Patent ID: 8498947

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a computing device; a plurality of delivery routes stored in a memory associated with the computing device, each delivery route having a plurality of stops; and a stop insertion application executable in the computing device, the stop insertion application being configured to: determine an area of consideration surrounding an optional stop, the area of consideration falling within a predefined radius from the optional stop; for each pair of stops for each delivery route included within the area of consideration, determine whether the optional stop can be inserted between the pair of stops in at least one of the delivery routes without violating a predefined set of criteria, wherein the optional stop is to be implemented to pick up an empty tote used to deliver at least one item, wherein the predefined set of criteria further comprises: whether an insertion of the optional stop between the pair of stops results in a delay for the selected one of the delivery routes that is greater than a predefined threshold; whether an insertion of the optional stop between the pair of stops causes a delay that breaks a promise to deliver within a predefined window of time associated with one of the stops; and whether a first one of the pair of stops is within a predefined distance of the optional stop; and insert the optional stop between a respective pair of stops in a selected one of the delivery routes.