How to plan deliveries and driver routes with the Delivery Planner

How an order travels through the planner

You never type stops in. Each order with the Delivery method gives the planner a delivery on its event start day and a pickup on its event end day. Each stop waits on the plan for its own day until you put it on a truck. Publishing sends the trucks to your drivers' phones, and what a driver does at the door comes back to the order.

Set your planner defaults

Open the planner and tell it how long your crew spends at a stop and how a new truck should start. Every stop and truck you add afterwards picks these up, so you set them once.

1. Click Orders in the top navigation, then Delivery Planner in the toolbar. The planner opens in its own browser tab, so your orders stay open in the first one. Back to PRS at the right of the planner bar switches back to it.
2. In the dark planner bar, click Settings.
3. Check Depot. It shows your business address from Settings › Delivery Fee, read-only, because that address also prices your deliveries. If it is wrong, click Change in Settings › Delivery Fee.
4. Under Time at each stop, pick a Default setup time for deliveries and a Default takedown time for pickups: 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, 60 min, or Other… to type your own. Sunny Day Party Rentals uses 30 minutes for both.
5. Under New trucks, choose Timed or Flexible (Step 05 explains the difference). For Timed, set Leaves the depot at, here 7:00 AM.
6. Click Save settings.

Add your drivers

A driver is a team member with the Driver role. Each one signs in with their own email and password and sees only their own routes, so every driver needs a login of their own. Here Sunny Day Party Rentals adds Ana Torres next to Marcus Reed.

1. In the planner bar, click Drivers, then Manage drivers in Users & Permissions. It opens Manage Users & Permissions in your main tab.
2. Click Add user. If the button is missing, your account has used all its user logins (the count next to Current Users): ask Party Rental Studio support for more.
3. Fill in First name, Last name, Email and Mobile number, and type a Password for them.
4. Under Role, click Driver. The panel underneath lists what a driver can and cannot do.
5. Click Save user. The login works straight away, and no email is sent.
6. Give the driver the email and password you set. They sign in on the same page as the rest of your team and go straight to their own routes, not your back office.

Back in the planner, the Drivers tab lists every active driver with their Mobile number, when they Last signed in, and which truck they are on each day for the next 14 days. A solid badge is a published plan the driver can see; a dashed one is a draft. It is a schedule to read, not a place to edit people: names, numbers, passwords and deactivating someone all happen in Users & Permissions.

Save your trucks to the Fleet (optional)

The Fleet is your list of vehicles, each with a plate and a colour. You can skip it and name trucks on each plan instead. Saving them means a truck looks the same on every plan and every map, and takes one click to add.

1. In the planner bar, click Fleet, then + Add vehicle.
2. Type a Name or unit number, here #401. Description and Plate are optional: 16' Box Truck with liftgate, and 8XKT402.
3. Click Add vehicle. The vehicle gets a colour of its own, used for its column, its pins and its route line.
4. To pick a different colour, click Edit on its row, choose one under Colour on the board and map, and click Save.

Two more lists can appear under your saved vehicles:

• Added on the fly lists trucks you named on a plan without saving them, such as a rental. Click Add to fleet if you end up keeping one.
• Retire takes a vehicle off the board's truck list but keeps it on past plans. Retired vehicles are listed under Retired, with Reactivate to bring one back.

Create a plan for the day

A plan is one day of routes. Make one for each day you deliver on, and it gathers that day's stops for you.

1. Click Plans in the planner bar, then Create New Plan.
2. Pick the day under Select Date, here 09/19/26. If that day already has a plan, the window says so and offers Open Existing Plan instead.
3. Leave Copy trucks and drivers from Sat, Sep 12 ticked to start with the trucks, drivers and start times of your most recent plan before that day. Stops are never copied.
4. Click Create Plan. With trucks copied, the new plan opens straight away. Without, it is added to the list: click it to open it.

As you work, the Plans tab keeps a row per day with how many of its stops are assigned, its trucks and drivers, and a status: Draft, Ready to publish once every stop is on a truck and every truck has what it needs, or Published. Problems show as warnings on the row, such as T2 has no driver or 1 stop arrives late.

Add trucks and choose Timed or Flexible

Each truck on a plan is one route for one driver. The copy brought T1, the #401 box truck with Marcus Reed leaving at 7:00 AM, for the morning deliveries. Ana Torres will take a rented U-Haul out in the evening to collect everything once the parties are over.

