SECTION 09

Routes

Pickup and drop-off route planning. The Routes page uses tabs (?tab=…); the legacy /admin/routes/default and /daily URLs redirect into them.

Default routes

/admin/routes (Default tab)

What it does — Your reusable, standing routes — the default order of stops for regular pickups/drop-offs.

Map & Optimize — One button per route card: the map, Optimize Routes, the driver, Capacity and the start point.
Capacity — Dogs per run for this van. A full run shows as Fully booked to customers on the route until a dog cancels.
Regular spaces — A button beside the search on Default Routes. Free regular spaces per route and weekday over the next 4, 8 or 12 weeks, so you know before you offer someone a fixed day.

How to use it

Build a route by drag-and-drop, then save it as the default.
You can also put a dog on a default route from its pet profile: open Collection & address, pick the route under Usual route and its place in Stop order, then press Save route. If this page is already open in another tab, reload it before you save here, or your save will put the dog back where it was.
Use Reset to default order to revert and Change route colour to label routes on the map.
Press 1–9 to jump to that route, and use the scroll bar under the routes (drag its white tab, or click the bar) to move along when you have more routes than fit on screen. You can hold a dog, press a route's number and drop it onto that route's card.
Each default route has a start point too: the line under Default Driver says where its runs start (Driver's home unless you change it). The pencil beside it opens the route's Map & Optimize window, where you choose Driver's home, Vehicle location, Driver's live location or Daycare. Day routes built from the default inherit it, and can still be changed for the day.
Map & Optimize on a route card opens the route on a map. The panel on the left has the driver, the route's Capacity, the start point and the stops; Optimize Routes above the stops puts them in the shortest order and saves it. A Save defaults button appears under the map when there is something to save.
Capacity is how many dogs the van takes on a run. Set it in the route's Map & Optimize window and press Save defaults; leave it blank for no limit. Once a day's collection or drop-off run has that many dogs, customers whose dog rides the route see the day as Fully booked until a dog cancels. Your team can still add dogs on Day Routes.
Regular spaces, the button beside the search, opens a window with each route that has a capacity against each weekday: the fewest spaces free on any of the next 4, 8 or 12 weeks, counted on whichever run is fuller. N free every week means a regular can have that day; Full 3 of 8 means some of those dates are full, and hovering it lists them. Closed days are left out.

A Default Routes card for Merrow & Burpham: Default Driver Nikki Rowe, the Starts at line with a pencil, the stops, and the Map & Optimize and Save buttons — A default route card. Map & Optimize, or the pencil, opens the route's map window.

The Map & Optimize window with the driver, Capacity 10, Starts at Default (Driver's home) and the Optimize Routes button above the stops — The map window: driver, Capacity, start point and Optimize Routes.

The Default Routes toolbar: the pet search, then the Regular spaces button, How routes work, Add Route and Save Defaults — Regular spaces sits beside the search on Default Routes.

Daily routes

Daily tab

What it does — Today's actual routes, starting from your defaults and adjusted for who's actually booked in. Evening drop-offs start as the morning run in reverse — a suggested order you are free to change. Each dog's card shows its address for that trip and the day's booking note, and clicking a dog opens its booking details.

