In this guide (10)
- What is the difference between van sales and route orders?
- How do you plan sales routes?
- What is a minimum drop and how do you set one?
- How do you load a van and reconcile it each evening?
- How do you reconcile cash and payments on a route?
- Which numbers should you track for each rep and route?
- How do you keep prices and discounts under control on the road?
- What does a good daily route routine look like?
- How EasyTaskr helps
- Questions people ask
Key takeaways
- Choose van sales, pre-selling or a mix based on how predictable your customers' orders are.
- Visit your best customers most often; not every account deserves a weekly call.
- Every delivery drop has a cost, so set a minimum order that covers it.
- Reconcile van stock and cash every evening, before anyone goes home.
- Track strike rate, drop size and lines per order for each rep and route.
What is the difference between van sales and route orders?
With van sales, a rep drives a loaded van, sells to the customer at the door and hands over the goods and the invoice at once. With route orders, also called pre-selling, a rep visits on a fixed route, takes the order, and a separate delivery brings it later, usually the next day.
Many wholesalers end up with a mix: pre-sell the larger accounts, and send a van with spare stock for small shops and top-up orders. Choose based on how predictable your customers are and how much stock you can afford to carry around.
| Van sales | Pre-selling (route orders) | Hybrid | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer gets goods | Immediately | Next delivery | Both |
| Stock on the road | High | Low (only ordered goods) | Medium |
| Order size | Often smaller | Often larger, planned | Mixed |
| Range you can offer | Limited to what fits in the van | Your full range | Full range ordered, top-ups from van |
| Risk of stock loss | Higher, needs daily counts | Lower | Medium |
| Best for | Small shops, impulse lines, short shelf life | Larger accounts, wide ranges | Growing distributors |
How do you plan sales routes?
Group customers by area into one route per day, then set how often each customer is visited by what they are worth to you. The common mistake is visiting every customer every week, which spends your best hours on your smallest accounts.
Sort customers into three groups by their sales over the last three months:
- A customers: the top fifth or so, who usually bring most of your sales. Visit weekly.
- B customers: the middle group. Visit every two weeks.
- C customers: the long tail. Visit monthly and take phone or online orders in between.
Worked example. You have 120 customers across five route days. If you visited everyone weekly, that is 24 calls a day. At 15 minutes per visit plus 10 minutes of driving between stops, 24 calls take 600 minutes, ten hours, before loading and paperwork. That does not work.
Split them instead:
| Group | Customers | Visit every | Visits per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 20 | 1 week | 20 |
| B | 40 | 2 weeks | 20 |
| C | 60 | 4 weeks | 15 |
| Total | 120 | 55 |
55 visits over five days is 11 a day, about 4 hours 35 minutes at 25 minutes each. That leaves time for loading, problem calls and collecting money, and you can still see every customer at least once a month.
Keep each customer on the same day of the week. Customers plan their ordering around your visit, and a fixed day is often worth more to them than a lower price.
What is a minimum drop and how do you set one?
A minimum drop is the smallest order you will deliver. Every stop costs you driver time, fuel and vehicle wear, so an order too small to cover that cost loses money even when the margin looks fine.
Cost per drop = daily van cost ÷ drops per day
Break-even order = cost per drop ÷ gross margin
Worked example. A van and driver cost you 300 a day, covering wages, fuel, lease and insurance. The van makes 15 drops a day, so each drop costs 20. Your average gross margin is 20%.
- Break-even order = 20 ÷ 0.20 = 100
An order of 100 only pays for its own delivery. To make a profit on the drop, a minimum around 150 makes sense here, or a delivery charge on orders below it. Recalculate when fuel, wages or drop numbers change.
How do you load a van and reconcile it each evening?
Load from a written load sheet, count the van out, and count it back in every evening. The formula is the same for every product:
Opening van stock + loaded − sold − returned to warehouse − damaged = closing van stock
If the closing count does not match the formula, you have a difference to explain before the driver leaves.