1. Click + Add truck at the right end of the board.
2. To add a saved vehicle, click it in the list. Typing part of a unit number narrows the list. Vehicles already on the day are left out and named under Already on this day, here #401 (T1).
3. For a truck that isn't in your fleet, type its name, here U-Haul 3, and click + Add "U-Haul 3". Add a Plate or Description if you like, leave Save to my fleet off for a one-day rental, and click Add U-Haul 3.
4. In the new truck's column, choose its driver from Select driver: Ana Torres.
5. Choose Timed or Flexible. A timed truck also needs the time it leaves the depot, in the clock box next to it.

Timed or Flexible?

• Timed trucks leave at a set time. Every stop gets a drive time and an arrival time, and a delivery that arrives after its event starts is flagged late. Use it when the clock matters, such as morning deliveries racing party start times.
• Flexible trucks keep only the order of their stops: Stop order only, no times. Use it for a run like Ana's evening pickups, where the order matters but no one is waiting at a set time.

Assign stops from the map or the Unassigned list

The board has a map of every stop across the top, the Unassigned column on the left, and one column per truck. Every stop for the plan's day starts in Unassigned: Saturday has 12, a delivery and a pickup for each of six orders.

Reading the map

• A white tag with a green D is a delivery waiting for a truck; an orange P is a pickup. When both of an order's stops are waiting, they share one tag split D | P.
• A coloured circle with a number is a stop on a truck, in the truck's colour, numbered by its place on the route.
• The black H is your depot.

Three ways to put a stop on a truck

1. From the map: click a pin. Its card shows the event and lists your trucks under Assign to, the one with the Closest stop first. Click a truck and the stop goes in right after that closest stop. On a split D | P tag, choose Delivery or Pickup at the top of the card first.
2. With the numbered squares: each card in Unassigned has one small square per truck, numbered and coloured like the trucks. Click 1 to add the stop to the end of T1. With more than five trucks the squares become an Assign ▾ button.
3. By dragging: drag a card into a truck's column, or drag stops up and down within a column to change their order. × on a stop sends it back to Unassigned.

Finding and adjusting stops

• The time on a card is when the event starts (for a delivery) or ends (for a pickup). The minutes box is the setup or takedown time for that one stop: Maria Alvarez's castle, tables and chairs get 45 minutes instead of 30.
• Plan day shows only the plan's own date. ±1 day, 7 days and Custom bring in stops from other days, for example a Sunday pickup you want to do on Saturday's last run. The search box finds an order number, client or city.

Recalculate arrival times and fix late stops

A timed truck doesn't redo its times on every change, so you can move several stops first. When the order looks right, you ask for the times.

1. After any change to a timed truck, its column shows Stops changed. ETAs are out of date. and the map joins its stops with dashed straight lines.
2. Click Recalculate. Each stop gets the drive time and distance from the one before it, and an arrival time on the right. The line under the truck's name now shows when it is back at base, the miles, and how many stops are late.
3. Look for a red late time: a delivery arriving after its event starts. Daniel Brooks's party starts at 11:00 AM, but last on the truck the castle gets there at 11:17 AM.
4. Drag the late stop to where it fits, here between Maria Alvarez and Kevin Park, and click Recalculate again. Brooks now gets his castle at 8:52 AM, and T1 reads 6 stops · 07:00 AM to 12:00 PM · 50 mi, with nothing late.

A pickup the other way round, timed before its event ends, shows early in amber. The truck's chip in the bar under the map gets a red ! while any of its stops is late.

Flexible trucks: Optimize order

A flexible truck has no times to recalculate, and saves every change as you make it. Ana's six pickups went on in the order the parties end, which zigzags across the county.

1. Double-click a truck's chip in the bar under the map to show only that truck on the map. Show all on map brings the others back.
2. On a flexible truck with three or more stops, click Optimize order. The stops are put in the shortest-drive order, here one loop from the depot: Brooks in Tustin, Shah in Orange, Park in Santa Ana, Ortiz in Costa Mesa, then Alvarez and Whitfield in Irvine.
3. Drag any stop that has to go earlier, or click Undo to put the old order back.

Publish the plan

Drivers see nothing until you publish. Publishing sends each truck's route to its driver's phone and locks the plan, so the route a driver is following can't change under them.

1. Check the top of the board: 12 of 12 stops assigned · 2 trucks. Stops left in Unassigned don't stop you publishing, but they won't be on anyone's route.
2. Click Publish Plan. Every truck needs a driver who is still active, and every timed truck a start time. Any truck still waiting for Recalculate is recalculated first, so drivers get the order on your screen.
3. Plan published. Drivers can now see their routes. appears, the plan is marked PUBLISHED, and the board reads Locked while published.