Optimise starts where the driver does — The morning is solved as start point → pets → daycare, and the evening as daycare → pets → start point. By default that is the driver's home, so a driver living across town is no longer sent past the daycare first.
Choose the start point per route — Driver's home, Vehicle location, Driver's live location or Daycare, picked with the pencil on each route card or in its map window. Routes left on Default follow Settings › Collection & Drop-off.
Reverse is a suggestion — Evening drop-offs are seeded as the morning run backwards. Change the order freely — it is saved and will not be reset.
Additions follow your setup — A newly booked pet joins the route where the reverse-of-morning order puts it, without shuffling the stops you have arranged.
Saving wins over a driver reorder — Drivers may reorder their run and it sticks. If you then save the day, your order replaces theirs — the saved plan is the source of truth.
Morning changes carry to the evening — Rearrange the morning and the evening run follows, unless you have already placed a dog on a different evening route by hand.
Notes while you plan — Day notes show on the cards, with a count above the routes and the full text one click away.
Address warnings — Customer address changes for the day are flagged in orange above the routes and on the card, before drivers set off.
Route map — Every route opens in the same map style as Live tracking, with numbered stops, travel arrows and the run's start point.
Road routes — The route follows the real roads between stops. Turn it off for straight lines.
Map styles — Standard, Light or Dark, picked from three round previews. Light and Dark make the route easier to see.
Reorder and assign on the map — Drag stops into a new order, optimise the route and change its driver without leaving the map.
Number keys — Press 1–9 to jump the board to that route. Works with a dog held mid-drag too.
Scroll tab — A white tab in a scroll bar under the routes. Drag it, or click the bar, to move along the board. It shows which route number you are on.
Drag across the board — Hold a dog, press a route's number to bring that route into view, then drop the dog exactly where you want it.
Move button — The four-arrow button on a dog's card moves it to another route or back to Unassigned without dragging, which is handy on a phone. The dog goes to the end of the route it joins.
Date heat map — The date picker shades each day in amber by how many dogs are booked in, so busy days stand out before you pick one.
Updated by — Under a run's name: who last changed its stops and when. It shows after a driver re-orders from the app, and after you save a change to the stops. Saving the day still replaces a driver's order.
Close route for the day — Set a route to Fully booked or No transport for one day from the ⋯ menu on its card, under Close route for the day. Only that route's dogs are affected, only on that date, and nothing already booked changes.
Backup route email — Drivers get their runs by email from 6am, and a fresh copy when you change today's runs, in case the app is down.
Bus full — A route at its capacity shows 10/10 dogs in red. Customers on it see the day as Fully booked until a dog cancels; your team can still add dogs.

