How to Plan Multiple Vehicle Routes from the Same Depot?

Last Updated: October 14, 2025

You can create multiple vehicle routes from the same depot using vehicle routing software. This allows you to plan several separate delivery or pickup routes that all start from one hub, ensuring your operations reflect how your business actually runs.

Vehicle routing is a powerful feature in Maptitude that lets you model delivery schedules, assign vehicles, and manage service windows. By setting up your depots and stops correctly, you can display multiple pre-defined routes on a single map rather than having them combined into one optimized solution.

Table of Contents

• The Challenge
• Solution: Duplicate Depots for Each Route
• Renaming and Standardizing Stops
• Sample Data Tables
• Running the Routing Wizard
• Results and Reporting

The Challenge

By default, the Routing Deliveries & Pickups Wizard minimizes total driving time. If all stops are tied to the same depot, Maptitude may group them into a single route, even if you want three or more separate vehicle runs.

This is common when organizations want to show fixed delivery rounds from the same branch depot — for example, three separate routes from a central warehouse, each serving a different geographic cluster of customers.

Solution: Duplicate Depots for Each Route

The solution is to treat each planned route as its own depot record, even if the depot location is the same.

1. Duplicate depot entries — one per planned route. Example: Central Depot Route 1, Central Depot Route 2, Central Depot Route 3.
2. Link stops to depots — add a DepotID field in the Stops table, so each stop belongs to the correct depot-route.
3. Define vehicles — create a vehicle table with one vehicle per route, tied to the same DepotID.
4. Run the wizard — assign stops and vehicles by DepotID. Each vehicle will generate its own route, even though the depots overlap.

Renaming and Standardizing Stops

Reports and itineraries in Maptitude use the Name field from the stop layer. To make outputs clearer:

• Use Dataview > Table > Modify to update the Name field directly, OR
• Add a new field such as DisplayName and compute a formula like:
  • DisplayName = DepotRoute & " – " & Stop
  • DisplayName = Stop & " (" & Postcode & ")"

Assign DisplayName as the Name field in the Wizard for professional-looking reports.

Sample Data Tables

Here are simplified examples:

Depots

Stops

Running the Routing Wizard

1. Go to Tools > Routing & Directions > Routing Deliveries & Pickups.
2. On the Stops page:
   • Name → DisplayName
   • Depot Assignment → DepotID
3. On the Depots page:
   • Use duplicated depot records for each route.
4. On the Vehicles page:
   • Add one vehicle per route (DepotID must match).
5. On the Options page:
   • Check Maximum # of Routes per Vehicle = 1.
   • Check Vehicles return to depot (if required).

Click Finish and Maptitude will display each route separately on the same map.

Results and Reporting

• Open the Routing Deliveries & Pickups Manager to view, color, and label each route.
• Export route itineraries to PDF or Excel for sharing.
• If any stops are unassigned, adjust vehicle capacity or time settings and rerun.

Conclusion

By duplicating depot entries and linking stops via DepotID, you can force Maptitude to generate multiple routes from the same depot. This method is ideal when you need to respect business rules or existing delivery schedules.

Download a free mapping software trial of Maptitude to try this workflow yourself, or use your existing Maptitude Desktop license.

For more route optimization tips, see the video tutorial on fleet routing and logistics.