Zone Mapping

Build custom geographic territories to prevent out-of-bounds scheduling and reduce excess mileage

With Zone Mapping, The Fleet Owner can define geographic service zones so they can restrict scheduling to territories — resulting in reduced out-of-bounds mileage.

The Problem

The Core Problem
Without geographic boundaries in the system, dispatchers unknowingly send drivers across zones, wasting deadhead miles and reducing in-zone capacity.
The Scenario
An established provider serves a 3-county metro area with 40 vehicles. Dispatchers sometimes assign a driver based in the north zone to a trip 45 miles south because the system has no concept of territory boundaries.
Why It's Urgent
Cross-zone assignments add 30 to 60 minutes of deadhead driving. The driver is unavailable for in-zone trips during that time, reducing total trip capacity. Fuel costs for cross-zone runs eat directly into margins.
Without MediRoutes
Create a manual rule sheet that dispatchers reference. North zone drivers handle north trips, south zone handles south. This depends on dispatcher discipline and falls apart during peak demand when exceptions are constant.
With MediRoutes
Define geographic zones by zip code groups. The routing engine respects zone boundaries during AutoSchedule and manual assignment. Cross-zone trips are flagged as exceptions requiring dispatcher approval.

Who This Helps

The Fleet Owner
Needs to control operating costs by keeping vehicles within their assigned territories.
Frustrations
  • No system-level way to enforce geographic boundaries
  • Cross-zone deadhead mileage erodes margins
  • Cannot measure which zones are underserved or overserved
Pain Points
  • 30 to 60 minutes wasted per cross-zone assignment
  • Fuel costs for deadhead miles with no revenue
Ideal Workflow
Define zones once, have the routing engine enforce them, see utilization metrics by zone
The Dispatcher
Builds routes and sometimes sends drivers across zones when they cannot easily tell which trips belong to which territory.
Frustrations
  • No visual map of zone boundaries during scheduling
  • Hard to tell when a trip is outside a driver's zone
  • Peak demand forces cross-zone assignments with no tracking
Pain Points
  • Cross-zone trips delay other in-zone pickups
  • No data to justify adding capacity to underserved zones
Ideal Workflow
See zone boundaries on the scheduling map, get warnings before cross-zone assignments

How It Works

Each step shows what happens when things go right — and what MediRoutes does when they don't.

Start / End
Process Step
Decision Point

Common Questions

Yes. Zip codes can belong to multiple zones for border areas. The routing engine considers both zones and selects the closest vehicle.
AutoSchedule treats zone assignments as soft constraints by default u2014 it prefers in-zone assignments but can cross zones if no in-zone vehicle is available. You can configure zones as hard constraints if needed.
Yes. Zones are fully editable. Adding or removing zip codes takes effect on the next AutoSchedule run. Historical reports continue to reflect the zone definitions at the time of each trip.