How to use it

Review and tweak the day's stops, and click Map & Optimize on a route to see it on a map and put its stops in an efficient order with Optimize Routes.
Optimise solves the run the way it is actually driven: the morning starts at the run's start point — the assigned driver's home unless you choose otherwise — calls at the pets and finishes at the daycare; the evening starts at the daycare and finishes at that start point. The first collection is therefore the one nearest where the driver actually sets off, not the one nearest the daycare.
Each route card says where its run starts, under the driver: Starts at (or Ends at on Drop-offs), the choice and the address behind it. Click the pencil to change it in the route's map window: Driver's home, Vehicle location, Driver's live location or Daycare. Leave it on Default and the route follows the setting under Settings › Collection & Drop-off › Where runs start.
Driver's home needs a full address with a postcode on the driver's team profile. Vehicle location uses the address you set in Settings › Collection & Drop-off; if there is none yet, the map window warns you and links straight to it. Driver's live location uses where the driver's phone last reported from, as long as that was in the last 30 minutes. If the chosen start cannot be placed, Optimise falls back to a daycare round trip and the message tells you why.
Evening drop-offs open in reverse of the morning pick-ups, because the last pet collected is usually the first one home. That is only a starting point — drag the stops into whatever order suits the run and it will be kept.
Pets booked in after you saved the day are added to the right route automatically, in the position the reverse-of-morning order suggests. Cancelled pets drop off on their own. Neither disturbs the order of the stops you have already arranged.
A drop-off stop for a pet with no morning pick-up — an overnight guest going home, for example — stays exactly where you place it.
Drivers can reorder their own run on the driver app, and their order is kept. Saving the day here replaces it, because the order you save is the one the day runs on.
See Driver app for what the driver sees at each stop, and for the record of who confirmed each pickup and drop-off.
Moving a dog to a different route on Morning Pickups moves its evening drop-off to the matching evening route too, so the afternoon run doesn't go back to how it was. If you had already put that dog on a different evening route yourself, your evening choice is kept.
Dogs with a booking note for the day show an amber envelope and the first line of the note on their card. The amber strip above the route cards counts the notes on the run; click a dog's name there to jump to its card.
Click a dog's name or address to open its booking details: service, collection or drop-off day, route, address, and the day's notes in full, labelled From the owner and From the team. From here you can also set a one-day address for that trip (see One-day collection & drop-off addresses).
If a customer has changed a collection or drop-off address for the day, an orange banner above the route cards lists the dogs affected, and their cards say Changed by customer.
Click Map & Optimize on a route card to open it in the same map style as Live tracking: your daycare, the run's start point (the driver's home or your vehicle) and each stop, numbered in order, with arrows showing the direction of travel.
Road Routes (on by default) draws the route along the real roads between the stops. Switch it off for straight lines between them, or switch on Hide Routes to see just the stops.
Pick a map style with the three round previews at the top right of the map: Standard, Light or Dark. Light and Dark tone the streets down so the route stands out.
Reorder the stops in the list on the left of the map: drag a stop by its row, or use the arrows beside it. The map redraws the route as soon as you drop it. Optimize Routes above the stops puts them in the shortest order and saves it; this is where you optimise a run.
The panel above the stops starts with a dropdown to give the route to a different driver (drivers who are not working that day are not offered). Under it, Capacity shows how many dogs are on the run against the bus's capacity, or the driver's own capacity when the route has none. Then the Starts at dropdown for where the run begins, with the address behind it, or a warning and a link to Settings when a vehicle location has not been set yet.
Changes made in the map are changes to the day like any other. A Save day routes button appears under the map when there is something to save.
The full screen button on the map expands the window to fill the screen, and the sidebar tucks away while the map is open. Press it again, or Esc, to go back.
Press 1–9 on your keyboard to jump the route board to that route: 1 for the first route, 2 for the second, and so on. It works on Day Routes and Default routes, and does nothing while you are typing in a box or have a window open.
The scroll bar under the routes has a white tab you can grab and drag to move along the board. Click anywhere on the bar to jump there. The tab shows the number of the route you are looking at, which is the key to press to come back to it. The bar only appears when there are more routes than fit on screen.
Holding a dog to drag it to a route that is off screen? Keep holding it and press the route's number. The board moves across and you can drop the dog straight onto that route's card, in whatever position you like. A note at the bottom of the screen reminds you the keys are live while you are holding a dog.
On a phone, or if you'd rather not drag, use the move button on the right of a dog's card (four arrows pointing to the corners). It lists your routes, plus Unassigned for a dog already on a route. Choose one and the dog goes to the end of that route. Press Save when you've finished.
The date button at the top shows a heat map when you open it: each day with dogs booked in is shaded in amber, and the busier the day, the deeper the colour. A small key under the calendar shows the scale, hovering a day tells you how many dogs, and the day you are viewing is shown in dark green.
When a driver re-orders a run from the Genera Driver app, the run shows "Updated by" their name and the time under its name, and you are sent a Route re-ordered by a driver notification (see Notifications). If you save a change to a run's stops yourself, it shows your name. The label also appears in Live tracking.
Close route for the day: if a driver can't work, open the ⋯ menu on their route card and, under Close route for the day, choose Set route to Fully booked or No transport on this route. Each option says what it does underneath. Fully booked means customers whose dog rides that route see the day as fully booked and can't add a booking. No transport means they can still book, but collection and drop-off are switched off and the booking form tells them to bring their dog in and collect themselves. Either way the dogs already on the run keep their bookings — the card says how many — so reassign the run or let their owners know. The same menu switches between the two or reopens the route. If the driver has time off booked, an amber notice on the card tells you to assign another driver or close the route from this menu; press × to hide it.
The ⋯ menu on each route card also holds Reset to default order, when you've changed the run from its default, and Delete route.
Backup route email: every driver working the day gets an email copy of their runs from 6am — the stops in order, owners' phone numbers, addresses as Google Maps links, keys and door codes, and the notes — plus an updated copy when you save a change to today's runs. It's for the day the app isn't working. Switch it off under Settings › Notifications › Driver route backup.
Bus capacity: when a route has a Capacity (set in its Map & Optimize window on Default Routes), its card shows the dogs on the run against it, for example 8/10 dogs. At capacity the count turns red with a Bus full note, and customers whose dog rides that route see the day as Fully booked until a dog cancels. You can still add a dog to a full run; the count then turns amber so you can move one to another route.

