Route planner

The route planner is a full-screen map for one depot and one date. Orders waiting to be delivered are shown as pins; routes are listed on the left. You build each route by adding pins to it, put the stops in order, and press Save - nothing you change is kept until you save.

Where to find it: Plan Routes in the sidebar, then pick a depot. Each depot’s board opens in a new tab, so you can plan several depots side by side. Who can use it: anyone with “View routes” can open the board and look. You need “Commit a route plan from the planning map” to add, move, remove, optimise and save. Prices and income only appear for users with “View route income, profit, cost and zone charges”.

The route planner with routes on the left and order pins on the map

When you use this

Build tomorrow’s routes from the orders waiting at a depot.
Balance several vans in one area by seeing all their stops on the map at once.
Reorder a route’s stops, or move a stop to another day of a multi-day run.
Send a van through a particular road with a detour.
Check a route stays out of a low bridge or a charge zone.

How planning works

Create the day’s routes first on Create a route. The board only shows routes that already exist.
Open the board for the depot and date. It opens on tomorrow by default.
Click a route card to open it. The most recently clicked open route is the active route - its card has a green edge and its name is shown in a green label at the top of the map. Every add from the map goes to the active route.
Add orders to it from the map (see Working on the map).
Reorder, remove or move stops on the route card.
Press Save on the route. Tracovy writes the stops and recalculates the times for the days that changed.

The top bar

Control	What it does	Why it matters
Depot name and code	Which depot’s board this is.	Fixed for the tab. Pick another depot from the sidebar to plan it.
Planning date	The day you are planning.	Routes and orders shown depend on this date. It is in the page address, so a board can be bookmarked or sent as a link.
Search orders	Type at least 3 characters of a consignment or order number.	Jumps to that order on the map. Orders that cannot be planned are still listed, with the reason: “Order was cancelled”, “Order was delivered”, “Order belongs to a different depot”, “Goods have not arrived at the depot yet”, “Order is on hold”, “Order is not due until (date)”, “Order is on route (code) on (date)”, “Order is on a route at another depot”, or “No map location - this order has not been geocoded”.
Find a place	Search for an address or place and mark it on the map. The cross clears the marked place.	Handy for checking where a road or a customer’s yard is.
Show charge and emission zones	Draws your charge and emission zones on the map.	Lets you see if a route goes into a zone.
Select an area	Drag a box on the map to add every order inside it to the active route.	Only offered when there is an active route you can edit.
Add a detour to the active route	Draw a detour between two drops (see Detours).	Only offered when the active route has a leg to detour.
Fit to active route	Zooms the map to the active route.
Zoom in / Zoom out	Map zoom.
Options	Board settings (see below).
Filters	Narrows which unplanned orders are shown (see below).
Theme	Switches between light and dark.

Options

Option	What it means
Match day	Off: other open routes are drawn on the planning date. On: they follow whichever day of the active route you are working, so stepping a multi-day run to its next night steps them with it.
(Route) avoids: Ferries, Toll roads, Motorways	Only shown when you have an active route you can edit. Tells the map provider to avoid these on this route. Saved straight away. Changing these re-costs the run - press Save (or Recalculate the times) to see the new times.

Filters

The filters narrow the unplanned orders on the map, not the routes you have open. The number on the Filters button shows how many are in use.

Filter	Choices
Timed service	Any, Timed only, All-day only.
Waiting too long	Any, or Past the aging threshold - orders that have been waiting longer than your routing settings allow.
First scanned	A date range: when the goods were first scanned in at the warehouse.
Created	A date range: when the order was created.
Clear all	Removes every filter.

The routes panel

The left panel lists every route at this depot on the planning date. At the top:

Item	What it means
Routes	How many routes are on the board. A small dot means you have unsaved changes.
In view	How many order pins are inside the part of the map you are looking at.
Unmappable	Orders that could be planned but have no map location, so they cannot be drawn. Fix their address on the order so they can be placed.
Map budget	Only shown when your monthly map allowance is running low. Routing calls stop when it reaches zero - save what you have and tell an admin.

A route card

A closed card shows the route’s name, a padlock if the route can no longer be edited (finalized or dispatched - shown so you can plan around it), a person-and-lock icon if another planner has it open, a zone warning, Orders: N, its income (money permission only), its start and finish time, and two badges for weight and volume against the van’s limit - green while it fits, red once it does not. The weight, volume and income count the stops you have added but not yet saved.

The zone warning icon means:

Icon	Meaning
Red octagon	An avoidance zone is on this route. Hover to see which.
Amber triangle	An advisory zone is on this route.
Grey question mark	Zones have not been checked. Recalculate to check.

Click a card to open it and make it the active route. Open cards have these buttons:

Action	What it does
Colour	Changes the colour the route is drawn in on the map. Saved straight away.
Close	Closes the card. The route stays as it is; its stops leave the map.
Remove every order	Takes every stop off the route (until you save).
Optimise the run	Asks the map provider for the best order of the stops on each day, and saves the new order straight away. It only reorders stops already on the route - it does not move orders between routes or fix capacity. You must save your changes first (“Save before optimising”). It uses your map provider, so it costs map budget.
Reverse the order of stops	Turns the stop order round.
Show the road / Hide the road	Draws the road the van will take. Only for a saved route (“Save before showing the road”).
Zoom the map to this route	Makes it active and zooms to it.
Save changes / Recalculate the times	Saves this route. If you have no stop changes but the times are out of date (after a detour or an avoid change), it recalculates them. Shows “Nothing to save” when there is nothing to do.

A multi-day route has a tab for each day (Day 1, Day 2 …). Each day shows its date, start and finish time, Orders: N, an Unsaved badge if it has changes, and these buttons:

Action	What it does
Optimise this day	Like Optimise the run, for one day only. Needs at least two stops.
Remove every order from this day	Takes every stop off this day (until you save).

