Fleet Routing and Dispatch for Fleet Managers Training Course

Course overview

Fleet managers are expected to meet delivery windows, control kilometres and fuel use, protect driver hours compliance, and respond quickly when vehicles, orders, or customer priorities change. Yet many daily routing decisions still rely on dispatcher experience, static spreadsheets, and incomplete visibility of vehicle capacity, traffic, service time, and driver availability. This course gives fleet managers a structured way to turn delivery demand and operating constraints into workable, defensible dispatch plans.

Participants learn how to define route-planning inputs, segment delivery territories, build vehicle and driver profiles, calculate capacity and time constraints, and select routing methods suited to their operation. The course covers fixed routes, dynamic daily routing, multi-stop delivery sequencing, backhaul planning, exception management, and dispatch control. Participants use Microsoft Excel Solver and Google OR-Tools concepts to compare routing scenarios, and examine how ArcGIS Network Analyst and Geotab MyGeotab support geographic planning and execution visibility.

Teaching combines instructor-led demonstrations with realistic fleet data: orders, depot locations, vehicle capacities, driver shifts, service-time requirements, and delivery windows. Participants work through a five-day distribution case in which demand changes, a vehicle becomes unavailable, and urgent deliveries must be accommodated. They leave with a practical Fleet Routing and Dispatch Playbook containing a route-planning data template, dispatch decision rules, KPI dashboard specification, exception escalation process, and a 30-day implementation plan for their own fleet.

The course is suited to managers responsible for owned, leased, or contracted delivery fleets in retail distribution, FMCG, manufacturing, field service, construction supply, and third-party logistics operations.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Map delivery demand, depot locations, vehicle capacities, driver shifts, and service constraints into a route-planning input file
• Calculate route capacity, utilisation, distance, service-time, and delivery-window feasibility using spreadsheet models
• Apply vehicle routing problem methods to sequence multi-stop deliveries and assign loads to suitable vehicles
• Configure dispatch rules for priority orders, cut-off times, backhauls, vehicle restrictions, and driver-hours limits
• Use Microsoft Excel Solver to compare baseline and optimised routing scenarios against defined operating constraints
• Interpret route, stop, idle-time, and driver-performance data from telematics and dispatch-system reports
• Design an exception-management workflow for delays, breakdowns, failed deliveries, and same-day order changes
• Produce a Fleet Routing and Dispatch Playbook with KPIs, escalation rules, planning templates, and implementation actions

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Fleet Managers — who own service, cost, utilisation, safety, and driver-performance results across delivery operations
• Transport Managers — who must convert customer demand into compliant daily vehicle and driver plans
• Dispatch Managers — who coordinate real-time route changes and need consistent decision rules for controllers
• Distribution Centre Managers — who need vehicle arrival, loading, and departure plans aligned with warehouse cut-off times
• Logistics Managers — who evaluate fleet capacity, transport cost, and service trade-offs across distribution networks
• Last-Mile Operations Supervisors — who manage high-stop urban delivery activity and failed-delivery exceptions

Requirements and prerequisites

This is a foundation-to-intermediate course and does not require previous optimisation training or programming experience. Participants should be comfortable reading basic operational reports and using spreadsheets for sorting, filtering, and simple formulas. Familiarity with their organisation’s delivery process, fleet types, customer service windows, and driver shift arrangements will help them apply the exercises quickly. A laptop with Microsoft Excel is strongly recommended for the modelling activities. Experience with a transport management system, telematics platform, GIS software, or Solver is useful but not required; complete beginners can participate and will start with core routing concepts.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led sessions to introduce routing logic, followed by guided modelling and dispatch exercises using a common distribution case. Participants build route-planning data in Excel, test constrained scenarios with Solver and Google OR-Tools examples, and interpret geographic and telematics outputs from ArcGIS Network Analyst and MyGeotab demonstrations. Small groups make dispatch decisions when orders, vehicles, and delivery windows change. Each day ends with a practical output that is incorporated into an individual Fleet Routing and Dispatch Playbook and implementation plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Fleet routing foundations and operating data

• Distribution fleet operating model and dispatch decision cycle
• Delivery demand profiling by stop volume, geography, service window, and order priority
• Vehicle master data including payload, cube, temperature, access, and operating restrictions
• Driver availability, shift patterns, break rules, and practical hours constraints
• Route cost components: fixed vehicle cost, fuel, distance, time, overtime, and failed deliveries
• Service-time standards for loading, travel, waiting, unloading, and proof of delivery
• Route-planning data-quality checks and assumptions register

Workshop: Participants audit a sample fleet data set and produce a route-planning input sheet with documented assumptions and data gaps.

Day 2: Route design, territory planning, and load assignment

• Territory design using depot proximity, customer clusters, and road-network constraints
• Fixed, flexible, milk-run, and dynamic routing models
• Vehicle routing problem structure: nodes, depot, demand, capacity, and distance matrix
• Multi-stop delivery sequencing and stop-density trade-offs
• Load-building rules for weight, volume, product compatibility, and delivery order
• Backhaul, return-load, and empty-kilometre reduction opportunities
• ArcGIS Network Analyst route and service-area analysis concepts

Workshop: Participants create delivery territories and assign customer loads to a constrained fleet, producing a first-pass daily route map.

Day 3: Optimisation methods and route scenario analysis

• Microsoft Excel Solver model setup for vehicle assignment and route-cost minimisation
• Decision variables, objective functions, and operational constraints in routing models
• Google OR-Tools vehicle routing solver concepts and solution parameters
• Time-window constraints and penalties for late or early arrivals
• Scenario comparison for fleet size, capacity, service promise, and overtime
• Sensitivity analysis for demand peaks, traffic variation, and vehicle unavailability
• Optimisation limitations and dispatcher validation of mathematically feasible plans

Workshop: Participants run baseline and constrained routing scenarios in Excel Solver and produce a comparison of cost, kilometres, utilisation, and service feasibility.

Day 4: Dispatch execution and real-time exception control

• Daily dispatch-board design and route release controls
• Driver briefing requirements: route sequence, delivery instructions, safety, and customer constraints
• Geotab MyGeotab trip, idling, geofence, and exception-reporting features
• Event-based dispatch response for traffic delays, missed slots, breakdowns, and refusals
• Same-day order insertion and priority-delivery decision rules
• Proof-of-delivery, failed-delivery, and reverse-logistics control points
• Driver communication protocols and escalation authority matrix

Workshop: Teams manage a live dispatch simulation and produce an exception log, revised route plan, and customer communication actions.

Day 5: Performance management and implementation

• Fleet routing KPI definitions for cost per stop, kilometres per drop, utilisation, and on-time delivery
• Route plan-versus-actual variance analysis using telematics and proof-of-delivery data
• Driver-hours, idle-time, and route-adherence performance measures
• Weekly route review cadence and cross-functional performance meeting agenda
• Root-cause analysis of recurring service failures and unplanned kilometres
• Dispatch standard operating procedure and control-document design
• Thirty-day routing improvement roadmap and change-management actions

Workshop: Participants complete and present their Fleet Routing and Dispatch Playbook, including KPI measures, SOP actions, and a 30-day implementation plan.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel Solver, Google OR-Tools, ArcGIS Network Analyst, Geotab MyGeotab

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions