A lot of modest businesses brainstorm route planning by looking at tools like Google Maps Route Planner or Mapquest Road Planner for deliveries. They're great products from some great brands and they can piece of work pretty well when you have a pocket-sized number of stops for deliveries.

Mapquest Route Planner is a route optimization planning tool built by Mapquest and launched back in 1996. Here are some resource to help you go started using their website, but you should keep in mind a few things before using the Mapquest Route Planner for your deliveries.

For one thing, you lot tin only plan a route for ane driver at a time. If you're doing your own deliveries, this won't matter, but if yous need to acceleration multiple drivers, yous volition detect making routes and getting them to your drivers can take hours and hours of fourth dimension.

You are also express to a maximum of 26 stops per route. If you need more destinations, you are unfortunately out of luck. EasyRoutes Pro allows up to 50 stops.

There is no way to factor in other of import aspects of routing, such as commuter breaks, delivery fourth dimension windows, vehicle load capacity, etc.

If you are not dissuaded by the limitations, here'southward a quick guide to how to use MapQuest.

1. Input your Addresses

With Mapquest, you have three options for inputting addresses.

Line by Line: This method gives you several fields to enter in your addresses. As y'all type them in, Mapquest will cross-reference them with their database to offer suggestions to assistance with accuracy.

Once you accept entered an address, click on the "Add another end" link to repeat the process up to a limit of 26 stops.

Copy and paste address

Re-create and Paste: This method allows you to paste your addresses into 1 big textbox. If you lot take a list of addresses, this is an like shooting fish in a barrel way to input them in to Mapquest. But select your list, re-create information technology to your clipboard, and and so paste it into this input box.

Import spreadsheet

Import: Import allows you lot to input addresses by uploading a spreadsheet. You lot can drag and drop your file into the box in order to upload information technology, or yous can click the "Browse" button to locate it on your device. You will need to format your spreadsheet in a very specific way for Mapquest to be able to read it.

EasyRoutes is directly integrated with Shopify and your orders, so you don't need to do annihilation! Your orders will simply show upwards in EasyRoutes for y'all to select and road.

2. Select your Route Options

Now you can select some route options. Here you tin can inquire Mapquest to optimize the route by altitude or fourth dimension which is great depending on your business goals and strategy. You lot tin can also allow Mapquest to reorder your stops, and you can select the option to make the route a circular trip. You lot can likewise toggle a bunch of different settings to avoid different kinds of roads.

3. Dispatch your route to your driver

Once you take fabricated your route and you are happy with it, you can share the route with your driver. Mapquest lets yous practice this over social media, or by sending it to a mobile number or email. Yous tin can also copy a direct link to your clipboard.
Once a link has been created, it will alive on forever. Y'all should consider that these routes contain private customer information.

With EasyRoutes, whatsoever shared links y'all create volition auto-expire after 48 hours, then y'all never need think most deactivating links after routes are created.

Which is meliorate, Google Maps or Mapquest road planner for deliveries?

Google Route Planner and Mapquest Route Planner are both good route planning tools for a home delivery business organization with a limited number of drivers and a limited number of stops.

Mapquest offers a bit more in terms of route optimization options, and offers more stops (upwardly to 26, while Google Maps works with up to 10 stops). Nevertheless, Google Maps is known for information technology's simplicity of use, and let's yous drag pins and routes.

EasyRoutes is the best of both worlds, but with the added benefit of allowing for upward to 50 stops, and much meliorate handling of multiple drivers.

Road planning can be complicated…or easy with EasyRoutes.

At EasyRoutes we live, eat, and breathe deliveries and routing, and we know that creating effective delivery routes can take hours of time to do every calendar week. We know that efficiency is central to any business, so we offer the least amount of friction for turning your Shopify orders into Shopify commitment routes.

Get EasyRoutes Multi-Stop Route Planning Tool on the Shopify App Store

Get the EasyRoutes Multi-Terminate Route Planner on the Shopify App Store. Y'all tin acquire more than nearly EasyRoutes on our website.