Worked example for one van, one day:
| Product | Opening | Loaded | Sold | Damaged | Expected closing | Counted | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bottled water, case of 12 | 10 | 40 | 38 | 1 | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| Crisps, box of 24 | 6 | 20 | 21 | 0 | 5 | 4 | −1 |
| Cooking oil, 5 litre | 4 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| Washing powder, case | 3 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
One box of crisps is missing. It may be an unrecorded sale, a miscount at loading, or a loss. Find out the same evening while the driver still remembers the day. A difference left until the weekly stocktake is almost impossible to trace.
Customer returns follow the same logic in reverse: record them as they happen, with a reason, and keep damaged stock separate from goods that can be resold.
How do you reconcile cash and payments on a route?
Every amount the rep collects must match two things: the cash or cheques handed in, and the payments recorded against customer accounts.
Worked example. A rep's day:
- Cash sales from the van: 2,340
- Payments collected against credit accounts: 1,860 (three customers, each with a receipt)
- Expected to hand in: 4,200
- Counted at the office: 4,180
That is a shortfall of 20. Small differences happen, but they must be recorded and explained, not quietly absorbed. Repeated shortfalls on the same route point to a process problem or something worse.
Good habits:
- Give a receipt for every payment, and record it against the customer's account the same day.
- Count the money with the rep present, then lock it away.
- Never let a rep "net off" a payment against a return or a discount without a credit note.
- Check that credit customers are within their limit before the van leaves, so the rep knows who must pay on the day. See customer credit for wholesalers.
The office side of the evening count works like a shop's till count; the end-of-day cash-up guide covers the routine.
Which numbers should you track for each rep and route?
Track a few numbers per rep and per route every week. They show where a route is weak far faster than total sales does.
| Measure | How to work it out | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Strike rate | Visits with an order ÷ total visits | Whether visits are worth making |
| Average drop size | Sales value ÷ number of orders | Whether orders cover the cost of delivery |
| Lines per order | Order lines ÷ number of orders | Whether reps sell the range or only take repeats |
| Collections | Money collected ÷ money due on the route | Whether credit is under control |
| Returns rate | Value returned ÷ value sold | Damage, short dates or over-selling |
Worked example. A rep made 52 visits this week and took 39 orders worth 15,600 in total, with 234 lines.
- Strike rate = 39 ÷ 52 = 75%
- Average drop = 15,600 ÷ 39 = 400
- Lines per order = 234 ÷ 39 = 6
If another rep has a similar strike rate but 3 lines per order, they are probably taking the customer's usual items and not mentioning anything new. A short list of two or three lines to offer on every visit usually lifts this.
How do you keep prices and discounts under control on the road?
Fix prices in the system, not in the rep's head. Each customer should have one price list, and any discount beyond it needs approval.
- Give each customer group its own price list, so a rep cannot quote the wrong price by mistake.
- Set a maximum discount a rep can give without approval, and record the reason for every discount.
- Run the same promotions for every rep in the same week, so customers on different routes do not compare notes and feel cheated.
- Check profit by product monthly. A line that only sells at a heavy discount may not deserve van space.
What does a good daily route routine look like?
Morning
- Load from the load sheet; count out and sign.
- Print or open the day's customer list with balances and any overdue amounts.
- Note the two or three lines to offer on every call.
On the route
- Take or deliver each order, with an invoice for every sale.
- Record payments with a receipt.
- Record returns and damage with a reason, at the customer.
Evening
- Count van stock back in and explain every difference.
- Count cash and payments with the rep present.
- Turn tomorrow's pre-sold orders into a picking list for the warehouse.
- Close the day so nothing can be changed afterwards without a record.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between van sales and pre-selling?
In van sales the rep carries stock and delivers at the time of sale. In pre-selling the rep takes the order and a separate delivery follows, usually the next day.
How many customer visits can a rep make in a day?
It depends on travel time and how long each visit takes. Measure your own average visit and travel time for a week, then plan routes from those figures rather than a target number.
How do you stop stock going missing from vans?
Count the van out and back in every day, record every sale, return and damage as it happens, and have someone other than the driver sign off the evening count.
Should reps collect payments on the route?
They can, if every payment is recorded against the customer's account with a receipt and the cash is counted and handed in the same day.
