Multiple depots, open routes, and reloadsCopy link

Routing24 supports several depots, routes that do not return to a depot, and vehicles that reload mid-route. All of this is available on every plan; only Reload depots is a Pro feature.

This tutorial plan has two hubs, each with its own van. The South van cannot fit all the orders on its side in one load, so it comes back to its hub, reloads, and goes out again:

Tutorial - Depots and reloads
A north and a south hub serving their own sides of the city, and a small south van that reloads mid-route to deliver more than it can carry.
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Multiple depotsCopy link

Add your depots on the Depots page. Then, in the Fleet editor, give each vehicle its Start Depot and Finish Depot. The optimizer decides which vehicle serves each order and picks whichever is cheapest. In the tutorial, that gives each van the orders near its own hub.

A depot also has opening hours and a per-visit handling time. They apply every time a vehicle is at the depot: at the start of the route, at the final return, and at every reload in between. Both tutorial hubs open 07:00 to 19:00 and take 10 minutes of handling per visit.

Open-ended routesCopy link

Leave the Finish Depot empty and the route ends at the last order. There is no return leg. This is how you route a contractor who heads home after the last stop, or a rental van that gets dropped off back at the rental company.

An empty Start Depot works the same way: the route begins at the first order. Leave both empty and the route runs from its first order to its last.

Reloads: several trips on one routeCopy link

By default a vehicle may return to its start depot mid-shift, load up again, and continue. Each return starts a new trip on the same route. The tutorial's South van holds 10 units, and the orders on its side add up to 18. The van delivers what it can, returns to the South hub, reloads, and delivers the rest. In the solution, the route card shows a ↻ Trip N divider at each reload, and the header metric switches from ROUTES to ROUTES / TRIPS.

Two fields in the Fleet editor's Depots group control reloading:

  • Max reloads: how many mid-route reloads are allowed. Empty means unlimited, 0 turns reloading off (single trip).
  • Reload depots (PRO): restricts which depots the vehicle may reload at. Empty means the vehicle reloads at its own start depot. The field only appears when reloads are possible.

A reload takes time: the vehicle drives back to the depot and spends the handling time there, and it can only do this while the depot is open. The optimizer weighs that time against putting another vehicle on the road, using the costs you set.

At a reload the vehicle unloads the pickups it has collected and loads the deliveries for its next trip. Cargo that is not going to the depot stays on the van: a transfer consignment that was picked up but not yet delivered, and goods moving along an order sequence. This cargo still takes up space on the next trip, so a vehicle can leave the depot with more on board than it loaded there. The reload stop shows the load carried through.

Single-trip vehicles

Set Max reloads to 0 for operations that run one trip per vehicle per day: food trucks, technicians with a fixed kit.

In spreadsheetsCopy link

The Vehicles sheet has Depot (start and finish in one column), Start depot, End depot (leave either empty for an open route on that side), Max reloads, and Reload depots. The Depots sheet has Handling time, Open from, and Open to. Full details in the column reference.

Next stepCopy link

The last of the fleet rules is order pairing: Pickup & delivery transfers.