--- title: "Orbit Plan: Planning Shipments into Tours" description: "How Orbit Plan turns a pool of shipments and a fleet into proposed tours, how to review and apply a plan, and why a plan is a proposal until applied." url: "https://support.pr-4.orbit.do/en/advanced-features/orbit-plan-planning-shipments-into-tours" locale: "en" lastReviewed: "2026-07-10" --- # Orbit Plan: Planning Shipments into Tours How Orbit Plan turns a pool of shipments and a fleet into proposed tours, how to review and apply a plan, and why a plan is a proposal until applied. > **Note:** Orbit Plan turns a set of shipments and a fleet of vehicles into a set of efficient, ready-to-run tours — the automatic alternative to routing shipments onto tours one by one. ## Overview You can always build a `Tour` by hand: pick a vehicle, add shipments, order the stops. When you have many shipments to route at once, **Orbit Plan** does that work for you. Hand it a pool of `Shipment`s and a fleet, and it works out which shipment rides which vehicle, in what stop order, and at what times — then presents the result as a proposed set of tours for you to review. The most important thing to understand about Orbit Plan is that **a plan is a proposal, not committed work**. Running the planner changes nothing in Orbit: no tours exist yet and every shipment stays unrouted. Real `Tour`s are created only when you apply the plan — a separate, deliberate step. **Key highlights** * Plans many shipments onto tours in one optimised pass, instead of routing each by hand. * Plan against your real vehicles, reusable virtual vehicles, or a saved fleet. * Every result is a proposal you review first — nothing is committed until you apply it. * Shows per-tour utilisation, planned stop times, summary statistics, and any shipments it could not place (with the reason why). * Compare alternatives side by side using scenarios before you commit. ## Starting a plan Orbit Plan opens from your shipments list in Orbit MissionControl: 1. Open the **Shipments** list and select the shipments you want to plan. 2. Click **Plan** in the action bar. The **Plan Shipments** window opens with your selected shipments loaded. From here you choose the fleet to plan against and start the optimisation. ### Choosing the fleet A plan needs vehicles to place shipments on. You can: * **Add vehicles** — pick real vehicles from your carriers. * Add **virtual vehicles** — placeholders based on a saved vehicle class, useful when you want to plan routes before deciding which carrier or vehicle will run them. See [Orbit Plan: What Are Virtual Vehicles?](https://support.pr-4.orbit.do/en/faq/what-are-virtual-vehicles) for how these work. * Use **Suggest vehicles** — let Orbit propose an optimised set of virtual vehicles based on your vehicle classes. * Save any combination as a **Fleet Template** to reuse it in future plans. ## Reading the result When the optimisation finishes, Orbit Plan shows you a solution made up of three things: * **Proposed tours** — each with its chosen vehicle, its stops in order, planned times, and a **volume and weight utilisation** figure so you can see how full each vehicle is. * **Unrouted shipments** — any shipment the plan could not place, each shown with a plain-language reason. * **Summary statistics** — the number of tours, average utilisation, and total distance and duration for the plan. These figures describe the *proposed* plan. Treat them as advisory estimates to judge a solution by, not promises about the real tours once they run. ### When a shipment cannot be placed A shipment landing in the unrouted list is not an error — it means the constraints as given do not allow it, and Orbit tells you why. Common reasons include no vehicle in the fleet being large enough or carrying a required capability, a time window too narrow to reach, or a tour that would run longer than its allowed maximum. The fix is usually in the data: add a suitable vehicle, widen a time window, or adjust the requirement. A plain re-run without changing anything rarely helps. ## Comparing scenarios You rarely get the perfect plan on the first try. Orbit Plan lets you create several **scenarios** that differ in their optimisation settings, fleet composition, or shipment selection, and compare their results side by side. This lets you weigh, for example, a plan that uses fewer vehicles against one that spreads work more evenly, before deciding which to commit. ## Applying a plan When you are happy with a scenario, apply it. Orbit Plan shows a summary of the tours it will create and the shipments it will leave unrouted, then creates the tours when you confirm (for example, **Create 4 Tours**). At that point the proposal becomes reality: real `Tour`s are created, each unassigned and carrying its shipments as routed. Getting those tours to a carrier is the next stage — see [Tours](https://support.pr-4.orbit.do/en/core-features/tours) and Auto-Callout for dispatch. If a few tours fail to be created when you apply, the rest are still created — the shipments from the failed tours simply stay unrouted and can be re-planned or routed by hand. Applying does not roll everything back. ## What Orbit Plan does not do Orbit Plan is about **routing** — which shipments go on which tour, in what order, and when. Whether a tour's loads physically fit inside the assigned vehicle's container, shown as a 3D packing view, is a separate feature: see [LoadPlan 3D](https://support.pr-4.orbit.do/en/core-features/load-plan-3-d). A plan can optionally fold that fit-check into its optimisation, which is one reason a shipment might come back unrouted — its cargo would not fit any available vehicle. The planned stop times you see on a proposed tour are estimates. For how Orbit expresses planned timing on a live tour, see [Understanding the TimingGuide](https://support.pr-4.orbit.do/en/getting-started/understanding-the-timingguide). ## Example Mateusz plans regional deliveries for an operator in Warsaw. On Monday he has 30 unrouted shipments across Poland to organise for the week. He opens the **Shipments** list, selects all 30, and clicks **Plan**. In the **Plan Shipments** window he loads his saved *Weekday Fleet* template and starts the optimisation. Orbit Plan proposes five tours at an average of 82% volume utilisation, and flags one shipment as unrouted because its delivery window is too narrow for any vehicle to reach in time. Mateusz widens that shipment's window and re-runs, and it now fits on the fifth tour. He also creates a second scenario with one fewer vehicle to see whether he can save a run; it works but pushes two tours close to their maximum duration, so he keeps the original. Satisfied, he applies the first scenario and clicks **Create 5 Tours**. Five real tours appear, each unassigned and ready to be offered to carriers. ## FAQ **Q: Does running the planner create tours?** No. Running it produces a proposal only. Tours are created — and shipments become routed — only when you apply a scenario. **Q: Why did a shipment come back as unrouted?** Because the constraints did not allow it to be placed. Read the reason shown against it: no compatible vehicle, a time window too narrow, a tour that would run too long, and so on. Fixing the underlying data usually unblocks it. **Q: Why weren't all my vehicles used?** That is normal and depends on the settings. A cost-minimising plan uses as few vehicles as it can and leaves others idle; a spread-the-work approach uses more. An unused vehicle is usually the plan working as configured. **Q: Can I try different options before committing?** Yes. Create multiple scenarios with different fleets or settings and compare their results, then apply only the one you want. Nothing is committed until you apply. **Q: Does every operator use Orbit Plan?** No. Auto-planning is an optional tool. Many shipments are routed by hand and never go through the planner, so an unrouted shipment is not necessarily "waiting for a plan".