How to Plan a Route with Multiple Stops

If you are running a delivery business, it’s likely that you’ll need to plan routes that have multiple stops on a regular basis. This can be a time consuming process, leading to inefficient routes, inflated fuel costs and unhappy drivers.

Although planning a route with multiple stops can be complicated, involving calculations and many permutations, using one of the many route planner tools that are available can actually be much easier than you think, allowing you to achieve optimal delivery routes in a matter of seconds.

In this blog, we’ll take a look at what’s involved in planning a route that has multiple stops - why it’s important to get it right and some of the tools that are available to help you do it effectively. We’ll do this by comparing how you can create these routes using two great multi-stop route planner tools that are available online.

If you want to know how to find quickest route between multiple destinations, then you’re in the right place! Let’s get started.

Understanding the Importance of Route Planning

Tools and Applications for Route Planning

When to Look for Alternatives to Google Maps

Using a Dedicated App to Plan a Route with Multiple Stops

Start Planning Stops with Multiple Stops using SmartRoutes

Understanding the Importance of Route Planning

Efficient route planning offers a wide range of benefits, particularly for businesses involved in transportation, delivery, logistics, or field services. The main advantages fall into several categories, primarily cost savings, time savings, increased delivery capacity, and environmental benefits.

Here’s a breakdown of the main benefits and specific savings:

1. Reduced Fuel Costs: Fuel is often the largest variable cost in transportation. Shorter distances, less idling and avoiding traffic are some of the ways effective route planning can reduce fuel usage. Depending on industry, you can expect savings in the region of 10% to 33%
2. Time Savings: Drivers spend less time on the road and avoid congested areas. This results in more deliveries completed each day, improved productivity and fewer overtime hours.
3. Lower Vehicle Maintenance Costs: Simply put - less miles driven equates to less wear and tear on your vehicles (e.g. tires, brakes, engine). This prolongs vehicle lifespan and reduces repair bills.
4. Increased Delivery Capacity: Complete more jobs per day without expanding your fleet or workforce. This delays the need to invest in more vehicles or staff
5. Lower Carbon Emissions: Reduced fuel consumption = lower CO₂ output. This helps meet sustainability targets and can support ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) reporting.

Tools and Applications for Route Planning

While there are many multiple stop route planner tools available, the two that we recommend are Google Maps and SmartRoutes. Each has its advantages, depending on your use case, which we will delve into shortly.

Option 1: How to Plan a Route with Multiple Stops on Google Maps

Google Route Planner is the route planning feature built into Google Maps. Begin by opening an extra tab in your browser or Google Maps on your phone and follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a list of your stops

First things first when planning a route with multiple stops - let's get all your stops jotted down in a list. It might be easiest to open a separate Word/Google Doc or spreadsheet - putting each of the addresses and/or postcodes on separate lines.

It's worth noting that Google Maps limits you to 10 stops when route planning. This includes your start location, so you are really limited to 9 destinations. [Why does google maps only allow 10 destinations? The simple answer is, because it's free! If you're looking for a route planner that allows for more than 10 stops and you want to include other constraints, it's best to look at paid solutions].

If you’ve got more than 9 stops to make, don’t worry. There are tools available that will make the task as easy as it is with Google Maps. We’ll look at them later in this guide.

Step 2. Enter your stops individually

Visit maps.google.com in your browser or open the Google Maps app on your phone.

Now it’s time to start inputting your stops into Google Maps. Put in your start location followed by the first stop on your route. It’s important to try to hazard a guess as to the best order to schedule your stops here, as Google will create the route in that specific order later.

Once you have input your first stop, you are going to click on the ‘+ Add destination’ below the address you have just put in.

You can then add another address from your list and the option to add another destination will appear below the list of stops again

Repeating this process, you can add up to 9 stops before entering your final destination as the tenth (likely to be the location you started from).

Step 3: Put your stops in your preferred order

Once you’ve added all the stops on your route, you might need to play around with it to find the most efficient route for you. Unfortunately, Google Maps doesn’t optimize routes for you automatically, so you’ll need to find the best way through a little trial and error here. Going through the different permutations can take 10-15 minutes before you discover what is the most efficient route.

To move the destinations or stops, you can select the 6 dots to the left of the address and drag it into place:

This should get you up and running on your first route. You can also send the directions to your phone if you do create your plan on a desktop, as shown in the image above.

While it’s not the perfect solution, it will definitely get you out of a hole and shave hours of needless manual planning with pen and paper (not to mind the wasted time and fuel on a guess-work route!).

Option 2: Mapping a Route with Multiple Destinations using SmartRoutes: 4 Easy Steps

To use SmartRoutes, you’ll first need to sign-up for a 7-day free trial. Don't worry, there is no obligation to input card details or make any upfront payment. When we say free, we mean it!

