It is Monday morning and Thursday’s schedule already looks like a puzzle. There are eight draft jobs, all with placeholder times. One is in the north of town, one in the south and three are clustered in the centre. Which should go first? How long will it take to drive between them in real traffic? If the first job finishes at 10.30, what time should you tell the next customer?
Working this out by hand takes time, and every bad guess means a late cleaner, wasted fuel or an unhappy customer. ProCleanerUK’s intelligent route planner does it for you. This guide explains how it works.
From draft jobs to a planned day
Step 1: Start with your draft jobs
Begin with the jobs you need to schedule for a day, with placeholder times. They can be in any order.
Step 2: Choose how the planner should think
Not every day is the same, so the planner offers three optimisation modes.
Step 3: Generate the route
The planner works out the order and, importantly, calculates and sets the actual start time for each job, taking into account travel time and how long each job takes.
The three optimisation modes
Balanced route
When to use it: your everyday choice, when the order of jobs does not matter.
What it does: finds the most logical, time-efficient route to get all the jobs done, keeping both drive time and distance down.
Ideal for: standard domestic rounds and most commercial cleaning days.
Shortest path
When to use it: when time on site is very short and most of the day is driving.
What it does: calculates the shortest distance to visit every stop.
Ideal for: quick checks, key collections or drop-offs across many locations.
Keep stop order
When to use it: when the order is fixed, for example by customer appointments.
What it does: keeps your order and calculates realistic times and travel between each stop.
Ideal for: days built around fixed appointments.
Real times, not guesses
The most useful part is that the planner does not just reorder the list. It works out when each job should actually start, so the schedule reflects reality. Customers can be given realistic times, and when cleaners press Start Journey, customers see when they are on the way.
What it saves
- Your time: no more manual mapping on a Monday morning.
- Travel: less driving, lower fuel costs and less wear on vehicles.
- Lateness: realistic times mean fewer late arrivals.
- Stress: cleaners get a day that makes sense.
Our guide to measuring what the route planner saves shows how to put a figure on it.
Working with the rest of scheduling
The route planner works alongside the Availability Finder, which shows who is free near a job, drag and drop for quick changes and late start alerts for jobs that have not started 15 minutes after their scheduled time. Our guide to availability and route planning together explains how they combine.
Choosing the right mode for the day
Most days, balanced route is the right choice. Switch to keep stop order when a customer has asked for a specific time slot, or when a commercial site has a strict access window, so the planner respects your order and simply calculates realistic times around it. Shortest path suits days that are mostly travel, such as dropping off or collecting keys and equipment across several sites. If you are not sure, try balanced first and compare.
Lunch and breaks
Good routes leave room for breaks. Check that each cleaner’s planned day includes a sensible pause, especially on longer days, so they are not rushing from job to job without stopping.
Planning commercial days
Commercial cleaning often has strict access windows, such as before opening or after closing. Use keep stop order for those days, or fix those jobs first and plan domestic work around them. Custom Weekly Pattern holds the right times for contracts with different work on different days, so the planner always works with accurate windows.
What cleaners notice
Cleaners notice the difference quickly. Their day follows a sensible path, start times are realistic and they spend less time in traffic. Fewer late arrivals mean fewer awkward conversations with customers, and finishing on time makes the job easier to keep doing.
Tips for the best results
- Check addresses are pinned correctly on the map.
- Set realistic durations for each job.
- Use keep stop order for days with fixed appointments.
- Review the plan with local knowledge, such as parking and school traffic.
- Ask cleaners for feedback on their routes.
Our guide to getting more from your route planner has more tips.
An example
A cleaner has six domestic jobs on Thursday, entered as drafts with placeholder times. The office selects the jobs, chooses balanced route and generates the plan. The planner orders the jobs from north to south, sets start times based on travel and job length and leaves a sensible gap for lunch. The cleaner sees the new day in the staff app, and customers’ reminders show the right times. What used to take twenty minutes of guesswork takes a minute.
Why manual planning goes wrong
Even experienced schedulers find it hard to work out the best order for more than a handful of jobs. The number of possible orders grows very quickly, and the obvious route on a map is not always the fastest once traffic, one-way systems and job lengths are factored in. Manual plans also tend to use round-number start times that do not reflect real travel, which is why cleaners end up running late by the afternoon. The planner handles all of that in seconds.
Planning for several cleaners
On busy days, you may have jobs to plan across several cleaners. Assign jobs to cleaners first, using the Availability Finder to see who is free nearby, then run the planner for each cleaner’s day. If one cleaner’s day looks much longer than another’s, move a job and re-run the plan.
When plans change during the day
Days rarely go exactly to plan. A customer cancels, a job runs long or a cleaner is ill. Move jobs with drag and drop and re-run the route for the affected cleaners. Cleaners see the updated order and times in their app, and customers’ reminders reflect the changes.
Fuel and vehicle costs
Every unnecessary mile costs fuel and adds wear to vehicles. Over a year, efficient routes can make a real difference to running costs, especially for businesses with several vans. Mileage logged in the staff app shows the trend.
Common route planning mistakes
- Leaving jobs with placeholder times.
- Using unrealistic job durations.
- Ignoring fixed customer times.
- Never reviewing routes as customers change.
- Planning routes but not telling customers their new times.
- Ignoring cleaners’ feedback about parking and traffic.
Plan smarter days
The intelligent route planner, with balanced, shortest path and keep stop order modes, is included on every ProCleanerUK plan, alongside the Availability Finder, live journeys and late start alerts. Start your 28-day free trial and plan your next day in one click, or book a free demo and we will show you the planner in action. For the bigger picture, read our guide to cleaning company route planning.
FAQs
What does the intelligent route planner do?
It orders a day’s jobs efficiently and sets the actual start time for each one, based on travel and job length.
What are the three optimisation modes?
Balanced route, shortest path and keep stop order.
When should I use keep stop order?
When the order is fixed, for example by customer appointments.
Does it set real job times?
Yes. It calculates and sets the start time for each job.
Is the route planner included on every plan?
Yes. Every ProCleanerUK plan includes every feature.