A category of families, a loop on the map, and a route the driver can follow.
Read the transcript
Delivering Purim baskets, matzah before Pesach, or challah every Friday? Routes puts your families on a map, and works out the best driving order for you. Open Routes from the sidebar. The families are listed on the left, and the map is on the right. Click Category, and choose the family category you're delivering to. Here, Purim Deliveries. Every family with an address gets a pin on the map. If Google can't find an address, the family gets a Bad address chip, and no pin. Click the chip to fix it. Start typing the street, and pick it from the suggestions. The city, state and ZIP fill in by themselves. Then click Save. The address is looked up again, and the family joins the map. Now choose who's on this route. You can check families in the list, or click Select on map, and draw a loop around a neighborhood. Everyone inside the loop is selected. To add one more family, click its pin, and choose Add to route. Click Create route, and give it a name. Uncheck these families in the category marks them as done, so your next route starts with whoever is left. Click Create. Now click Show route. The stops are numbered in driving order, starting and ending at your Chabad House. On top, you see the number of stops, the miles, and the total time, including five minutes at each door. To start somewhere else, set a different time to leave, or change the minutes per stop, open Route settings. Show drive opens the route in Google Maps on the driver's phone, with turn by turn directions. A Google Maps link holds ten stops, so a longer route comes in parts. Click Print, for a route sheet. It lists every stop in order, with the arrival time, phone numbers, and the distance to the next stop. Hand it to the driver, or keep it for your records. Or click Email, to send the route straight to your driver. Add the driver's name and email, check the message, and click Send. The driver taps the route button in the email, then Start, and Google Maps takes it from there. Routes turns a category of families into a ready-to-drive delivery route: pins on a map, the best order, a printed sheet, and directions on your driver's phone.