Once you have signed up and logged in, you can begin creating your first route.

Step 1. Input your list of stops

With SmartRoutes, you can manually enter your stops one at a time - or upload them all in one go. To manually enter one at a time, begin by selecting the ‘Create plan manually' button as highlighted in the screenshot below.

Now all you have to do is start typing in each of your addresses!

In addition, there are fields available for adding additional information on each stop like the name of person or customer you are delivering to, their phone number, how long you predict you will spend at a stop etc.

However, if you're creating a route with more than 10 stops, it may be easier to simply upload a CSV/Excel file with your addresses in separate rows to save you some time. To do so, you simply select the ‘Upload' button as circled in the screenshot below.

You can also include the details for each stop in their individual fields within the Excel sheet and they will be included on upload.

Once you input all your stops in the excel sheet, you can save it and upload it by either dragging it to the space outlined below, or selecting the Choose File' button and selecting your saved file from your folder.

Step 2: Add a vehicle/driver

Once you have finished uploading your file, you will be presented with your stops on the map along with the list of stops on the side. From here you can add vehicles/drivers if not already done so.

The benefit of adding more than one driver here, is that SmartRoutes will optimize the stops for your available drivers and vehicle, and find the quickest way to serve the stops using those available resources.

Step 3: Generate The Optimal Route

That's the work done, now you can simply click on the ‘Generate Routes' button and have an optimized route in a matter of seconds.

The route optimization algorithm can take into account many different factors, such as the start & end location of your driver, any applicable capacity constraints (e.g. the maximum number of stops a specific driver can complete) or even any specific territory that might be allocated to a driver.

Next step is to send the route to your mobile device where you can then follow your route using Google Maps while on the road. Do so by clicking ‘send to drivers'.

Step 4: View your route with multiple stops

Now that you've created a route with multiple stops, you can view the route and any notes you might have attached to the stops by selecting the ‘View Routes' text on the bottom corner of the screen.

This will give you more detail on what time you will arrive at each stop, what time you will finish the route and much more.

When to Look for Alternatives to Google Maps

Google Maps is a great option when trying to find the time it’ll take you to travel between two places. It’s free and easy to use. However, as the number of destinations you need to visit increases, things can get tricky. 

Google Maps doesn't automatically give you the quickest route with multiple stops as it's unable to optimize routes for you. You must manually reorder stops, which can be a tedious and time-consuming process. Imagine planning 100 stops on Google Maps - you'll have to split this into 10 different routes due to the 10-stop cap, then decide how to group them together, leaving much room for error.

If you are planning routes with more than 5 stops, or a more complex requirement (such as deciding how many goods/boxes will fit in your vehicle), we recommend looking for a dedicated route planner for multiple stops.

How to find the best route for multiple stops using SmartRoutes

Streamline your entire delivery process, all from one platform

Try it for free today

Using a Dedicated App to Plan the Quickest Route with Multiple Stops

SmartRoutes is the best way to plan a route with multiple stops. Route planning software helps you to plan a route with multiple stops in the quickest and most effective way possible. We have done this by creating a solution that solves for the limitations of Google Maps, with some additional features. Some of the key differences between Google Maps and a dedicated route planner are:

• No limits on the number of stops or destinations allowed
• Automated route optimization that finds the quickest route in seconds
• The ability to re-route on the go
• The ability to attach notes and location/customer details to each stop

Additionally, you have features outside of route optimization, such as proof of delivery, customer notifications, driver tracking, live ETAs, etc.

The reality is, tools like SmartRoutes are designed to help create the best route for multiple stops, whereas Google Maps is a basic solution that works best for routing between a limited number of destinations.

Start Planning Stops with Multiple Stops using SmartRoutes

As you've learned above, the best way to plan a route with multiple stops is with a specifically designed route planner tool like SmartRoutes.

While Google Maps is one of the most reliable solutions out there, it simply isn't designed for the task of planning routes with multiple stops. Ultimately, it is a consumer focused tool that helps people navigate their way along routes in the course of their everyday lives.

SmartRoutes has a whole host of features that are designed with the needs of businesses doing multiple deliveries or visits with any number of vehicles and drivers.

Experience it firsthand by signing up for a free trial and see how it benefits your business over the next 7 days.

If you enjoyed this blog, you might also be interested in:

The Complete Guide to Multi Stop Route Planning

Multi-stop route planning is incredibly complex and difficult to do well. Luckily for you we have put considerable resources into developing technological solutions that are proven to work.

SmartRoutesBrendan Tobin

10 Best Multi Drop Route Planners

Find the best solution for your delivery operations

SmartRoutesCaroline Hassett

How to Plan a Delivery Route | SmartRoutes

Discover expert insights on how to plan a delivery route and delve into the step-by-step process of planning delivery routes efficiently.

SmartRoutesCaroline Hassett