Route Plan Template (Tourenplan)

A route plan – German: Tourenplan – brings order to the driving day: it defines the sequence in which a vehicle visits its stops, which time windows apply, and which order belongs to each stop. With this free template you plan daily routes in a structured way – the most popular version is the Excel sheet for dispatch, where stops can be re-ordered and routes copied as a template for next week; a PDF for the clipboard and a Word version round it out.

What belongs in a good route plan?

A route plan is more than a list of addresses. For drivers and dispatch to work from the same picture, it needs these details – the template has a dedicated column for each:

• Date, vehicle, and driver of the route
• Stop sequence with customer, address, and particulars of the unloading point
• Time window per stop (earliest/latest)
• Reference to the order number, so every stop maps to exactly one order
• Planned and actual arrival and departure times – the difference is the basis for post-calculation
• Remarks (notification requirements, tail lift, on-site contact)

How do I plan a route manually?

Manual route planning follows a few simple rules:

• Time windows first. Fixed appointments set the frame of the route – all flexible stops arrange themselves around them.
• Cluster stops geographically. Work through districts or postcode areas one after another instead of criss-crossing the territory.
• Build in buffers. Loading and unloading times are almost always underestimated – 10 to 15 minutes per stop plus a traffic reserve is realistic.
• Avoid peak hours. Schedule inner-city stops for off-peak times and keep the longest leg out of rush hour.

Excel or route planning software?

For one vehicle with stable, recurring routes, the template works well – set up cleanly once, little changes. Its limits show as soon as several vehicles, short-notice orders, or conflicting time windows enter the picture: manual planning quickly turns suboptimal, and that costs real money in empty kilometres, missed time windows, and routes that exist only in the dispatcher's head. A transport management system plans routes automatically, checks time windows against each other, and shows every vehicle live on the map – that is exactly what we built the Maxmove TMS for.