Excel vs route planning software: when to switch

Most distributors start planning deliveries the same way: a spreadsheet of customers, a printed list per driver, and a WhatsApp group for everything that changes during the day. It works, and for a while it works well. The question is not whether Excel is "bad". It is whether it still fits the business you run today.

This guide is an honest look at both sides, so you can decide for yourself.

What Excel, paper and WhatsApp do well

Let's give spreadsheets their due. They are popular for good reasons:

• They cost nothing extra. You already have Excel or Google Sheets.
• Everyone knows how to use them. No training, no logins, no new habits.
• They are flexible. You can add a column for anything — payment terms, the back-door code, "call before arriving".
• The planner's knowledge is the real engine. An experienced dispatcher who knows every street and every customer can build good routes from memory.

If you run one or two vans, deliver to the same customers on fixed days and rarely get last-minute orders, Excel may honestly be all you need. Switching tools for the sake of it just adds work.

Where spreadsheet planning starts to break

The problems rarely arrive all at once. They creep in as the business grows. These are the usual breaking points.

More than a few trucks

With two vehicles, you can juggle stops in your head. With five or six, the number of possible combinations explodes. The planner ends up repeating last week's routes because there is no time to rethink them, even when the customer list has changed.

Time windows and receiving hours

A café only accepts deliveries before 10:00. A supermarket has a receiving dock open from 6:00 to 9:00. A building site closes at 16:00. A spreadsheet can store these rules, but it cannot check that a route actually respects them. You find out when a driver arrives at a locked door.

Weight, volume and vehicle type

Pallets of drinks are heavy; boxes of paper towels are bulky. Some orders need a fridge, a crane or a tail lift. In Excel, the planner has to add up loads by hand and remember which truck has which equipment. One mistake means a second trip.

Last-minute orders

A restaurant calls at 7:30 asking for an extra delivery. Where does it fit? With a spreadsheet, someone re-plans in their head, sends a WhatsApp message and hopes the driver sees it before passing that street.

Drivers calling the office

"What's the next address?" "The customer isn't here, what do I do?" "Which entrance?" When the plan lives in the office, drivers have to phone the office. Every call interrupts both the driver and the planner.

No proof of delivery

A customer says the order never arrived, or that two cases were missing. With paper delivery notes, you hunt for a signature that may be illegible, lost or still sitting in the van. Disputes take days and often end with you giving a credit.

Re-typing orders and invoices

Orders come in by phone, email and WhatsApp. Someone types them into the spreadsheet. After delivery, someone types them again into the invoicing system — and adjusts for what the driver says was returned. Every re-type is a chance for an error.

The hidden costs nobody puts on the spreadsheet

The real cost of manual planning does not appear as a line item, which is why it is easy to underestimate.

• Office hours. If planning, re-planning and answering driver calls takes two hours a day, that is around ten hours a week of someone's time. (Your numbers will differ — the point is to count them.)
• Fuel and driver time from poor sequences. A route that crosses town twice, or hits the ring road at rush hour, burns fuel and overtime. Small detours repeated every day add up over a year.
• Failed deliveries. Arriving outside the receiving hours, or with the wrong truck, means a second trip, an annoyed customer, and sometimes perishable goods that cannot be resold.
• Dependence on one person. If only one planner knows how the routes work, a sick day or holiday becomes a crisis.

A simple exercise: for one week, write down how much time goes into planning, how many calls drivers make, and how many deliveries fail or need a return trip. That gives you a real basis for the decision.

Checklist: you should switch when…

You don't need to tick every box. If three or more sound familiar, it is probably time:

1. You run three or more vehicles every day.
2. Planning tomorrow's routes takes more than an hour.
3. Customers have delivery time windows or fixed receiving hours you sometimes miss.
4. You regularly overload a truck or send the wrong vehicle.
5. Last-minute orders cause chaos in the morning.
6. Drivers call the office several times a day.
7. You cannot quickly prove a delivery when a customer disputes it.
8. Orders are typed in twice — once for delivery, once for invoicing.
9. Only one person really knows how to plan the routes.
10. You want to grow, but adding a truck feels like adding a headache.

How to switch without disrupting deliveries

The fear of switching is usually bigger than the switch itself. A careful rollout keeps risk low:

1. Start small. Pick one truck or one area. Keep everything else on your current system.
2. Import your customers from Excel. Good software lets you upload your existing customer and order list as Excel or CSV, so you don't start from zero. Clean up addresses while you're at it.
3. Add the rules you already know. Receiving hours, vehicle capacity, which customers need a fridge truck — the knowledge in your planner's head should go into the system.
4. Run in parallel for a week. Plan the test routes both ways and compare. Let the driver use the app and give feedback.
5. Expand step by step. Once the first truck runs smoothly, add the next ones.

Involve your drivers early. They know the customers, the parking problems and the shortcuts. If the app makes their day easier, adoption takes care of itself.

What to look for in route planning software

Not every tool is built for distributors. Many are designed for parcel couriers with hundreds of small stops. Check for:

• Real constraints: time windows, receiving hours, truck weight and volume, vehicle features, driver shifts and breaks.
• Realistic travel times that account for rush-hour traffic where you deliver.
• A simple driver app that works on the phones your drivers already have, with navigation and proof of delivery.
• Easy import from Excel or CSV, so you keep your existing data.
• Connection to the rest of your work: orders, invoices, stock, or an API if you use other systems.
• Clear pricing that makes sense for a small fleet, and a free trial to test with real routes.

It's worth taking the time to compare alternatives before you commit.

Where BeeRoutes fits

We built BeeRoutes for distributors and wholesalers who deliver to shops, cafés, restaurants and building sites. Route optimization takes into account time windows and receiving hours, truck weight and volume (including pickups), shifts and breaks, vehicle features like a fridge, crane or lift, priorities, and rush-hour traffic measured for your area.

Drivers use the Android app or the web version on any phone, with built-in voice navigation or Google Maps and Waze. They scan barcodes when loading and collect proof of delivery with a name, signature and photo. The office follows everything on a live map. Customers can place orders through their own portal, with "order again" and a one-hour delivery window, and invoices, stock and reports live in the same place. You can import orders from Excel or CSV, or connect through the REST API, webhooks, Shopify or Zapier.

Pricing starts at €49/month for 3 trucks. The easiest way to see if it beats your spreadsheet is to test it on one truck: start your free 14-day trial — no card needed.