playing tennis in his spare time and loves cuddling with his pet labrador Shinu. Rahul is a big fan of Roger Federer, Messi, and Bill Gates - he admires their drive to be the best at what they do and their philanthropic efforts.

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About Route4Me

Route4Me has over 40,000 customers globally. Route4Me's Android and iPhone mobile apps have been downloaded over 2 million times since 2009. Extremely easy-to-use, Route4Me's apps create optimized routes, synchronize routes to mobile devices, enable communication with drivers and customers, offer turn-by-turn directions, delivery confirmation, and more. Behind the scenes, Route4Me's operational optimization platform combines high-performance algorithms with data science, machine learning, and big data to plan, optimize, and analyze routes of almost any size in real-time.