How does route optimization work?

Route optimization in PoolPuma reorganizes the stops on a weekly route into a more efficient sequence, using your company dispatch address as the starting point. The goal is to cut the backtracking that creeps into a route sheet over months of adding and dropping accounts.

The important part is that it is a suggestion, not a silent rewrite. PoolPuma produces a proposed ordering, and a manager reviews it and explicitly applies it before anything about the live route changes. If the suggested order does not match what the technician knows about the neighborhood, gated communities, one-way streets, or an account that has to be first, you keep your own order. Nothing is forced on the route.

This assist depends on your company profile being filled in, especially the dispatch address, because the suggested order is measured from where trucks start the day. That is one reason PoolPuma asks owners to complete the company profile before leaning on optimization and daily reporting.

Route optimization is built so it degrades gracefully. It is an AI-assisted feature, and when the AI service is not configured or not available, you are not blocked: you order and reorder stops by hand, the same way you would on a paper sheet. The feature adds a smarter starting point when it is available rather than becoming a dependency the day depends on.

Two honest limits. This optimizes the order of stops on a route, not live turn-by-turn navigation, and it works on your recurring weekly route rather than re-solving a fresh plan every morning. It is a planning aid for the route sheet, applied on the manager’s terms.