5 Route Planning Mistakes That Cost Real Money
Discover the 5 most expensive route planning mistakes that waste fuel, time, and money. Learn how to optimize your delivery routes and save on operational costs.
The 5 Most Expensive Route Planning Mistakes
- Planning routes manually instead of using optimization software
- Manually entering addresses one-by-one instead of bulk importing
- Using route planners with stop limits that force inefficient route splitting
- Planning routes day-of instead of in advance
- Using static routes that don't adapt to changes
Poor route planning isn't just inconvenient—it's costing your business real money. Inefficient routing means wasted fuel, lost time, and missed opportunities. Businesses waste a significant portion of their fuel budget on unnecessary mileage, and inefficient routing costs without efficient route planning.
In this guide, we'll expose the five most expensive route planning mistakes that are costing your business real money—and show you exactly how to fix them using modern route optimization tools.
The Real Cost of Route Planning Mistakes
Businesses using manual route planning waste significantly more time and fuel compared to those using optimization software. These inefficiencies add up quickly, costing delivery operations substantial amounts each year.
Mistake #1: Planning Routes Manually Instead of Using Optimization Software
The most costly mistake businesses make is relying on manual route planning or simple "connect-the-dots" navigation tools like Google Maps. While Google Maps is excellent for getting from point A to point B, it doesn't optimize routes with multiple stops.
The Real Cost:
- Significantly more drive time due to inefficient stop sequencing
- Excessive fuel costs from unnecessary mileage
- Fewer deliveries completed per day per driver
- Increased vehicle wear from extra driving
Example: A delivery driver with 25 stops manually plans their route in the order addresses appear on their list. This seemingly logical approach can add substantial miles and hours to their daily route compared to an optimized sequence.
The Fix:
Use a dedicated route optimization tool that automatically calculates the most efficient sequence of stops. Modern algorithms consider distance and turn restrictions to minimize total drive time and mileage.
Potential Savings: Dramatically reduce fuel costs while completing significantly more deliveries each day.
Mistake #2: Manually Entering Addresses One-by-One
One of the most time-consuming and error-prone practices is manually typing each delivery address into your route planning system. This tedious process wastes valuable time every day and introduces the risk of typos that can send drivers to wrong locations. If you're working with addresses in spreadsheets, there are better ways to plan delivery routes from Excel.
The Real Cost:
- Wasted administrative time entering addresses manually
- Address entry errors leading to failed deliveries and wasted trips
- Delayed route planning because data entry takes so long
- Staff frustration from repetitive, mind-numbing tasks
Example: A dispatcher spends 30-45 minutes every morning typing addresses from emails and spreadsheets into their route planner. That's hours of wasted time each week that could be spent on more valuable tasks. Plus, one typo in a zip code sends a driver across town to the wrong address.
The Fix:
Use route planners with bulk import features. Simply copy and paste all your addresses at once from Excel, emails, or any text source. The system automatically processes and geocodes all addresses in seconds, eliminating manual data entry and reducing errors.
Potential Savings: Save hours of administrative time weekly and eliminate costly delivery errors from address typos.
Mistake #3: Using Route Planners with Stop Limits
Many route planning tools impose strict limits on how many stops you can add to a single route—often just 10 stops. This forces you to artificially split routes in inefficient ways, or worse, prevents you from planning large delivery runs altogether. When choosing a multi-stop route planner, unlimited stops should be a non-negotiable requirement.
The Real Cost:
- Forced route splitting that creates inefficient paths
- Inability to plan full delivery loads in one optimized route
- Backtracking and overlap when multiple partial routes cover the same area
- Extra fuel and time from non-optimized route divisions
Example: A delivery driver has 40 stops but their route planner only allows 25 stops. They're forced to split this into two separate routes, which creates overlap and backtracking. Both routes drive through the same neighborhoods, wasting time and fuel that a single optimized 40-stop route would have avoided.
The Fix:
Switch to route planners without arbitrary stop limits. EZRoutePlanner allows you to plan routes with as many stops as you need, ensuring your routes are optimized based on actual delivery requirements rather than artificial software restrictions.
Potential Savings: Eliminate inefficient route splitting and backtracking, reducing total mileage and drive time substantially.
