Routing EXPERTS
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I use google maps and can route 10 or less locations.
Mapquest has an option to route in the most efficient manner.
Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt
The best ones I've found are for businesses and way too spendy for me to even try. Microsoft Streets and Trips used to be great for that!
Mapquest on my computer for out of town routes. I have mapped up to 24 locations and had mapquest organize it in the most time efficient way with one click. I just write them down in order and then enter locations into my GPS in the same order as needed. There might be a more efficient way to do it but this works fine for me, since I don't often route out of town.
I pay $5 a month for Road Warrior. I really like it. I've put well over 150 addresses in for a route and it's been great.
That sounds like a great option for those who travel frequently. Since I go on the road once every couple of months, it works out better for me to just plug it in the way that I do.
Does it optimize and mapout the most efficient route?
Does it put the locations in order of the most efficient route or do you have to put them one order yourself. I need something that pit them in order for the most efficient route ?
Yes. Mapquest reorders them. If I'm going out of town to other cities on a route, I often have no idea where I'm going and the best way to get from place to place.
I use Bing Maps. It doesn't optimize the routes, per se, but if I enter a bunch of addresses I can see the cluster pattern and shuffle them in order on the list. I will enlarge the resulting map and print a screenshot because their print function gives extra information and makes the map smaller.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2019 04:49PM by heartlandcanuck.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2019 04:49PM by heartlandcanuck.
A lot of us still use old versions of MS Streets and Trips. If you can get hold of a used copy, grab it. The "find nearby places" function is, of course, way out of date for eateries and some other items. But not bad at all for things like hotels, rail stations, airports, etc, that seldom move. . It is still what many consider, the best routing program of all.
Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel
Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel
Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
Road Warrior is great but the interface isn’t super intuitive. They have a lot of work to do to make it more user friendly.
That being said, it’s extremely powerful. It will optimize your route based on the time of day you leave to minimize traffic impact. It allows you to see import all of your locations using an excel spreadsheet (if only more MSC platforms would offer an Excel export). You can set a hard stop time on your route and it’ll split it up into multiple days. When you get to a location on a route you hit the “check in” button and it automatically sends the next location to your gps.
Pretty powerful. Just kind of a steep learning curve.
That being said, it’s extremely powerful. It will optimize your route based on the time of day you leave to minimize traffic impact. It allows you to see import all of your locations using an excel spreadsheet (if only more MSC platforms would offer an Excel export). You can set a hard stop time on your route and it’ll split it up into multiple days. When you get to a location on a route you hit the “check in” button and it automatically sends the next location to your gps.
Pretty powerful. Just kind of a steep learning curve.
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Seriously, nobody cares that you're offended.
Seriously, nobody cares that you're offended.
Yikes!!! "Steep learning curve" indeed! Too steep for me, I fear.
Although I did recently use Google Maps successfully, first time ever, LOL!!!
I tried it out of desperation - 100 miles from home, and I couldn't find my shop. I called my friend and told her where I was and asked for directions, and she tried to give them to me, but I was so lost, I turned around and headed back home. So she showed me how to use Google Maps.
Some of the pizza delivery guys use Waze. It's a free app.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2019 03:43PM by ceasesmith.
Although I did recently use Google Maps successfully, first time ever, LOL!!!
I tried it out of desperation - 100 miles from home, and I couldn't find my shop. I called my friend and told her where I was and asked for directions, and she tried to give them to me, but I was so lost, I turned around and headed back home. So she showed me how to use Google Maps.
Some of the pizza delivery guys use Waze. It's a free app.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2019 03:43PM by ceasesmith.
There was a thread over a year ago that discussed this. There were a couple of websites I tried out at the time.
Here is one:
[www.speedyroute.com]
I can't find where I book marked the other one. Not sure which one I used, but you would just put in all the addresses and it would optimize the route for you.
Here is one:
[www.speedyroute.com]
I can't find where I book marked the other one. Not sure which one I used, but you would just put in all the addresses and it would optimize the route for you.
@ceasesmith wrote:
Some of the pizza delivery guys use Waze. It's a free app.
You made me curious to checkout WAZE. Here's their tagline:
Get the best route in real time with help from fellow drivers
[www.waze.com]
Thanks for the tip!
Bilingual (Spanish<>English)
Waze is great for a single location. It's not a route-mapper.
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Seriously, nobody cares that you're offended.
Seriously, nobody cares that you're offended.
I still use Microsoft Streets and Trips 2013. A quick search shows you can pick up a copy on eBay for $15.
Waze is one of the most amazing apps, it saved us over 2 hours coming back to Philly from Oklahoma because there was an accident on the bridge and it literally told us moments before getting on to go another way. It won't work for routing, but it is an invaluable app to have, especially in highly populated cities. I love to use google maps to do routing. You might have to finagle it a little, but it's free and effective.
