OptiMatch Gets Smarter: Optimization That Accounts for Routing Requests
OptiMatch (MasterMind’s native fleet optimization feature) was built to help planners make better driver-to-route decisions by balancing operational efficiency with the realities of driver management. Instead of planning in isolation, teams start with an informed plan grounded in real-world constraints—equipment availability, driver capacity, and network conditions—so what gets planned is actually executable.
Now, OptiMatch goes a step further.
With the addition of routing requests, planners can account for more of the commitments that shape a driver’s true availability before making an assignment. The result is a more realistic route optimization process and more confidence in the plan that moves forward.
OptiMatch is no longer just planning around open capacity. It is planning around the reality of a driver’s schedule and needs.
What’s New
OptiMatch has always helped planners evaluate multiple drivers and multiple routes at once, using optimization to recommend stronger assignments while still leaving the final decision in the planner’s hands.
With routing requests, that planning model becomes more complete.
OptiMatch can now account for non-route commitments such as home time, maintenance, training, PTO, and existing route assignments when evaluating driver availability. That means the system is not simply asking whether a driver is open. It is evaluating whether a route is truly feasible within the full context of that driver’s schedule.
Why Routing Requests Matter
In real operations, drivers are not simply available or unavailable. Their schedules are shaped by a mix of route work and non-route events that planners have to manage every day.
This is often where planning becomes manual.
A planner may need to route a driver to or through home, avoid a maintenance conflict, or determine whether a route can be picked up now and completed after a scheduled event. Before this enhancement, those decisions often depended on planner experience and manual solutions.
Now, OptiMatch can factor those commitments directly into the optimization process.
That helps planners start with a recommendation that better reflects operational reality, not just theoretical efficiency.
Home time planning is often where manual intervention begins. Now it can be part of the plan from the start.
A Better Starting Point for Driver Route Optimization
One of the clearest examples is driver home time.
With routing requests included, OptiMatch can help identify routes that move a driver closer to home, routes that can be completed before home time begins, or routes that can be worked around that commitment while still remaining feasible from a schedule and hours of service standpoint.
That gives planners a better starting point right away. Instead of building around those constraints after the fact, they can begin with a plan that already reflects them.
Optimization With Planner Control
OptiMatch is designed to strengthen planner decision-making, not replace it.
The system provides a recommended plan, along with alternate options planners can review and compare. If a planner chooses to swap in an alternate, OptiMatch can automatically adjust the rest of the plan to keep it as strong as possible, while showing the impact on key KPIs.
That balance matters. Planners still bring the operational judgment. OptiMatch helps them get to a better answer faster, with more data and less manual effort.
Optimization is most valuable when it reflects the real constraints planners manage every day.
Why It Improves Planning
By bringing routing requests into the process, it helps teams:
- build more feasible plans from the start
- reduce manual intervention around known schedules
- improve driver planning and route optimization
- make better assignment decisions with more confidence
This is what makes the enhancement meaningful. It is not just more data in the system. It is a better reflection of how planning actually works.
See OptiMatch in Action
When route optimization reflects the full reality of driver commitments, teams can move faster and make stronger decisions.
Book a demo to see how OptiMatch helps planners build smarter, more realistic plans inside MasterMind.
FAQs
OptiMatch is MasterMind’s built-in fleet optimization feature that helps planners make smarter driver-to-route assignments by factoring in real-world constraints like equipment availability, driver capacity, and network conditions — so every plan is actually executable.
Routing requests are non-route commitments like home time, PTO, maintenance, and training that now get factored into OptiMatch’s optimization logic — giving the system a complete picture of a driver’s true availability before recommending any assignment.
OptiMatch can identify routes that move a driver closer to home, routes completable before home time begins, or routes that work around a scheduled commitment — all within hours-of-service limits. Planners start with a feasible plan from the beginning rather than adjusting after the fact.
By factoring in known driver commitments upfront, OptiMatch eliminates the need for planners to manually build around conflicts like maintenance schedules or PTO after initial planning — reducing manual intervention significantly
Teams can build more feasible plans from the start, reduce last-minute reassignments, improve driver satisfaction through better home time planning, and make faster, more confident decisions — all leading to lower operational costs and better fleet efficiency.
OptiMatch can now factor in home time, vehicle maintenance, training, PTO, and existing route assignments when evaluating driver availability for new route assignments.
