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Route planning for man and van: multi-drop days in order

Spoke Route Planner puts a day of collections and deliveries in a sensible order in seconds. Free for up to 10 stops a route.

At a glance

  • What it costsFree–$9Free–£7Free–€8Free–A$13Free–C$13 a month

  • Worth, in extra profit or time saved in the worked example$117£88€105A$169C$165 a month

  • Pays for itselfIn a few days

  • Sign up and configure; no technical skills neededEasy to set up

Figures come from the worked example below, using its stated assumptions. Tool prices checked . How we check prices

The problem

Collection and delivery days are where a man and van loses money: six pickups from Marketplace sellers and four drops across a city, planned by guesswork. If two such days a week each cost an extra 12 miles and 20 minutes of planning, that's about 103 miles and 2.9 hours a month (24 x 4.3 miles, 40 x 4.3 minutes).

What the AI does

Spoke Route Planner is a route planning app for drivers. Its pricing page says the free plan offers the full routing experience for up to 10 stops a route, and Lite at $9.99 (about $9£7€8A$13C$13) a month allows unlimited stops, with spreadsheet import, adding stops by voice or camera, and arrival time windows. Add the day's addresses, let it work out the order, and drive it with built-in navigation. You still check the order makes sense for loading: what goes on first must come off last.

A worked example

A man and van owner in Manchester runs two collection and delivery days a week for furniture resellers and Marketplace buyers, with 6 to 10 stops each.

Before

About 20 minutes planning each day and about 12 wasted miles: 103 miles and 2.9 hours a month

After

Stops ordered in about 2 minutes a day; most of the 103 wasted miles a month gone

What it's worth

About $117£88€105A$169C$165 a month saved, on the free plan for routes of up to 10 stops. The 103 miles are worth about $41£31€37A$60C$58 at an assumed 30p a mile for fuel and wear, and 2.9 hours of planning is worth about $76£57€68A$109C$107 at an assumed $27£20€24A$38C$38 an hour, less the couple of minutes the app takes. Lite at $9.99 (about $9£7€8A$13C$13) a month is only needed for days with more than 10 stops.

How to set it up

  1. Download Spoke Route Planner and try it on next week's collection day.
  2. Add each address with its post code, and note which stops are collections and which are drops.
  3. Let it optimize, then move any stop that must come first for loading reasons or has a fixed time.
  4. Text each customer a rough time once the order is set.
  5. After a month, compare your mileage with the month before.

What goes wrong

  • The app orders stops by distance, not by how the van is loaded. Check the order against what's on board.
  • The pricing page lists a 10-stop limit on the free plan but its FAQ says the free plan has unlimited access to all features. Check the limit in the app before you rely on it.
  • Prices are in US dollars and billed monthly through the app store.
  • A wrong post code sends you to the wrong side of town. Check addresses before you set off.

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Last updated October 17, 2026.