Most route planning software was designed for vans and couriers. Plug a mixed fleet of 7.5t, 18t and 26t rigids into it and you quickly find the gaps. Here are the constraints that matter for HGV route planning, and why each one matters.
1. Licence categories and personal restrictions
In the UK, the vehicle a driver can legally drive depends on their licence:
| Category | What it covers |
|---|---|
| B | Vehicles up to 3,500kg |
| C1 | Vehicles between 3,500kg and 7,500kg |
| C | Rigid vehicles over 3,500kg |
| C+E | Category C vehicles with a heavy trailer, including artics |
On top of the category, many operators apply their own restrictions, for example a newly qualified Category C driver who is only allowed to drive up to 18t until they've built experience. A route planner that pairs drivers and vehicles must check both the legal category and your internal limit, and it must notice when a licence or Driver CPC has expired.
2. Payload and pallet spaces
HGV loads are usually limited by weight or by pallet spaces, and which one binds depends on the product. Builders merchants run out of payload long before space; furniture runs out of space long before weight. Your planner needs both numbers for every vehicle and every order.
3. Customer site restrictions
"No artics", "max 18t", "tail lift required", "rear access only before 7am". These rules usually live in a planner's head or on sticky notes. Record them against the customer so the optimiser never sends the wrong truck.
4. Equipment: tail lifts, chilled bodies, cranes
Some orders can only go on vehicles with certain equipment. A tail-lift delivery on a vehicle without one is a failed drop and a wasted trip.
5. Truck-safe directions
Consumer navigation apps don't know your vehicle is 4.2m high. Directions should use truck routing with gross weight, height and width so drivers avoid low bridges and weight-restricted roads. Truck-specific navigation apps such as Sygic Truck do this on the driver's phone.
6. Off-road vehicles
A vehicle with a dangerous defect from this morning's walkaround check shouldn't appear in today's plan. That only happens automatically if your maintenance and routing live in the same system.
7. Shift length and loading time
Working-time limits and loading time at the depot both eat into the day. Good planning includes the time to load the vehicle and caps overtime at a level you choose.
Putting it together
None of these constraints is exotic. Every transport planner deals with them daily. The problem is that most tools only handle some of them, so planners keep compensating by hand. The Fleetnyx route planner checks all of them on every route and every manual edit, which is what makes optimised HGV routes usable on the day.