Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
General
Why do you need RouteSmart?
RouteSmart solutions solve the most complex routing challenges. Our advanced routing algorithms help you reduce costs, enhance safety, and create efficiencies for our community of clients in the public works, newspaper, utilities and local/postal delivery industries.
What solutions do you offer?
- RouteSmart for ArcGIS, our flagship on-premise solution, solves your everyday routing needs with a comprehensive suite of vehicle routing tools that model the unique constraints of routing high-density residential and commercial service workloads.
- RouteSmart Routing as a Service®(RaaS) creates better solutions, faster. RaaS hosted web services let you build geographically compact, logical and balanced workloads in a fraction of the time it takes other systems to build less efficient routes.
- RouteSmart Online for Newspaper uses advanced solvers, engineered and refined over decades of working with newspaper clients in both home delivery and single copy routing operations, to automate and optimize daily routing processes from your desktop or mobile device.
- RouteSmart Navigator is the only in-cab device that is powerful enough for high-density routing solutions and the only system that can guide crews via the same street data used during route planning. View crew progress in real-time and enable exception reporting. A great way to train new drivers and enable substitute drivers to navigate routes efficiently.
- RouteSourcing allows us to complete rerouting projects for you and leverage decades of our industry expertise. Projects can range from targeting a limited geographic meter reading area to a complete redesign of the cycles/workdays, routes and sequences for every meter in your service territory.
How long have you been in business?
We have been providing outstanding routing solutions for more than four decades. We have grown from a few individuals at the University of Maryland to a world leader in providing route optimization solutions for businesses. Our staff expertise is based in operations research, management science and analytics. We have combined our academic relationships with elite universities and more than 40 years of client experience to develop and deliver vehicle and workforce routing solutions that are proven in the real-world operating environments of our clients.
Who are your clients?
Our sophisticated routing technology benefits both public and private entities in the public works, newspapers, utilities, and postal/local delivery industries. We work with some of the largest firms in the world, handing large-scale routing operations. We also serve small-to-midsize businesses, as well as government entities. Our scalable routing solutions have been deployed everywhere from small businesses with a desire to grow to large enterprise organizations searching for ways to streamline national operations. Some of our clients include U.S. Postal Service, FedEx Ground, Posti, Australia Post, Ontrac, Swiss Post and DX.
Where do you operate?
RouteSmart is based in Columbia, Maryland, but our clients span the globe with a heavy presence in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Our community of clients operates in large cities as well as small towns and rural areas, solving complex, high-density routing challenges.
Our global network of resellers provides our clients with local knowledge to speed implementation and improve our clients’ return on investment (ROI).
What is the RouteSmart difference?
Through our relationship-driven process, we provide our community of clients with the most intelligent routing solutions to ensure safe and efficient operations. Using our advanced algorithms, companies and organizations can significantly reduce their delivery and manpower costs, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Our routing solvers consider far more details than other solutions, including side-of-street service requirements, vehicle turns and maneuvering capabilities, historic traffic patterns and other factors to not only build efficient routes but safer routes as well.
We rely on our technology partners like Esri and HERE and industry-specific partners to provide best-in-class solutions and give our clients advantages that other solutions cannot match. Our integration with these industry-leading systems proved faster to implement and provided real-world returns that unified systems can’t.
What kind of training do you offer?
Our highly effective onboarding process sets our clients up for success and helps them achieve their routing goals as quickly as possible. Our training process allows clients to learn at their own pace, either in a classroom setting or in a virtual format. In addition to onboarding, RouteSmart offers its community of clients ongoing learning opportunities through skill building webinars, certification exams and personalized training.
After initial onboarding, our clients can take advantage of Routing University to keep their skills current and discover the latest application functionality. Designed to fit within your busy schedule, we offer numerous training options that you can choose to take onsite at our office or your location. Customized training agendas are also available to meet your unique business requirements.
We also encourage our clients to become Certified Routing Professionals of RouteSmart for ArcGIS and RouteSmart Online for Newspapers. By doing so, you join an exclusive and accomplished group of experts who have successfully demonstrated a mastery of our robust capabilities. Certification comes with a range of benefits and best of all, there is no cost to take the exam and achieve certification.
Do you offer technical support?
Once our clients are up and running, our dedicated team of routing technology professionals is available to answer questions and solve any routing challenges you may have. Unlike many in the industry, you can talk to an actual person. Clients who are current on their maintenance plan speak directly with a team member via phone and web meeting. For users of RouteSmart for ArcGIS, RaaS and RouteSmart Online, we provide direct access to live technical support representatives Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6 p.m., ET. After hours, you can submit 24/7 through My RouteSmart or Initiate a support incident via email to support@routesmart.com. Learn more on our Services & Support page.