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What is Route Optimization?: A Guide for Service Providers

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Brittany Foster
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Originally published in June 2019. Last updated on January 21, 2025.

Ever spent more time calculating travel times and planning out routes than you do on the job? Or noticed fuel and vehicle costs eating up profit?

As your service business grows, driving to and from jobs requires more and more consideration, organization, and efficiency. Using tools to optimize routes prevents scheduling mishaps, cuts down on fuel costs, reduces wear and tear on work vehicles, and can help you fit more jobs into a day. 

Learn what route optimization is and how you can use it to spend less time behind the wheel so you can focus on more important work in this guide.

What is route optimization?

Route optimization is the process of planning the most efficient route of getting from one job site to another while minimizing fuel costs, travel times, and vehicle wear. 

Instead of driving to and from jobs based on the order they’re booked in, route optimization considers the location of each job and how close you or your team members are to each one. That way, you can reduce driving times, prevent delays, and ensure your schedule is as efficient as possible whether you oversee a fleet or a single vehicle.

How does route optimization work?

Some service providers optimize routes manually by taking time each day to review appointment locations, adding them to a map, and evaluating routes and travel times. 

But manual route planning takes a lot of time and isn’t as effective as using route optimization software like Jobber, which can plan, calculate, and assign optimized routes to team members in a matter of seconds. 

Most route optimization software works like this: 

  • You enter job details, like the address and appointment time
  • It analyzes potential routes while factoring in the time of day, typical traffic conditions, road closures, and team member locations
  • You receive a schedule with the most efficient route to minimize travel time where nearby jobs are grouped together

Jobber offers dynamic routing by adjusting routes and keeping them up-to-date as your schedule fluctuates. For example, if a last-minute cancellation comes in, Jobber can send a push notification to your crew to let them know their route has changed. 

That way, your team never misses a new appointment or wastes time driving to a canceled service.

The benefits of route optimization

Route optimization doesn’t just help your employees get to the right place at the right time. It can also reduce your operating costs and support a healthier profit margin. Optimizing routes can benefit service businesses by:

1. Cutting costs

Inefficient routes don’t just waste time. It takes a lot of gas to drive to job sites, especially when they’re spread out over a large service area. Those extra fuel costs add up over time, increasing operating expenses and causing your vehicles to wear down faster, requiring additional maintenance. 

The goal of route optimization is to have your vehicles on the road as little as possible so you only use them as much as necessary. That way, you spend less money, reducing costs and helping you maintain a healthy profit margin.

2. Saving time

Let’s say you have three jobs booked in one day. Two are on the same street while the other is 30 minutes away on the other side of town. Without route optimization, your schedule might look like this: 

  • 10 AM at 198 Baker Street
  • 12 PM at 50 Sherwood Drive
  • 2 PM at 221 Baker Street

That’s a lot of time wasted driving back and forth. 

With route optimization software like Jobber, nearby jobs are grouped together in your schedule so you can get the most optimal route and avoid unnecessary backtracking. 

This allows you to schedule the same crew for both jobs on Baker Street, or send one crew to Baker Street and another to Sherwood Drive—depending on the appointment window you gave your clients. 

Plus, with a route optimization tool, if your schedule changes last minute, you can quickly and effectively adjust your route to account for it. For example, if a call comes in for an emergency plumbing job or a client asks to move their appointment from the morning to the afternoon.

3. Leaving more room in your schedule

Less time spent in the driver’s seat means you have more time to spend on the job. An optimized route makes space in your schedule for more appointments, so you can earn more money and burn less fuel.

4. Having happier customers

Route optimization accounts for traffic patterns and delays like construction or road closure so you can show up for service appointments on time. And punctuality goes a long way with your clients since many of them have to book time off work or rearrange their days to be available when you arrive. 

Plus, developing a reputation for timeliness can build customer loyalty and boost your chances of getting positive reviews from satisfied clients.

5. Organizing your team

If you send multiple crews to different job sites, you know how confusing and complicated it can be to figure out who to send where, and when. Waiting around for route updates or having to deal with scheduling mishaps can be frustrating for employees too. 

A route optimization solution keeps your team organized so that everyone knows what their day looks like. It helps prevent accidental double bookings, notifies team members of route changes, and takes care of the logistics so you don’t have to. 

READ MORE: How to make a schedule for employees

6. Making it easier to scale

If you don’t have employees, route planning out each day might not be that hard. But as you grow, even adding just one more vehicle can result in a lot of extra work. 

Using route optimization software makes it easier to scale operations as your team grows, whether you have two trucks to manage or a whole fleet.

7. Prioritizing safety

Less time on the road means you and your employees are less likely to experience driving fatigue or get into accidents. Route optimization also helps to avoid traffic congestion, construction zones, and other potential hazards, creating safer driving conditions for your team members.

5 route optimization tools for service providers

If you want to use route optimization software in your service business, the first step is to choose the platform that works best for your needs. Review this list for some of the most popular options and consider your budget, business goals, and service area before making a decision.

1. Mapquest

Mapquest offers a free route planning tool service providers can use to plan up to 26 stops at a time. Simply upload a spreadsheet of addresses to save time on data entry and it will provide you with a route you can adjust based on shorter driving times or distances. 

It will also provide you with a fuel cost estimate you can use for job costing

You can upgrade to a paid version for more advanced options, like more stops, prioritizing stops based on importance, and dynamic route planning and rerouting

2. OptimoRoute

OptimoRoute provides advanced automation to do things like: 

  • Assign routes based on an employee’s driving history
  • Plan and schedule routes up to 5 weeks in advance
  • Track and limit work hours, mileage, and overtime

It’s a more advanced route scheduling tool that works best for businesses looking to take their route optimization to the next level.

3. Route4Me

Route4Me is a route optimization solution known for its ability to easily plan and schedule routes with multiple stops. It also allows for real-time route changes and integrates with a variety of third-party tools, making it a good choice if you need something that works with the software you already have. 

When planning routes with Route4Me, you can base them on factors like: 

  • Labor laws
  • Driver skill
  • Service time
  • Vehicle capacity

4. Verizon Connect

Verizon Connect is a route optimization tool made for bigger businesses with large fleets of vehicles, but it can still work well for home service providers with multiple crews. 

It has extensive fleet management options, like vehicle diagnostics and driver behavior monitoring as well as standard route optimization. 

Because of its advanced features, it’s one of the pricier options on the market, so if you have a smaller budget or more basic needs, it may not be the best fit.

5. Jobber

Jobber’s route optimization software is designed specifically for home service providers, unlike some other platforms that cater to parcel deliveries. It also pairs seamlessly with Jobber’s CRM, online booking, and scheduling software giving you (and your clients) an all-in-one experience from start to finish. 

Using Jobber’s dynamic route optimization software, you can: 

  • Assign jobs based on your employee’s GPS locations
  • Send text updates to team members when their workday changes
  • Plan and optimize your route from anywhere, whether you’re starting from home, the shop, or a job site.
  • Automate appointment confirmation messages to customers so they’re ready when you arrive

It also maps out your route to find you the fastest, most efficient way to get from point A to point B, ensuring you and your team members don’t waste time behind the wheel.

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