Shopping the South Jersey Shore
Road Warrior will send your next location to Waze when you're ready to go there. It'll also send to Google Maps or Apple Maps depending on which one you set as default. They have excellent support, too, which I've used several times because it's so unintuitive. And I consider myself to be very smartphone/tech savvy.
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Seriously, nobody cares that you're offended.
Seriously, nobody cares that you're offended.
I loved Mapquest when it was new and used it all the time. Now there's so much stuff all over the site it makes me dizzy. I don't think I would even be able to find the route function. All those ads, half-windows, shapes, colors, words and everything else that obscures the actual map scramble my brain. Grudgingly, I started using google maps, its easier to look at.
I also use Streets & Trips. Sure it's outdated but generally it's still fantastic. The biggest selling feature for me is that you can I put addresses from a spreadsheet. When I was doing a ton of gas stations on a shopmetrics platform I would have shopmetrics export my locations as an Excel file, import it into S&T. Visual map, routing, everything. I live that you can color code as well.
There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind
At the moment only demons come to mind
I feel like I should put streets and trips back on my new computer .... I haven’t used it in 10 years.
To be honest, my husband calls me Google Maps. The best trip planner is your own head. I follow these rules. I try not to A) go North through Atlanta (I don't do any assignments in Atlanta or too close to Atlanta. It's not worth my time. Takes entirely too long to go from A to B not worth my time.) I try to make a route into a loop that breaks up the long drives. 
I try to make stops 30 minutes to an hour between stops. [when going south and GPS says stop A is 30 minutes from stop B, it's 30 minutes. If you go North towards Atlanta and GPS the night before says it takes 1.5 hours to get to say Douglasville, you better leave at 10 AM and it better be a day shop because if you leave at 2 that same ride could take 3+hours -NOT FUN!] If I have Douglasville, it better be a nighttime and I better be going a different route (back highways) to another shop and Douglasville is the last stop at about 7 or 8 pm and by then the traffic has died down some and I can go home in 1.5 hours as predicted.
I try to make stops 30 minutes to an hour between stops. [when going south and GPS says stop A is 30 minutes from stop B, it's 30 minutes. If you go North towards Atlanta and GPS the night before says it takes 1.5 hours to get to say Douglasville, you better leave at 10 AM and it better be a day shop because if you leave at 2 that same ride could take 3+hours -NOT FUN!] If I have Douglasville, it better be a nighttime and I better be going a different route (back highways) to another shop and Douglasville is the last stop at about 7 or 8 pm and by then the traffic has died down some and I can go home in 1.5 hours as predicted.
I use a portable Garmin GPS that has multi stop routing as a feature. Not all of them have multi stop, but you can usually find them at reasonable pricing at club stores or online. The one I bought 2 years ago has free map updates.and real time traffic. More up to date than the built in GPS my car has.
When I plan my route, I can easily plug in the stops, and it will optimize the drive.
When I plan my route, I can easily plug in the stops, and it will optimize the drive.
Philadelphia Based, covering Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland
I love google maps. It's free and it remembers all my gas stations, maybe forever? Every one of them has a little star on the map. I am so familiar with the territory now that I hardly ever need routing software but I can just type the addresses in on google maps and then drag and drop them into the best order. I don't know why anyone would pay for software, it's so easy.
Google maps or map quest for multiple stops
I just type all the addresses into Google maps.
Then, I look at the visualization it provides and rearrange the shop orders manually to see which has the shortest route. In other words, if the addresses are NOT in a relatively linear path (i.e., they criss-cross and are all wavy and stuff), then I play around with the address orderings (it's as easy as dragging them on the list). USUALLY the most linear path is the shortest. Once you place in the shop addresses and order them, it'll automatically tell you the miles of the trip. If the most linear path is not the shortest, it's definitely something RELATIVELY linear USUALLY and not all criss-crossed. That just makes sense logically, as you're not retracing previous steps when driving. I plan around until I get a path that looks shortest.
I like Google Maps, as it's easy to use once you get the hang of it.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2019 07:35AM by shoptastic.
Then, I look at the visualization it provides and rearrange the shop orders manually to see which has the shortest route. In other words, if the addresses are NOT in a relatively linear path (i.e., they criss-cross and are all wavy and stuff), then I play around with the address orderings (it's as easy as dragging them on the list). USUALLY the most linear path is the shortest. Once you place in the shop addresses and order them, it'll automatically tell you the miles of the trip. If the most linear path is not the shortest, it's definitely something RELATIVELY linear USUALLY and not all criss-crossed. That just makes sense logically, as you're not retracing previous steps when driving. I plan around until I get a path that looks shortest.
I like Google Maps, as it's easy to use once you get the hang of it.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2019 07:35AM by shoptastic.
I love Google Maps too, but it has a 10-address limit.
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