Day Routes for Fri 18 Sept with an orange customer address change banner, the 2 notes on this run strip, and the Wimbledon and Raynes Park route cards — Day Routes with an address change banner, the notes strip and the day's cards.

Booking details for Bella with the service, collection day, route, address and a note from the owner — Click a dog to open its booking details and full notes.

A route's Map & Optimize window on Day Routes: the driver Carl Jennings, Capacity 8 of 14 pets, Starts at Default (Driver's home), Optimize Routes above the eight stops, and the run drawn along the roads from the driver's home to the daycare — A route's map: the driver, capacity, start point and stops on the left, the road route on the map.

The same route map in the Dark style, with the blue route standing out against a dark map — The Dark style: the route stands out against a dark map.

Day Routes for Tue 3 Nov with the Guildford Town and Merrow & Burpham cards, each with Map & Optimize and Save buttons, and the scroll bar underneath with a white tab showing route 1 — Drag the white tab, or click the bar, to move along the routes. Press 1–9 to jump to a route.

The Day Routes date picker open on October with booked days shaded in amber and a key from 1 to 9 pets underneath — The date picker shades each day amber by how many dogs are booked in.

The top of the Guildford Town card on Day Routes: Carl Jennings as the assigned driver and the line Starts at, Driver's home (default), 10 Barrack Road, with a pencil at the end — Under the driver on every route card: where the run starts. The pencil opens the route's map window.

The route map window's side panel: the driver dropdown showing Carl Jennings, Capacity 8 of 14 pets, a Starts at dropdown reading Default (Driver's home), and the numbered stops under Optimize Routes — The Starts at dropdown in the route's map window. Default follows your Settings.

The same panel with Vehicle location selected and an amber warning reading No vehicle location set, so this run will be optimised from the daycare, with an Add it in Settings link — Vehicle location with no address yet: the warning links straight to Settings.

The ⋯ menu on the Guildford Town route card, open: Driver off today with Set route to Fully booked and No transport on this route, then Route with Delete route — The route card's menu: Driver off today, reset and delete.

The Guildford Town route card with a Fully booked chip and a note that owners whose pet is on the route see the day as Fully booked, with Switch to No transport and Reopen route links — A route set to Fully booked for the day.

The customer's booking form with both transport switches off and disabled, labelled No transport on your route this day, and a note that the daycare's transport isn't running on their route that day — No transport: what the customer sees when booking that day.

The driver route email on a phone, with the Woking collection run, Google Maps buttons and the first stops — The backup route email each driver gets.

The Merrow & Burpham card on Day Routes showing 10/10 dogs in red and a note reading Bus full: all 10 seats taken, with the Map & Optimize and Save buttons at the bottom — A full run: 10 of 10 seats taken.

One-day collection & drop-off addresses

Day Routes · Edit booking · Customer portal

What it does — Point one trip of a booking at a different address for that day only, without touching the pet's or owner's saved address. Useful when a dog is being collected from a relative's house, dropped at the owner's workplace, or anywhere that isn't home for a day. The collection and the drop-off are set separately, and both you and your customers can set them.

Only for that day — The address applies to one trip on one date. Other days, and the pet's and owner's records, keep the usual address. Nothing needs undoing afterwards.
Used everywhere the stop is placed — Day Routes cards, the route map, Optimize, the driver app (stops and map links), Live tracking and the Daily view. Optimize routes to the one-day address but never saves it over the pet's own.
How it looks — Cards show the one-day address with the usual one struck through. Amber means your team set it; orange with Changed by customer means the customer did. The driver app says Collect today from or Drop off today at.
What customers can't do — Customers cannot change a day that has already passed, or a trip the driver has already marked as collected or dropped off. Your team can change it at any time.
Notifications — Customer changes arrive in the bell, by push and by email. The email is on by default; switch it off under Settings › Notifications › Collection or drop-off address change.
Cancelled bookings — If the booking is cancelled, its one-day address no longer affects the routes.

