Routific Competitors: 6 Alternatives for Your Delivery Route Planning

Delivery teams who are unsatisfied with Routific’s route planning tool will still need many of its core features — such as route optimization and proof-of-delivery (PoD) — even if they’ve decided to move to a different platform.

But what’s going to change is how those core features are integrated by your dispatchers and delivery drivers into your overall delivery operations. So, when evaluating Routific alternatives, we recommend you ask these four questions: 

1. Does the route planning tool create optimized routes for single drivers and multi-driver teams?
   
   
2. Does the tool offer your dispatcher real-time route monitoring?
   
   
3. Are your customers provided with order tracking and given a method to contact their driver?
   
   
4. Can your drivers collect proof-of-delivery on their smartphone, whether they’re capturing a signature or taking a photo of where the product was safely left?

There are companies who are moving away from Routific because they need a fleet management service that incorporates the features above, plus more first-mile delivery functionality, such as integration with your logistics platform.

In this post, we’ll cover 6 Routific competitors of various levels of sophistication, highlighting their key features, the costs, and how they might integrate with your current delivery process. Our list includes:

1. Circuit
2. Onfleet
3. Tookan
4. OnTime 360
5. OptimoRoute
6. Route4Me

If you manage a team of drivers and want a simple, cost-effective way to optimize their routes, sign up for a free trial of Circuit.

1. Circuit

With Circuit, we set out to make a route planning tool that covered the key components of managing a successful last-mile delivery team while keeping the interface easy-to-use and intuitive.

We wanted to offer delivery teams something better than the clunky, outdated screens of competing platforms — without sacrificing the functionality they need.

Whether they’re a courier company or a delivery business, or an SME like an artisan chocolatier in Canada, a bread company in Edinburgh or a local brewery in Ontario, our customers agree on Circuit’s ease of use. Delivery teams can sign up and start using our platform to create optimized routes on day one.

Plus, using Circuit helps delivery businesses increase profitability by cutting down on labor costs, guaranteeing successful first-attempt delivery, and reducing fuel costs through highly optimized routes.

Below, we’re going to give you a walk-through of what it looks like to use Circuit — from planning routes, to dispatching, to completing deliveries, and collecting proof-of-delivery.

Importing Addresses Into Circuit

Circuit uses a simple CSV or Excel file uploading tool, where you can upload CSV, xlsx sheets, and other popular formats. For more information, we have a section here on how to arrange your customer addresses in a spreadsheet before importing them into Circuit for the best results.

Dispatchers can also manually add routes to Circuit. This is helpful if a customer’s address wasn’t entered correctly at your company’s point-of-sale or if a customer calls before your driver starts their route needing to request a change of address.

Drivers can also add or delete stops on their smartphone as their route is in progress. Sometimes drivers need to re-optimize the route based on unforeseen obstacles, such as canceled stops or traffic delays. The driver simply uses the Circuit smartphone app to delete or add a stop and then clicks “re-optimize route” and Circuit re-optimizes the route based on the new list of addresses.

Route Optimization 

Circuit’s route optimization software works in tandem with navigational tools such as Google Maps, Waze, and Apple Maps. Your delivery driver uses their preferred navigation app as usual, but now they’re following optimized routes created by Circuit. And routes can be optimized easily for one driver or multiple drivers.

Note: The Circuit app works with both Android and iOS devices.

With Circuit, our algorithm works in two ways:

1. Without parameters: This lets Circuit create the fastest route possible without considering any other factors.
   
   
2. With parameters: This tells Circuit which parameters to consider such as priority stops, time constraints, and vehicle capacity, when making an optimized route.

How do priority stops work in Circuit? You select a priority stop when you need to hit specific stops first. If you have more than one stop listed as priority, Circuit will treat all priority stops as equally urgent to help create the fastest route possible.

How do time constraints work in Circuit? You can set up time constraints to help segment your deliveries by morning or afternoon, or any other specific time frame.

How will vehicle capacity work in Circuit? You’ll soon be able to use our vehicle capacity feature to create an even more optimized route by factoring in the number of packages each vehicle can hold per route.

