Fastest, fewest miles or easiest: pick the one that costs you most.

Route planners can minimize time, distance or difficulty, and they are not the same route. The right choice depends on whether your bigger cost is paid hours, fuel and mileage, or wear on drivers and trailers.

The three choices in StopHarbor

Fastest gets the route done in the least drive time. Best when labor hours cost more than fuel.
Fewest miles minimizes distance. Best when you reimburse mileage or fuel dominates; it may use slower roads.
Easiest driving prefers main roads and fewer turns. Good for trailers, box trucks and new drivers.

A quick rule of thumb

Compare what one hour of a worker costs, including taxes and benefits, with what the vehicle costs to drive for that hour. A technician at $30 an hour in a van that burns $8 of fuel and wear per hour of driving makes Fastest the default. A mileage-reimbursed rep on a highway-heavy territory, or a heavy truck at a few miles per gallon, can tip the balance toward Fewest miles. The free route cost calculator puts your own numbers side by side.

Try both on the same day

Calculate the plan with one setting, note total miles and minutes, then switch and recalculate. The difference is often small in dense towns and larger on rural or highway routes. Each recalculation counts toward your stop allowance, so compare on a typical day rather than every day.

Traffic note

All three modes use typical traffic for the time of day, not live conditions. Time estimates are planning numbers. If a route is consistently late in practice, increase minutes on site before blaming the road times.

Questions

Which mode is the default?

Fastest. Most service businesses pay more for hours than for fuel.

Can different plans use different modes?

Yes. The setting is per plan, so the trailer crew's plan can use Easiest driving while van routes use Fastest.

Does switching modes cost anything?

Each new calculation counts the stops it processes toward your plan's monthly stop computations.

Start a 14-day trial or compare Solo and Team.