How to use it

On Routes › Day Routes, choose Morning Pickups for a collection address or Evening Dropoffs for a drop-off address, then click the dog's name or address to open its booking details.
Under Collection address (or Drop-off address) press Different address. Search for the address to fill it in, or type it yourself, then press Save address. Addresses you type are pinned on the map automatically; if a pin can't be found, the driver still sees the address.
You can do the same from Edit booking, in the Different address for this day section. It covers every trip the booking has.
To go back to the normal address, open the booking details again and press Use usual.
Customers set it from their portal: they tap the day in their calendar, then the map-pin button on the booking. It applies straight away.
When a customer sets, changes or removes one, you get a Collection or drop-off address change notification, and Day Routes shows an orange banner above the route cards listing the dogs affected. Click a dog in the banner to jump to its card.
On a sleepover, the collection address belongs to the first day and the drop-off address to the last day of the stay.

Booking details for Biscuit: a warning that the customer changed the collection address to 12 Worple Road, SW19 4JS, with Use usual and Change address buttons — Booking details with a collection address the customer changed.

Day Routes with an orange banner listing Biscuit's changed collection address, and Biscuit's card showing the new address with the usual one struck through — The banner above the routes and the changed address on the card.

Live tracking

Tracking tab

What it does — Live driver tracking on a map during the run: each driver's position, their routes and the stops still to do. The list on the left shows every route, and the row above the map lets you hide the route lines or focus on one driver. You can draw routes along the real roads between stops, and choose a map style that makes them stand out.

Hide Routes switch — Hide the lines between stops without hiding the stops themselves.
Focus on one driver — Shows one driver's work and hides everyone else's, regardless of which routes are hidden in the list. Ending the focus puts your list choices back.
One-day addresses — Stops use the day's collection address when one is set, so the pin is where the driver is actually going.
Road Routes switch — Draws each route along the real roads. Turn it off for straight lines between stops.
Map styles — Standard, Light or Dark. Light and Dark make busy days easier to read.
Stop times — A stop that has been collected or dropped off shows when, next to its status.
Start point — The far end of a route's line follows the start point chosen for that run on Day Routes, so the map matches the plan.

How to use it

Watch drivers progress through their stops in real time. Stops the driver has confirmed are dimmed with a green tick.
Use the eye next to a route in the list on the left to hide or show that route on the map.
Switch on Hide Routes, next to the driver buttons above the map, to hide the lines and arrows between stops. The stops and their numbers stay, which makes a busy day easier to read. The map remembers this in your browser.
Click a driver's circle to show only that driver: their pin, their routes and their stops, with the map zoomed to them. Click the same driver again, or Show all, to see everyone. If the driver has no pickup route that day, the map tells you.
Where a customer or your team set a one-day collection address, the stop is pinned at that address and the list shows it as Today: followed by the address.
Switch on Road Routes, next to Hide Routes above the map, to draw each route along the real roads between its stops instead of straight lines. It is remembered in your browser.
Choose a map style with the three round previews beside it: Standard, Light or Dark. Light and Dark tone the streets down so the routes stand out. Your choice is remembered too.
When a driver confirms a stop, the list shows the time as well, for example Collected · 09:42 on pick-ups and Dropped off · 15:10 on drop-offs.
Each route's line starts (pick-ups) or ends (drop-offs) at the run's start point chosen on Day Routes: the driver's home, your vehicle location, or the daycare for a round trip. A run set to Driver's live location uses the driver's live pin instead.

Live tracking with the route list on the left, a route drawn along the roads on the Slate map style, and the Road Routes switch and four map style previews above the map — Live tracking with Road Routes on and the Slate map style.