A floating static route is a backup route with a higher administrative distance. It stays inactive in the routing table until the primary route fails.
Example: Your primary route to uses a fast fiber link. You configure a backup through a slower DSL connection:
Router(config)# ip route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 192.168.1.1
Router(config)# ip route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 192.168.2.1 200
The second route has AD (specified at the end). Since static routes default to AD , the backup won't appear in the routing table unless the primary fails. When the primary link recovers, the floating route deactivates again.