4 Route Planner Alternatives: Finding Delivery Software to Fit Your Business

In this post, I cover 4 route planner alternatives, including:

Circuit Route Planner - The easy-to-use delivery tool for businesses of all sizes focuses on improving last-mile delivery processes, from route planning to driver management.
WorkWave Route Manager - A field service management platform that also offers route management tools, suited for specific industries such as landscaping and pest control.
MyRouteOnline - A lightweight route planning tool for delivery teams who don’t need features such as driver tracking and order updates.
Bringg - A route planner competitor that focuses on larger enterprises that need fleet management software.

If you need delivery management software for your business and you manage a team of drivers, Circuit is a cost-effective solution.

Circuit: A Delivery Software for All Types of Businesses

We originally developed Circuit as a route optimization app for individual delivery drivers. Drivers use the Circuit Route Planner mobile app (available for both iPhone/iOS and Android devices) to plan the fastest route possible. And by completing more stops in less time, drivers were able to lower costs while increasing earnings.

As we continued to improve our product based on feedback from our customers, you told us that you wanted an easy-to-use, scalable, all-in-one delivery management app that could be used by entire delivery teams — not just individual drivers.

So, we developed Circuit for Teams, a platform that delivery teams can use to improve their last-mile delivery service. Since then, our software has been used by thousands of teams, handling everything from food delivery to local delivery for pharmacies.

Specifically, Circuit for Teams lets you:

Optimize the fastest routes possible for multiple drivers.
Monitor routes in progress (GPS driver tracking).
Automatically send out recipient notifications (customer updates).
Get proof of delivery.

Note: If you’re looking for a route planner alternative because you need a route optimization solution and don’t need delivery team management features, click here to learn about our route planner.

Route Optimization

Route optimization is the cornerstone of our delivery software and is included in every plan we offer. With Circuit for Teams, there’s no limit to how many stops you can optimize in a route, as well as no limit to how many routes you can create.

You can quickly create routes by uploading addresses into Circuit via our spreadsheet import.

Bulk add addresses - upload data from many different types of files.

You can also manually enter addresses into the Circuit app. Manual entry is a plus because unlike platforms like Tookan, delivery drivers can add addresses while on the go, without having to rely on dispatch HQ to update the route.

Once the addresses are loaded into your Circuit dashboard, you can customize the route.

Choose whether an address should have normal priority or should be reached as soon as possible. Specifically, you can set:

Priority stops: Set which stop you want your drivers to make first. This is ideal for businesses who want to offer priority shipping or rush deliveries.
Time windows: Give stops a time window, such as making sure specific stops happen in the morning or afternoon. You can use time windows to help make sure a delivery driver is done with their route by a certain time. Or if you’re delivering to businesses, you can make sure that your time window coincides with their hours of operation.
Average time per stop: By telling our software how long each stop should take, we can optimize a more efficient route. (For example, if your driver has 30 stops and each stop has an average time per stop of 15 minutes, then their most efficient route is going to be different than if they were only expected to spend 5 minutes at each stop due to traffic patterns and other variables.)

Once you’ve planned and customized your route, you can send the route to your drivers.

Next, your delivery drivers will log into their Circuit app on their smartphones. They select their route and then click “Start Route.” They can use the Circuit app along with their preferred navigation system (such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Waze).

When your driver makes a delivery, they mark it as complete and then our software moves them onto the next stop.

Route Monitoring (GPS Tracking)

Delivery teams can use our software to easily monitor ongoing routes and get real-time updates from each driver. And our GPS tracking provides you with added context to your driver’s whereabouts.

From your Circuit dashboard, you can see which stops your driver recently completed, where they’re going next, and their most up-to-date estimated time of arrival.

There’s another added benefit to having route monitoring — and that’s providing customers with an ETA of their delivery. If a customer calls into your delivery business to ask about the status of their order, you can quickly reference your Circuit dashboard to give them an ETA.

But there’s also another way to keep your customers informed — recipient notifications, which we discuss below.

Recipient Notifications (Customer Updates)

Text messages will notify customers when packages are out for delivery and when they will be arriving soon. When you use Circuit for Teams, you can send your customers automated notifications about the status of their delivery.

The first notification goes out when your driver clicks “Start Route” on their app. In this message, your customer gets an ETA of when their package will arrive along with a link to a dashboard where they can check on the route in progress. (In your account preferences, you can choose whether you want your customers to receive an email, a SMS message, or both.)

The second notification goes out when your driver is close to completing the stop. Your customers get an updated ETA, along with an option to message their driver directly. This means customers can ask their delivery driver not to ring the doorbell or give them more specific directions on how to find their address.

Proof of Delivery (POD)

Once the delivery is made, your drivers can use our mobile app to capture electronic proof of delivery (POD). Your delivery drivers can either get a customer’s signature or take a photo of where they left the package.

If a signature is needed/requested, then your driver uses their smartphone to collect the customer’s signature.

Both types of POD are uploaded to the Circuit app and shared with the customer by email, as well as stored in Circuit so you can access it whenever you need to.

This gives all parties involved peace of mind, and can help solve any potential disputes about missing or damaged parcels.

Circuit for Teams vs. Tookan: An Overview

Tookan is built as an enterprise and workforce management system, which means it has features which may actually be overkill for your business, such as driver analytics and driver reviews.

