How we name our truck routes
Our routes have names like "Joliet Loop," "Wisconsin Long," and "Michigan Wedge." There's a quiet logic to it. There's also some history.
We run nine named routes out of the Rockford yard, plus a tenth that we just call "the floater." The names started as shorthand on the dispatch board and ossified into something close to formal. Here's the list and the logic.
The names
- Joliet Loop — southern Illinois, anchored on Joliet polymer customers, runs Mondays and Thursdays.
- Wisconsin Long — anything north of the state line, runs Tuesdays.
- Michigan Wedge — eastward across the lake, runs Wednesdays.
- Iowa Quick — Quad Cities and inbound only, runs Thursdays.
- Indiana Short — northwest Indiana, anchored on auto suppliers, runs Tuesdays and Fridays.
- Chicago South — south suburbs, mostly customer pickups, runs Mondays and Fridays.
- Chicago North — north suburbs and Lake County, runs Wednesdays.
- Rockford In-Town — short routes inside the metro, runs daily.
- The Backhaul — opportunistic, paired with whatever outbound is moving.
- The Floater — anything that doesn't fit the others.
The logic
The names are descriptive enough that a new dispatcher can usually guess which one a stop belongs on. "Loop" means there and back the same day. "Long" means overnight. "Wedge" is a Donna-specific term for routes that go out one direction and come back along a different angle. "Quick" means we don't intend to load anything outbound.
The naming convention saves time during morning route planning. Instead of describing the route shape, we just say the name.
The history
"Michigan Wedge" predates the convention. It was originally a route Donna sketched on a napkin in 2019 to explain the difference between going to Grand Rapids via I-94 versus going via Battle Creek and back. The napkin had a literal wedge shape. We've called the route the Michigan Wedge ever since, even though Donna has long since lost the napkin.
What's next
If we add another route this year — and we might, depending on a contract pending in eastern Iowa — it'll probably get a name out of the same vocabulary. "Iowa Wedge," maybe. We'll see what the route shape looks like first.
Related field notes.
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