Day 2 and later say “Starts where day N finished.” - the van does not go back to the depot overnight, so changing day 1 moves the times on later days.

A stop

Each stop shows:

Its drop number in a coloured box: green once the recipient has confirmed the slot, red while nobody has.
The recipient name and postcode, a new badge if you added it this session, and a padlock if the slot has been confirmed.
A mark for the kind of visit: Delivery, Collection, Service order, or Delivery and collection.
Arrival time with drop time in minutes, in red if it lands outside the time window, the working day or the customer’s opening hours (hover to see which). This is a warning only - you may have planned it on purpose; ring the recipient first.
Weight (kg), volume (m3), price (money permission only) and the customer.

On a route you can edit, each stop has these controls:

Action	What it does
Drag the stop	Moves it to another position in the same day.
Move earlier / Move later	Moves it up or down one place. At the top or bottom of a day it moves into the previous or next day.
Move to another day	Picks another day of the same route (multi-day routes only).
Remove from this route	Takes it off the route (until you save).

Working on the map

What you do	What happens
Click a pin	Opens a bubble and the order panel for that order. The bubble offers Add to (route), or “Select a route first” if no route is active.
Right-click an unplanned pin	Adds it straight to the active route - no menu, so adding forty stops is forty clicks.
Right-click a planned pin	Opens a menu where you can take it off its route.
Drag a numbered pin	Reorders the stop on the active route (single-day routes only). It takes the place of the nearest other stop.
Select an area	Adds every order in the box to the active route, in order from the current last stop.

An order already on a route cannot be added to another one - take it off first.

Pins

The pin colour says which route an order is on, never its status:

Unplanned orders are drawn as dots in their customer’s colour (set on the customer). Collections, supplier returns and exchanges get their own colour. A BH label means the order is on the Business Hours timed service.
Stops on the active route are numbered pins in its colour; stops on other open routes recede.
An order you took off a route this session is drawn in a separate colour until you save, so you can see what you have freed up.
An unconfirmed order has an outline ring.
The depot is shown as a flag.

The order panel

Clicking a pin opens a panel on the right with the order’s recipient, Postcode, Consignment number, Created, Received (or “Not recvd”), Deliver after, Weight (kg), Volume (m3), Drop time (min), Price (money permission only), any extra services (Assemble, Disassemble, Unpack, Take packaging, Collect disposal), Order number, Service, Service level, Obtained, Stock status, Declined dates in red if the recipient has refused dates, and the Delivery instruction. “Not geocoded - cannot be mapped” means the order has no map location.

Action	What it does
Add to (route)	Adds the order to the active route. Shows “Select a route first” if none is active.
Remove from route	Shown instead when the order is already on a route you can edit.
Close	Closes the panel.

Detours

A detour makes the van drive through points you choose between two drops, for example to avoid a weak bridge.

Make the route active and press Add a detour to the active route.
Click the drop the detour leaves from.
Click up to 4 points on the map where the van should go.
Click the next drop.

The detour is saved straight away (“Detour added. Recalculate to see the new times.”). A detour only goes between two drops next to each other on the same day. On the route card you can remove one point, or Remove the whole detour. Then press Recalculate the times on the route to get new arrival times.

Saving

Press Save on the route card (or the save button in its toolbar). The bar above it says what will happen: “Unsaved”, “2 days will recalculate”, or “Times are out of date”. If you moved an order between two routes, both are saved together - the bar says “saves 2 routes” - so the order can never end up on two vans. The undo arrow next to Save discards that route’s unsaved changes.

When you save, Tracovy:

Writes the stops in the order you set them.
Recalculates the times for every day that changed, and the days after it.
Gives each order on the route the date of its day as its delivery date, and marks it as routed. An order taken off every route gets its routed mark and its adopted date removed.

Saving can be refused:

Message	What it means	What to do
“Saved by someone else while you were planning”	Another planner saved the same route after you opened it. The banner lists what they added or removed. Nothing was written and your changes are still on screen.	Discard mine and reload throws your changes away and loads theirs. Keep mine and overwrite keeps yours; then press Save again to replace theirs.
“(Route) is being worked by (name) until (time).”	Someone else has the route open.	Ask them to close it, or wait.
Already on another route	An order you added is on another route.	Take it off the other route first.
Confirmed slot would move	You removed a stop, or moved it to another day, after its slot was confirmed with the recipient.	Put it back, or clear the booking on the order first.

Who has a route open

Opening a route card holds it for you for 5 minutes, renewed automatically while it stays open. Other planners see it with a person-and-lock icon (“(name) has this route open. It is read-only until they close it.”) and cannot edit it. Close the card when you are done so others can work on it.

Proximity report

To check whether a van is already passing near an order, open the order and choose Proximity report from its actions menu. It lists stops already booked from that week, nearest first, with the miles, the route (and its finish time), the date and the recipient (with arrival time). Distances under 20 miles are shown in green.

Recipient messages

Building routes on the board does not message recipients. Recipients are told when the route is dispatched (order.en_route) - see Route detail. If a recipient had accepted a delivery date and their order is taken off its route, Tracovy can send them a cancellation (order.route_cancelled); recipients who never accepted a date are not messaged when a draft plan changes. See Notifications.

Tips and common mistakes

Save often. A refresh loses everything you have not saved.
If an order is not on the map, search for it - the search tells you why (on hold, not arrived, not geocoded, and so on). Also check Unmappable and your filters.
Optimise reorders stops only. Balance the vans yourself first, save, then optimise.
A red drop number means the recipient has not confirmed the slot - moving it is fine. A green one with a padlock has been promised to the recipient.
Close route cards you are not working on, so other planners are not locked out.