Delivery scheduling and route planning for distribution businesses

Plan around constraints, not distance

The shortest route is often not the deliverable one. A realistic plan accounts for vehicle dimensions and access restrictions, load weight that falls as the round progresses, delivery and collection on the same visit, customer time windows, and the service or sanitisation work due at each stop.

Treating service visits and deliveries as separate rounds is one of the most common sources of wasted mileage. When both are scheduled against the same asset and the same customer, one visit frequently covers both.

Recurring orders and demand patterns

Most distribution demand is predictable. Customers on recurring patterns generate forecastable volume, which lets you plan rounds ahead, buy stock against real demand and spot accounts whose consumption has drifted away from their agreed schedule.

Exceptions matter more than averages: a stop that is consistently short-delivered or repeatedly rescheduled is usually a pricing or service problem showing up in the logistics data.

Re-optimise more often than you think

A plan built on Friday is stale by Monday. Cancellations, urgent additions, vehicle availability and road conditions all change the optimal sequence. Operations that re-optimise daily — and allow controlled in-day changes pushed to the driver's device — consistently run fewer miles per drop than those working from a fixed weekly round.

Close the loop in the field

The plan is only worth as much as the data coming back from it. An offline-capable driver app that captures proof of delivery, signatures, photographs, quantities delivered and collected, failed-delivery reasons and asset movements turns the round into an auditable record — and feeds invoicing without re-keying.

• Proof of delivery with signature and photo capture
• Asset installs, exchanges and collections recorded against the customer
• Failed-delivery reasons that drive the next scheduling decision
• Offline operation with sync on reconnection

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from a satnav or mapping tool?

Mapping tools sequence stops. Scheduling systems decide which stops exist in the first place, based on recurring orders, service intervals, asset requirements, capacity and time windows — then sequence them.

Does route optimisation account for load weight?

It should. Weight changes through the round and affects both vehicle legality and access, so a plan built only on distance can produce rounds that cannot legally be run.

Can drivers work without a signal?

The ProWat driver app is built for offline use, holding the day's work locally and synchronising proof of delivery and asset changes when connectivity returns.

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