Mistake #4: Planning Routes Day-Of Instead of in Advance
Waiting until the morning to plan routes creates unnecessary stress and prevents optimization. Last-minute planning often means accepting whatever route seems "good enough" rather than finding the truly optimal solution.
The Real Cost:
- Less efficient routes due to rushed planning
- Delayed departure times cutting into productive hours
- Inability to balance workloads across multiple drivers
- No time to address issues like closed roads or customer changes
Example: A field service company assigns jobs to technicians each morning. By 9 AM, they discover one technician has 8 jobs while another has only 3, all because there was no time to properly distribute and optimize the workload.
The Fix:
Plan tomorrow's routes today. Set a cutoff time (e.g., 4 PM) for accepting next-day orders, then optimize all routes in the afternoon. This gives you time to identify problems, balance workloads, and communicate optimized routes to drivers before they start their day. Using route planning tools that allow you to prepare routes in advance ensures drivers can hit the road efficiently first thing in the morning.
Potential Savings: Substantial improvement in route efficiency, plus earlier departure times leading to additional stops per day.
Mistake #5: Using Static Routes That Don't Adapt to Changes
The final costly mistake is creating a route once and never adjusting it, even when circumstances change. Road closures, new customers, and seasonal variations all affect route efficiency, but many businesses continue using the same outdated routes month after month.
The Real Cost:
- Significant efficiency loss as routes become outdated
- Missed opportunities to add nearby stops to existing routes
- Continued use of closed routes or construction zones
- Seasonal inefficiencies (school traffic, holiday shopping areas)
Example: A courier company created "perfect" routes for their regular delivery areas in January. By June, a new shopping center opened and road construction began—but they're still using the January routes, adding significant time to each driver's day.
The Fix:
Re-optimize routes regularly—at minimum monthly, but ideally daily for dynamic delivery operations. Modern route optimization software makes this easy by automatically adjusting for new stops, cancellations, and changing conditions. Make it a habit to refresh your routes regularly rather than relying on outdated plans.
Potential Savings: Maintain peak route efficiency year-round, preventing gradual efficiency erosion.
The Bottom Line: Stop Wasting Money on Inefficient Routes
These five mistakes are incredibly common, but they're also completely avoidable. Each one chips away at your profitability, wasting fuel, time, and driver productivity. Combined, they can cost delivery businesses thousands or even tens of thousands annually.
The good news? Fixing these mistakes doesn't require expensive software or complex training. Modern free route planning tools like EZRoutePlanner address all five of these issues with features like:
- Automatic route optimization that finds the most efficient stop sequence
- Bulk address import via copy-paste from any source
- Unlimited stops so you never have to split routes artificially
- Quick re-optimization to adapt to daily changes
Start Saving Money Today with Proper Route Planning
Whether you're managing one driver or an entire fleet, these principles apply. Optimize your routes, use bulk import features, avoid tools with artificial limits, plan ahead, and adapt to changes. Your bottom line will thank you.
Ready to optimize your routes?
Start planning optimized multi stop routes today. No signup required, completely free to use.
Plan Your Routes Now!Key Takeaways
- 1Switch from manual to optimized route planning to save on fuel and complete more deliveries
- 2Use bulk address import to save hours of data entry and eliminate costly typos
- 3Avoid tools with stop limits that force inefficient route splitting
- 4Plan routes in advance for better efficiency and balanced workloads
- 5Regularly re-optimize your routes to maintain peak efficiency as conditions change
Stop Losing Money—Start Optimizing
Every day you continue making these route planning mistakes is another day of lost revenue and wasted resources. EZRoutePlanner is free to use and addresses all five of these costly mistakes with an easy-to-use interface that requires no training.
Whether you're a solo delivery driver, a small business owner, or managing a large fleet, the principles remain the same: optimize your routes, use efficient tools, plan ahead, and adapt to changes. Learn more about the best free route planners available and start saving today.
About the Author: The EZRoutePlanner Team helps delivery and service businesses save money through intelligent route optimization. Our free route planning tool has helped thousands of drivers reduce fuel costs, complete more deliveries, and improve customer satisfaction.