RouteMaster: Product & System Overview
Next-Generation Voyage Planning, Execution & Itinerary SystemZ
1. The Concept: Voyage Planning vs. Navigation
What is RouteMaster? RouteMaster is a route planning system where you can plan your trip like in the old days, but with a modern take on it.
When the first navigation apps appeared on the market, there became a major switch from the old fashioned way of planning, where you brought out a map, studied it, then made a record of which roads to follow, where to switch over to other roads, and maybe plan for stops.
Instead, you got a system where you just entered your destination, and the app would calculate the route for you.
While many will still swear by the modern GPS-assisted route guidance, we think that we lost the connection to the journey, by eliminating the planning phase. That planning phase made you connect mentally with the journey, so you'd recognize towns as you progress. These psychological milestones makes the trip more manageable. In the old days, there were milestones along the route. We still have them, in the form of distance boards, but they just fly by. With RouteMaster you have the distance boards right in front of you.
RouteMaster also supports turn-by-turn navigation, but the travel itinerary is our main selling point.
2. Psychological & Cognitive Anchoring
Long drives create driver exhaustion when viewed as a single, massive task. RouteMaster re-engineers how the brain processes travel:
We humans prefer to manage larger tasks by breaking them up into smaller pieces. That is what RouteMaster enables. And it even treat your routes as "lego"-bricks, that you can reuse, and build upon.
- Cognitive Chunking: Breaks routes into visual "tiles" along your itinerary, turning an intimidating 10-hour drive into manageable mini-goals.
- At-a-Glance Dashboard: Waypoint tiles constantly update with live distance and ETA, eliminating guesswork for drivers and passengers alike.
- Pacing Baseline: For daily commutes, compares live progress against your historical averages, indicating whether you are seconds ahead or behind schedule.
3. Concepts and Facilities
In the following section we'll try to explain the main concepts and the terminology we will use. It may sound complex, but it really isn't.
The Waypoint:
A waypoint is an intermediate goal along your route. Where each waypoint is located, you will decide using the route planning tool. In principle, a waypoint is nothing more than a geographical locating with a name attached to it. Waypoints are public, so instead of creating your own, you can reuse others waypoints. We'll get back to later why this is a smart strategy.
The Leg:
A leg is the path between two waypoints. It has a starting waypoint and a terminating waypoint. A leg is what statistics are collected against. It will have a traveling distance and an average traversal time, which is dependent on the vehicle and the time of day. A route can be seen as a chain of these legs, where the start of the next leg overlaps with the end of the current waypoint.
A Route Segment:
A route segment is, in principle, a chain of legs. It can be one leg, or a million legs. But instead of just chaining legs, you can chain route segments too, or add legs to an existing route segment. Normally you will create a route segment between natural geographic branching points. Like when a road splits into two other roads. Then you can create new segments branching from that split point, saving you the trouble of creating a totally new route from the starting point. Routes (which are route segments) are private, but they can be shared with others. Either directly to another user, using their email address, or via a group. The reason routes are private, is first of all due to privacy reasons, but also that the editing map would become a chaos of routes from other people, making it very difficult to plan. But the waypoints will be there.
Route:
A route, is nothing more than a list of route segments with a name. The list of route segments in a route can be one, or it can be more. So the difference between route and route segment is more on terminology level than a practical level. But when you create a route segment, in the mobile app, it will only consist of a list of legs. So maybe you will create several route segments, and then you will chain them with the chain method, into a full route. The route chaining mechanism is quite powerful, since it will only look for segments that has a starting point very close to the endpoint of your last current loaded segment. And once you start driving and activate the trip, it will automatically be saved as a complete route, named
Both the app and the web client has the ability to create routes, but the online variant is much more powerful.
It consists of the Android app, where you select your pre-created route, and where you will get constant updates on your progress. If you are ahead schedule, behind schedule, how far it is to the upcoming wayponts and also the estimated time to your upcoming waypoints.
The second part is an online tool where you can perform route planning. That is where you will get in contact with a map, and where you will select your waypoints that your route will consist of. It may sound very elaborate, compared to just entering the destination address in your standard navigation app, and that is a bit of the point. You'll get much more intimate with the trip itself, that way. And, of course, your routes are reusable and even extendable. So further route plannings will be like building with lego, if you create a good structure.
The online tool also has statistical analysis tools, so you can get statistics from your trips, after they have been completed. This is a subscription service, and is not necessary for the system to work. All route planning and execution is free for all.
There is also a refueling functon, where you enter your refueling data at the pump, and where you can pull statistics afterwards.
3. Who is this tool really for?
🚗 Road-Trippers: Modular Planning & Forward Amenities
- Modular Route Building: Design complex journeys ahead of time on the web app using reusable route segments.
- Forward-Looking Amenity Engine: Scans ahead along your active route in your direction of travel rather than in a circle around your current position. Select gas, food, or restrooms, and RouteMaster inserts them as dynamic virtual waypoints.
- Brand Loyalty Filter: Prioritizes your preferred fuel brand per country.
🚐 RVers & Towing Enthusiasts: Precision Vehicle Estimates
- Vehicle-Specific Benchmarking: Paces arrival times against crowd-sourced data from drivers with similar vehicle profiles (RVs, trailers, motorcycles).
- No-U-Turn Detours: Ensures all recommended stops are along your forward vector, preventing tight, stressful turnarounds with large rigs.
💼 Commuters & Company Drivers: Pacing & Expense Logging
- 1-Tap Refueling Log: Long-press the bottom info bar to immediately record fuel entries against the active vehicle.
- Automated Currency Normalization: Converts cross-border fuel expenses into your home currency automatically.
4. Subscription & Pricing Structure
🆓 Free Tier (Community & Fleet Essentials)
- 3 Vehicles & 5 Drivers per account.
- Role-Based Access Control: Define permissions for family or group members.
- Route Sharing & Groups: Build and share curated route collections (e.g., "Scenic Mountain Passes of Norway").
💳 Statistical Analytics Add-On
- Post-Trip Leg Breakdown: Isolates actual driving time from rest stops and delays.
- Multi-Dimensional Analytics: Filter performance data by Route, Driver, Vehicle, or Time Interval.
- Multi-Fuel Tracking: Tailored logging for modern drivetrains—separate AdBlue/DEF from Diesel, and electric kWh from Petrol on plug-in hybrids.
🚚 Unlimited Fleet Upgrade
- Reasonably priced tier for larger vehicle garages, clubs, or commercial operations needing unlimited vehicle profiles.