Both of these are handy for larger enterprises who can’t oversee their massive delivery team, or are potentially managing their delivery drivers from a different zip code. But if you don’t need those features, then you’re paying a monthly fee for a software not catered towards your needs.

Circuit for Teams is a viable Tookan alternative for small to midsize delivery teams, or teams that exclusively want to improve their last-mile delivery operations by making fast and efficient deliveries.

WorkWave Route Manager: A Field Service Management Software with Route Management Features

While Tookan is marketed towards larger delivery services, it’s not necessarily built out for specific industries. WorkWave, however, has custom-made route management solutions for industries such as plumbing, landscaping, HVAC, and pest service.

For example, with their pest service software, your field service representatives get access to a scheduling platform that lets them pull up customer information (such as last time their house was serviced).

But WorkWave also offers a more generic route management option, WorkWave Route Manager, which can be used in most types of businesses.

Their route manager comes in three different tiers.

WorkWave Route Manager This plan is for delivery teams that don’t need automated customer notifications (such as shipping updates) or route monitoring but simply need route optimization and an API connection that lets you easily get all of your addresses.
WorkWave Manager 360 In this plan, your delivery team can now get customer notifications and route monitoring.
WorkWave Manager 360+ This is the most advanced plan that you can get through WorkWave. It has GPS tracking (through a hardwired GPS tracker into the vehicle itself) and driver analytics.

MyRouteOnline: A Light-Weight Route Planning Tool

If you’re looking for a lightweight alternative to Tookan — specifically a tool built around route optimization — then you might like MyRouteOnline.

MyRouteOnline lets delivery teams optimize routes with up to 350 addresses. Similar to Circuit, delivery managers can import addresses into MyRouteOnline via an Excel or CSV file.

When you’re using MyRouteOnline, you can plan routes in three different ways:

Minimize distance
Minimize time
Balance distance and time

But it’s important to remember that MyRouteOnline is only a routing tool. Unlike Circuit for Teams, Tookan, and WorkWave Route Manager, you can’t use MyRouteOnline to monitor routes, send customer updates, or capture proof of delivery.

MyRouteOnline is similar to another popular route planning tool — SpeedyRoute. There are three different pricing tiers available on SpeedyRoute.

Single Driver You can optimize a route of up to 100 stops for one driver for $39 per month.
Small Team You can create routes of up to 500 stops for up to 5 drivers for $69 per month.
Large Team You can create routes with no limit on the number of stops and for up to 10 drivers for $99 a month.

MyRouteOnline vs. the Circuit Route Planner for Individual Drivers

As we mentioned above, we first developed Circuit as a route planning app for individual drivers to optimize their delivery routes. This option is available as our Route Planner for Android and iOS, helping drivers and couriers double the number of deliveries they can make in a day.

One of the differences between MyRouteOnline and the Circuit Route Planner is the pricing.

With Circuit, you pay $20 a month, and you can optimize as many routes as you want (with up to 500 stops per route). But with MyRouteOnline, you’re paying for what they call “address credits” — every unique address costs 1 credit.

Here’s the breakdown:

100 credits costs $29
500 credits costs $59
1200 credits costs $109

You can reuse the same address within 30 days without being charged additional credit. This means if you’re delivering weekly to the same location, then MyRouteOnline could save you a bit of money. But if you’re adding new addresses or growing your business, then the Circuit Route Planner flat rate of $20 will be more cost-efficient.

Bringg: Another Enterprise Delivery Management Software

You might be looking for a Tookan alternative because of other issues (perhaps the Tookan interface doesn’t work well with your team, or you’ve received poor customer service) but you still need a tool built for enterprise delivery management.

In that case, Bringg may be a good alternative. Bringg is designed to be a perfect fit for larger companies that need both on-demand delivery features and software that integrates with their supply chain management.

You can use Bringg to integrate with your eCommerce platform (like Shopify or Magento), pulling orders directly out of an online store and putting them into Bringg’s delivery management system. Plus, you can track inventory with printable barcodes.

When it comes to last-mile processes, your team can use bring to optimize routes, capture proof of delivery, and even set up automation that lets a last-minute order placed by a customer go to a driver with open availability and available stock. (To make sure these features are worthwhile, you’d have a delivery business where your drivers are in vehicles with extra inventory.)

Note: Delivery businesses interested in Bringg may also want to consider Onfleet. To learn how those two brands compare to one another, check out our Bringg vs Onfleet comparison.

Finding a Route Planner Alternative That’s Best for Your Business

There are several reasons why you could be looking for a Tookan alternative, from frustration with the overall customer experience to a technical issue that can’t be resolved. But each issue boils down to the software not being a good fit for your delivery team. And often, small to midsize delivery teams struggle to find the right delivery tool that is powerful and easy to use.

With Circuit for Teams, we’re aiming to give you a delivery management platform that helps you manage your last-mile delivery processes, no matter what size your business is.

With Circuit for Teams, you can:

Create the fastest route possible.
Monitor routes in progress from a web app.
Automatically send real-time tracking updates to your customers.
Collect (and share) proof of delivery.

If you need delivery management software for your business and you manage a team of drivers, Circuit Route Planner is a cost-effective solution, sign up for a free trial.