Planning for Route Sort Rules

Route sort rules are a great way to send on demand orders to the routed side of X Dispatch. When an order is placed using an order type with a sort rule configured (on the pickup, delivery, or both addresses), the zip code for the address is used to find a route match, moving the order onto a route. Route sort rules can also be used for importing route stops through an integration to allow route assignment based on the time of day or day of the week.

Example

A customer is unable to support an integration to create route stops and prefers to have orders placed online. When the client places an order online, the order is automatically assigned to a route using route sort rules, based on the order type and address details.

Step 1: Identify which orders need to be sorted to a route

List the criteria of the orders that need to be sorted to a route.

Example

• All orders for specific zip code(s) placed after 11pm need to be placed on tomorrow’s routes.

• Orders that come in before 8am will need to be placed on AM routes, orders that come in after 12pm but before 4pm will need to be placed on PM routes. Orders that come in after 4pm will need to be placed on tomorrow’s AM route.

• Every order using a specific order type that comes in during a set time period needs to be assigned to a specific route each day (override route).

Step 2: Identify the order type(s) that need to be sorted to a route

Route sort rules are determined by order types and are not customer specific.

Step 3: Identify the attribute that will differentiate the stops that will be sorted

Route sort rules are based on the zones/zip codes and the day(s) of the week and time(s) of the stops. Attributes to sort stops can be categorized as the following:

• Zip codes

• Zip codes plus 4

• Street addresses

• Geozones

• Time windows

• Days of the week

• Pickup, delivery, or both - Whether the order should be placed on a route based on the pickup and/or delivery information.

• Route - The route that the stops should be sorted to.

Example

Step 4: Identify how many route sort rules are needed

The number of route sort rules needed depends on the days and times of your route sort rules. You will need a route sort rule for the pickup and/or delivery for each order type but, you can use the same order type if the time windows and the routes they should sort to are the same.

Example

Order Types

I want the “Same Day” order type to sort only on pickup, the “Standard” order type to sort on both pickup and delivery, and the “Rush” order type to sort on delivery.

Route Sort Rules

• Orders that come in before 8am will need to be placed on AM routes, orders that come in after 12pm but before 4pm will need to be placed on PM routes.

• All orders for specific zip code(s) placed after 11pm need to be placed on tomorrow’s routes.

• Every order that comes in (for a specific order type) during a set time period needs to be assigned to a specific route each day (override route).

Zones

I want the orders for zip code zone 85004 that come in before 8am to be on ROUTE1A and orders after 12pm but before 4pm to be on ROUTE 1B. Orders that are in the N Central street zone should be on ROUTE2. If the order type is the same, only one route sort rule would be needed.