How to plan a delivery route with many stops

By the Multi Stop Route team. Published 2026-11-15.

Whether you deliver parcels, meals, flowers or flyers, the routine is the same: a clean list of addresses, a fixed start and end, the shortest order between them, and an easy way to drive it stop by stop.

1. Get the list ready

Put one address per line, with the street, the town and the state or ZIP code. Most planners, this one included, can take a list pasted from an email, a text or a spreadsheet column. Keep notes like gate codes out of the address line; add them to your own list instead.

2. Decide where the day starts and ends

Most delivery days start at a depot, a kitchen or a store. Choose whether you come back there at the end (a round trip), end at home (put home as the last line and choose to finish at your last line), or end wherever is quickest.

3. Put the stops in the best order

Paste the list, press the button, and the planner returns the order with the least driving, using real road times rather than straight lines. If a customer needs an early drop, move that stop up by hand after planning; the totals update.

4. Drive it

Tap Go on each stop to open it in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze, and tick it off when it is done. For a crew without phones in hand, print the run sheet: numbered stops with the drive time from the stop before.

5. Reuse the routes you drive every week

Meals on Wheels runs, lawn care rounds and newspaper routes repeat. Save the route with a name and load it again next week, then add or remove the stops that changed and plan again.

When you need more than a planner

If you dispatch several drivers, need proof of delivery photos, live tracking or text messages to customers, a paid delivery app is built for that. See how they compare on the compare page.

Plan it here

Paste your stops into the free multi stop route planner and press Put in the best order. Up to 50 stops, no sign up.

Sources read for this guide on 2026-11-15: Spoke (Circuit) pricing, RouteXL pricing.