Know who's due before the truck leaves the yard.
Five-gallon jugs and propane refills run on cycles: weekly, every other week, every four weeks. Color your customers by last delivery and build each day's route from the ones that are due.
- Free for up to 50 addresses
- No credit card
- No app to install
The short answer
Updated
Lite Route Planner plans recurring delivery routes for bottled water and propane-style businesses: import your customer list with each one's delivery frequency, color the map by last delivery to see who's due, and optimize each truck's route from the yard in one click. Drivers mark each stop Visited or Attempted, which updates the customer's history. Business includes unlimited drivers from $59.99 a month; it doesn't handle invoicing, inventory or bottle deposits.
A route book for 5-gallon delivery
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
| 1 | Account | Address | City | Frequency | Bottles | Day | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Sierra Vista Dental | 4410 N First St | Fresno, CA | Weekly | 6 | Tue | Cooler in break room |
| 3 | Gomez residence | 2271 W Shields Ave | Fresno, CA | Every 2 weeks | 3 | Tue | Empties on side porch |
| 4 | Clovis Auto Body | 690 W Shaw Ave | Clovis, CA | Every 4 weeks | 4 | Thu | Gate closes at 5 |
| 5 | Park residence | 1835 E Nees Ave | Fresno, CA | Every 2 weeks | 2 | Thu | Dog in yard, ring first |
| 6 | Valley Title Co. | 7108 N Fresno St | Fresno, CA | Weekly | 8 | Tue | Freight elevator, 3rd floor |
Frequency and Day come in as text fields you can color and filter by, and Bottles as a number. Copy the notes drivers need into each stop's note; that's what the driver app shows.
Every-other-week is the hard part
Weekly customers are easy: same day, same route. The trouble is the customers on every two or every four weeks, plus the ones who call because they ran out early. A paper route book can't show you on a map who's due.
Color the map by last visit and it can. Every customer shows how long since a driver marked a stop there: within a week, 1 to 2 weeks, 2 to 4 weeks, 1 to 2 months, or over 2 months. Filter to Frequency = Every 2 weeks, and anyone past the within-a-week color is due or close to it.
Then lasso the due customers in Thursday's area, add the call-ins, and optimize. Lite doesn't repeat schedules on its own, so this is how each day's route gets built: from who's due, not from a fixed list.
Build Thursday's truck route
- 1
Filter to Thursday
Filter by the Day field, or skip it and work straight from who's due.
- 2
Check last delivery
Color by last visit. Weekly customers in the 1 to 2 weeks color and biweekly ones in 2 to 4 weeks are due.
- 3
Add the call-ins
Search a caller's address to add it, then click its pin to put it on the route, or lasso it with the rest.
- 4
Optimize from the yard
Start and end at your yard or warehouse base. One click puts the stops in the shortest order.
- 5
Check the clock and the load
Set a few minutes per home and more for the office that takes eight bottles up a freight elevator. The day's total shows when the truck is back. Lite doesn't plan around truck capacity, so count bottles yourself.
- 6
Send it to the driver
Assign the route on Business and it's on the driver's phone, with nothing to install.
What drivers mark, and why it matters
Visited resets the clock
Marking a stop Visited moves the customer back to the within-a-week color, off the due list until their cycle comes round.
Attempted is easy to find
Nobody home, no empties out? The driver marks it Attempted with a note. Filter by last outcome to put every Attempted stop on the next route.
Notes that ride along
"Empties in the garage, code is with the office" goes in the stop note once, and every driver sees it at that stop.
A history for every account
Every delivery stays in the customer's history with the date and note, which settles "you skipped us last week" quickly.
Route planner or route accounting software?
Choose Lite if
- You already invoice in another system and need the routes planned.
- You want to see who's due on a map, not in a route book.
- You want drivers on a phone browser with nothing to install.
- You want one flat price with unlimited drivers.
Choose route accounting software if
- Drivers need to invoice, take payment or print tickets at the door.
- You track bottle deposits, truck inventory or tank levels.
- You want automatic recurring schedules or will-call forecasting.