To change a published plan, click Unpublish and confirm. Drivers stop seeing its routes, you can edit trucks and stops again, and you click Publish Plan when you're done.

When an order changes after you assign it

Orders keep changing after you plan. The board checks for changes whenever you come back to its tab: new orders appear in Unassigned, and a stop already on a truck is never moved for you. Instead it is flagged in red under the client's name, with one of these:

• Cancelled since it was assigned, or Turned into a quote since it was assigned
• Moved to Sun, Sep 20 since it was assigned, when the event date changed
• Address changed since it was assigned. A timed truck also asks for Recalculate.
• No longer needs this trip (order deleted or changed to client pickup)

Print route sheets and packing slips

Some crews like paper. The route sheet is one page per truck for its driver; the packing slips are for whoever loads the trucks.

1. Click Print ▾ at the top of the board.
2. Choose Route sheets for one page per truck with stops, or Packing slips for one slip per order on the plan, in truck and stop order. Either opens in a new tab, ready to print.
3. To print a single truck, use Print route sheet or Print packing slips in that truck's ⋯ menu.

What's on a route sheet

• The truck and its vehicle, the driver and their mobile, when it leaves and is back, and the number of stops and miles.
• The LOAD LIST: every setup item the truck's deliveries need, added up, each with a box to tick. Items are matched to each order's setup surface, as on the Packing Slip (see How to Add Setup Items to Your Products).
• When an order has no surface, its surface-only items can't be counted. The load list names the stop, and the stop itself says Surface not set and asks the driver to check with the customer.
• Every stop in order: Delivery or Pickup, its arrival time and event time, the client's name, phone and address, the items, the surface, the order note, and a Done box. No prices.
• A pickup truck's sheet lists what to bring home under Bring back from pickups. A flexible truck's sheet has no arrival times.

What your drivers do on the road

Drivers sign in on their phone and land on My routes. They see only their own trucks on published plans, and never see prices: just the balance still due on each stop. Here is Marcus at about 10:20 on Saturday morning, four stops in.

1. My routes shows Today with each of the driver's trucks, how many stops are done, and the next one. Upcoming lists routes on later published plans, and Recent the last 7 days. The driver taps Open today's route.
2. The route page puts the next stop at the top with Navigate ↗, which opens Apple Maps on an iPhone or iPad and Google Maps everywhere else, and Call when the client has a phone number. All stops lists the day in order. The driver taps Open stop.

3. The stop page has everything for that client except prices: the address, the surface, each item with its setup items and setup instructions, the order note, any order questions, and the client's signature if they signed online.
4. When money is due, the driver taps Collect payment, chooses Cash or Check (with an optional check number), checks the Amount received and taps Record $180.00 cash. It can be less than the balance, which leaves the rest due, but never more.
5. If the client paid another way or will pay the office, the driver taps Add a note instead (or + Add a note) and picks Paid by Zelle / Venmo / Cash App, Will pay the office or Other, with details if needed. A note never changes the balance.
6. Under Photos, the driver can tap + to add up to six photos of the setup.
7. Finally the driver taps Mark delivered ✓ (or Mark picked up ✓ on a pickup). The bar turns into ✓ Delivered 10:41 AM, with an Undo only that driver can use, and only that day.

Follow the day from the office

Whatever a driver does at a stop lands on the order and on the board, under their name, so nobody has to call in.

• On the board: today's published plan checks for drivers' done ticks about once a minute while it is on screen, and any plan checks when you come back to its tab. A done stop shows a green tick and the time in place of its arrival time, and the truck's line counts them: 5 of 6 done.
• On the Orders page: each order on a truck gets a chip per stop, with the truck, the driver's first name and the stop number, then the arrival time, or the time it was done: ✓ Delivered 10:41 AM. Hover a chip for the details, or click it to open the plan.
• On the order: the Route card shows each leg with its truck, driver, vehicle, stop number and arrival time, and ✓ Delivered 10:41 AM by Marcus Reed once it's done. Open plan on #401 → takes you to the board.
• Payment Information shows the driver's payment as Cash on the day it was taken, and the balance goes down. Invoice History names the driver on each entry: Cash payment of $180.00 recorded, Delivered (T1 #401, stop 5 of 6), and any note for the office.