Start from customers, not reps
List every active customer with their location, what they buy in a month, and how much shelf or storage space they have. The visit frequency follows from those: a busy supermarket that cannot hold a week’s stock needs the van more often than a small shop that buys a few cartons.
Put each customer in a frequency band, and keep the bands few so the plan stays easy to read.
- Twice a week: high sellers with little storage
- Weekly: the steady middle of your list
- Every other week: small or slow accounts
- Monthly or on call: occasional buyers
TipAsk each shop owner when they reorder and when the van is in the way; a visit at the wrong hour is a wasted visit.
Work out the weekly load
Multiply each band by its visits per week and add them up. Divide by the working days, and you have the visits each day must hold. Compare that with what one rep can really do, and you know how many reps, or how many days, the plan needs.
In this example the week holds 150 visits, or 25 a day. If a rep can really manage 20, the plan needs more days, a second rep, or fewer visits to the lighter bands.
Check that a day fits
A day is visit time plus driving time, plus the start and the close. Time a few real visits before you plan: unloading, checking the shelf, invoicing and collecting take longer at some shops than others. A plan that only works if every stop goes perfectly will be abandoned by noon.
Here that comes to 8 hours 56 minutes. If it is longer than your working day, take stops out or move some customers to a lower frequency, rather than expect reps to rush.
TipLeave a little room each day for the unplanned call; a day planned to the minute has room for nothing.
Group customers into days by area
Give each rep a territory and split it into areas small enough to cover in a day. Each area becomes a weekday. Customers visited twice a week go on two days spaced apart, such as Sunday and Wednesday, so their shelves never wait too long between visits.
Keep each customer on the same day every week. Shops learn the rhythm and hold their order for the van, which is half of what a fixed route is for.
- Draw each rep’s territory
- Split it into one area per working day
- Place weekly customers on their area’s day
- Space twice-a-week customers three or four days apart
- Fit every-other-week customers into the lighter days
Order the stops within the day
Order each day so the rep is not driving back and forth. A simple rule works: start at the far end of the area and work back towards the warehouse, or start nearest and work outward, but do not zig-zag. Then adjust for shops that open late, or want delivery before a set hour.
Straight-line distance is only a rough guide. One-way streets, highways and school-run traffic change the real order, and the rep who drives it knows. Ask for their changes after the first week and fold them in.
TipVisit the biggest drop early, while the van is full and still holds everything that customer usually takes.
Set the rules for following the plan
Decide how strictly the plan binds. New reps are best held to the planned stops so they learn the route; experienced reps can be allowed unplanned visits, counted apart so you see how much of the day they take. Either way, a skipped stop needs a reason picked from a short list you keep.
- Shop closed
- Owner not available
- Customer has enough stock
- Ran out of time
- Payment dispute to settle first
Review the plan every week
Each week, compare visits planned with visits done for every rep, read the skip reasons, and look for customers nobody has visited in two or four weeks. Those are the ones slipping away, often without anyone deciding to drop them.
When a rep leaves or changes round, hand the whole plan to the rep taking over instead of rebuilding it. The customers keep their day and their place in the order, and only the face at the door changes.
Checklist: Planning a week of routes
- List every customer with location and monthly purchases
- Give each customer a visit frequency
- Add up the visits needed each week
- Time a few real visits and drives
- Check that each day fits the working hours
- Give each rep a territory and one area per day
- Order each day’s stops to avoid doubling back
- Keep a short list of skip reasons
- Review planned against done every week