Tips for Planning A Distributor’s Delivery Route

Having an efficient delivery route is essential to the success of wholesale distributors. But, crafting a delivery route takes a lot of planning and effort to ensure you are reaching as many people as possible in as little time as possible. How can you create the best delivery route for your customers? Follow these tips:
Double check your information.
Before you begin, check with each of your retailers to see if the contact information, including the address and phone number, you have on file is correct. You don’t want to show up with the delivery at the wrong address, and planning a route with incorrect information is a waste of time, so this should be done before making any delivery plans.
Keep special instructions in mind.
When planning your delivery route, you have to keep any special instructions that retailers have provided in mind. For example, some retailers will only allow you to deliver during certain hours of the day, while others will require you to follow a specific procedure once you arrive. Make sure you are meeting each retailer’s requirement as you plan your delivery route.
Prioritize urgent deliveries.
Some deliveries will be classified as more urgent than others, so these should be prioritized to ensure retailers are getting their shipment as soon as possible. For example, if you accidentally did not deliver enough product with your last shipment, and the retailer complained about the missing inventory, you should prioritize this retailer above the rest to make up for your mistake.
Group destinations together.
Once you’ve separated the urgent deliveries from the non-urgent ones, begin to plan the rest of your route by mapping out each location. This will allow you to see which addresses are close to each other so you can group these together and plan on delivering to one right after the other. Visiting locations that are near each other will help you save time and gas, so it will make the route much more efficient.
Consider other factors that could impact your route.
Before you plan your route, research the area to see if there are any road closures or construction zones that may impact your drive. As you continue to plan, you should also remember to factor in additional time for rush hour traffic in the mornings and evenings, stops for fuel, and anything else that could add time to your trip, such as afternoon showers or snow storms.
Look up USPS routes.
If this is your first time planning a distribution route, why not learn from the experts? The postal service has been delivering mail to residences and businesses for decades, so by now, they’ve got planning a delivery route down to a science. If you need a little help figuring out how you should plan your route, research their delivery routes to see how they group areas together.
How do you plan a delivery route? If you have any tips that weren’t mentioned above, share them in the comments below!