How to plan a route with multiple stops (even more than 10)

Why Google Maps isn't enough for many stops

Google Maps is excellent for getting from A to B, but it isn't a route optimizer. When you add stops it keeps them in your order. Finding the best order is a hard problem (the 'travelling salesman problem'): with just 15 stops there are more than a trillion possible orders, so guessing rarely gets close.

• About ten stops per route, so a real delivery day has to be split up by hand.
• No reordering: it won't tell you that stop 7 should come before stop 3.
• No time windows, locked stops or 'deliver this one first' rules.

Step 1: Put all your addresses in one list

Start from wherever your stops live: a spreadsheet from your dispatcher, a list in a chat message, printed parcel labels or a handful you know by heart. Get them into one list before you plan; it's the moment to spot duplicates and missing house numbers.

Step 2: Decide where the route starts and ends

The start and end change the best order completely, so decide them first:

• Return to start: you finish back at the depot or at home.
• End at an address: you finish somewhere else, such as a second depot.
• End at the last stop: you simply stop when the last delivery is done.

Step 3: Add the rules that matter

Most stops can go anywhere in the order, but a few usually can't. Tell your planner about them before optimizing, not after:

• Time windows, for customers who are only in between 9 and 11.
• Locked stops, such as a pickup that must come first or a drop that must come last.
• Priority stops, such as urgent or perishable parcels.
• Service time: how long you spend at each stop. Two to five minutes is typical for a parcel drop.

Step 4: Optimize for fastest or shortest

Fastest gives the order with the least driving time using expected traffic, which is usually what you want in a city. Shortest gives the fewest kilometres, which saves fuel on quiet or rural roads and may take a little longer. If your start time matters, set it: the morning rush and a mid-afternoon run give different answers.

Step 5: Check the pins before you drive

The single biggest time-waster on a delivery day is a pin in the wrong place. Before you set off, scan the map for any stop that sits far away from the others or in the middle of a field. Fixing one bad pin at home saves a lot of time on the road.

Step 6: Adapt as the day goes

Plans change. A customer calls, a road is closed, a new pickup arrives. Drag a stop to a new position when you know better, add the new stop and optimize again; a good planner re-times the rest of the route instead of starting over.

Doing all of this with Route Planner

Route Planner was built for exactly this job, and it's free with no stop cap:

• Add stops by typing, pasting a whole list, scanning a label, speaking or dropping a pin.
• Set your start and end, time windows, locked and priority stops, then optimize for fastest or shortest in one tap.
• Drive with turn-by-turn voice guidance or open each stop in Google Maps on its exact pin.