Schedules can be give a fixed position that will guide the schedules's stop positioning.
Schedules can be given a fixed position. The fixed positioning declared in schedules are used when creating brand new routes for that truck. The system saves routes for the next 30 days. Brand new routes are created every day, overnight, for the new 30th day. A schedule going on to a brand new route will have its stop locked into the position that is declared on the schedule. If more than one schedule shares the exact same fixed position, only one schedule will actually be placed into the correct position when creating a new route. The other schedules will be bumped down to the next position. A chain reaction could occur. As an example, lets say two schedules are set to be locked into position 10 and both are going on to the same new route. One of the two will go to position 11. If another schedule is set to be locked into position 11, that schedule will then be locked into the new route's 12 position, etc. This chain reaction idea is the standard operating procedure whenever such a conflict occurs, and it will be referenced throughout this article.
Use Cases - Placing Certain Schedules at the Beginning or End of Routes
This fixed positioning of schedules can be used sparingly. As an example, you may have a particular customer who you always want to be serviced as early in the day as possible. You can lock their schedule into fixed position #1, then any time that schedule appears on a route it will automatically be locked into position #1. See our general routing help article for more info on how reoptimizations work with only one locked stop in place: https://support.compliancepublishing.com/knowledge/how-does-routing-work.
A fixed position can also be locked toward the end of a route. If you want to lock it at the very end of a route, you would need to estimate how many stops are on a typical route for that truck and then add more to it. For instance, if you anticipate that Truck ABC usually has 25 stops on its routes and you want to always lock a certain schedule to the end of those routes, you could give the schedule a fixed position of 50 or more. It doesn't matter what you make the fixed position, as long as it is more than the number of stops on a route, then the system will place it at the end of the route.
It is important to realize that adjusting the stops on a particular route that includes this schedule could lead to some issues. For instance, lets say ABC Truck has a route of 25 stops on 1/1, and the last stop on that route is actually set for position 100. If you adjust that route and save it in Routing (1 Day w/ Map) or Routing (Date Range), the system will not see the last stop as position 100, it will see it as position 25 and save that stop as such. Stop 100 just became stop 25. That could lead to other stops eventually being placed below the stop that you want to happen last, if those stops happen to end up placed at position 26 or higher, for just that one route that was adjusted.
Use Cases - Planning Entire Routes
The fixed positioning of schedules can also be used to lock entire planned routes into place, when you know the routes don't change. For example, if you run an entire route of weekly schedules every Tuesday using one particular truck, and you want those stops to be handled in a certain order, you can set a fixed position for every schedule that makes up that route.
Problems can occur when mixing in other schedule frequencies. Using our previous example, all of the schedules may be weekly, but then you may add one schedule on to that recurring route that is every other week. That means that half the time the odd schedule will not appear on the route. It is recommended to still give that odd schedule the proper fixed position, but that fixed position may not get automatically adjusted up and down by the system the same way that the related weekly schedules get adjusted when any schedule editing, adding, or deleting occurs. It is all dependent on the Next Pickup Date of the schedule. If the next pickup date of the odd schedule does not match the next pickup date of the schedule being edited, added, or deleted, the odd schedule will not have its fixed position updated.
How Schedule Changes, Additions, and Deletions Affect Related Schedules
When a schedule has a fixed position declared for the first time (this would be a new schedule or an existing schedule that did not previously have a fixed position declared), related schedules of other customers and any affected saved routes (routes for the next 30 days) could be adjusted accordingly.
A new schedule could cause a chain reaction of fixed positioning adjustments. For example, if you create a new schedule and give it a fixed position of 10, the system will see if any other schedules exist with the same truck, next pickup date, and exact same fixed position. If so, that schedule will then be bumped down to position 11. The schedule in position 11 gets bumped to 12, etc. Every position below 10 will be bumped down one spot. Here is where the problem of different schedule frequencies plays in. Lets say the schedule you just created is a weekly schedule. If a related monthly schedule exists with a fixed position below 10, but its next pickup date is not the same as the schedule that was just created, that monthly schedule will not have its fixed position automatically updated. That repositioning will have to be done manually.
Sticking with our example scenario, that new schedule, if it is going to be serviced in the next 30 days, would also affect already existing routes. Stops for that schedule will be placed on routes in the locked position that you declared, even if the route is for today. Another chain reaction, with the same behavior, involving stops on routes would occur in order to make room for the new schedule.
When an existing schedule with a fixed position has its fixed position changed, a slightly different chain reaction would occur. For example if you edit a schedule so it goes from fixed position 5 down to fixed position 10, and a schedule is already fixed into position 10, all schedules fixed into positions between 5 and 10 will have a chain reaction change to fill in the gaps between 5 and 10. In this case schedules would have their fixed positions moved up accordingly. 10 becomes 9, 9 becomes 8, all the way up to 6 becoming the new 5. The same premise will occur with any existing routes that the schedule appears on. If there was not already a schedule fixed into position 10, no chain reaction would occur.
As the system processes a scheduling adjustment that involves the fixed position, any instances of that schedule appearing on a future route will get removed. The system will then place new stops of the schedule on to routes as appropriate, locking them into the fixed position, with the appropriate chain reaction of locked stops taking place if there is already a stop locked into the position that the new stop will be entering. If a schedule change only involves the fixed position, and the schedule is set to be picked up today, the change will not affect the route for today. The stop on today's route will not be placed into the desired locked position. This helps cut down on driver confusion as the route is being run. The route for today can be manually maneuvered after the schedule change, if you so desire.
When a schedule with a fixed position gets deleted, chain reactions will occur with related schedules. For example, a schedule with a fixed position of 10 is deleted, the system will find all schedules with the same truck and next pickup date, with a fixed position below 10, and move each one up a spot. 11 becomes 10, 12 becomes 11, etc.
Anytime a schedule of any kind gets deleted, not just schedules with a fixed position, a chain reaction will occur in routes that the schedule was a part of. For example, if a stop in position 10 of a route gets deleted, due to a schedule being deleted, all stops below position 10 will slide up one spot to compensate.
The same logic is applied if a schedule with a fixed position is moved to a different truck or has its next pickup date changed. Think of it as the schedule in its previous state has been deleted. Other related schedules of that "deleted" schedule will move up one spot. And any routes that the "deleted" schedule was on will have its stops moved up a spot to compensate.