Finally, Circuit’s route optimization solution provides ETAs for every stop. To increase the accuracy of ETAs, we recommend setting an estimated time spent per stop. This allows time for your driver to park their vehicle, find the customer’s package, leave it at the customer’s front door, and collect proof of delivery.

As you continue to use Circuit, the time it takes for your drivers to complete their stops should significantly decrease. This is because we streamline separate delivery processes — parcel notes, routing, customer information — into one single app.

For example, after using Circuit, the owners of OK! Kombucha, a beverage wholesaler, reduced their time per stop from ~7 minutes down to ~2 minutes, saving them roughly 12.5 hours a week in labor costs.

Route Monitoring and Order Tracking

It’s common for route monitoring services to tell the dispatcher where drivers are in relation to cross-streets, such as Harding and 29th Street. This is straightforward GPS tracking. The problem is that where the driver is geographically doesn’t always correspond to where the driver is within their route.

If a customer calls your dispatch to inquire about the status of an order, you don’t want to have to put that customer on hold, so you can reach out to your driver and find out what stop they’re going to next. Instead, you want to be able to look at your dispatch screen and give your customer a quick, accurate update.

So, we made sure our route monitoring feature tells you where your driver is within the context of the route — i.e, which stop was just completed, and where they’re going next.

Circuit also sends out customer notifications, either as an SMS message, e-mail, or both. This message goes out to all customers when the driver begins their route. In the message, the customer is given a link that takes them to a tracking dashboard, where they can see route progress in real-time.

As the delivery driver gets closer to a stop, a final notification is sent out, giving the customer a more specific time-window. At this time, the customer can leave notes for the driver, such as instructions on where to park, the gate code, etc.

Capturing Proof-of-Delivery

With Circuit, delivery drivers can collect proof-of-delivery in two ways.

First, drivers can use their smartphones to collect a signature from the customer. The customer simply uses their finger to sign their name directly on the driver’s smartphone.

Second, the driver can take a photo of where they left the package. This is for when customers aren’t at home and the driver wants to document where they left the package.

All photos and signatures are uploaded into the Circuit app as notes for the specific stop and shared with both dispatcher and customer.

Let’s say a customer gets their package delivered when they’re at work. When they come home they don’t see their parcel. Instead of calling dispatch to figure out where their package was left, they can check their email notification and see a photo of where the driver left their package.

Circuit Pricing

Each of our three pricing tiers work off a per driver, per month basis. All three plans allow for unlimited routes and unlimited stops.*

• Our Dispatch plan is our introductory level tier, offering route monitoring and spreadsheet import.
  
  
• Our Recipient plan (our most popular plan) comes with route monitoring, spreadsheet import, proof-of-delivery, and order tracking.
  
  
• Our Premium plan comes with route monitoring, spreadsheet import, proof-of-delivery, order tracking, exporting data capabilities, and van capacities (coming soon).

*Note: You can change the number of drivers using Circuit based on your sales trends. If you have a busy high-volume quarter coming up, you can add drivers as needed. Once the sales or holiday period wanes, you can reduce the number of drivers tied to your account — and this gives you total flexibility, as you don’t need to pay for the whole month for every driver.

If you manage a team of delivery drivers and want a simple, cost-effective way to keep track of them (while making their routes more efficient), sign up for a free trial of Circuit.

2. Onfleet

Whereas Routific is mainly for small businesses, Onfleet’s delivery management tool becomes an economical option when it is used by large fleets which aren’t necessarily dealing in a high volume of monthly deliveries. This is due to Onfleet’s flat-rate pricing tier.

How it works: Your business pays a flat rate every month and is allotted a specific number of deliveries. We give a detailed explanation of Onfleet’s pricing structure later, but first let’s cover the features Onfleet offers its delivery teams.

1. Starter: $149 per month for 1,000 tasks. Plus, in this plan you can import routes into Onfleet via CSV files, get Live ETAs of routes in progress, and collect proof-of-delivery.
   
   
2. Basic: $349 per month for 2,500 tasks. In this plan, you get everything from the Starter plan plus route optimization, driver chat, and access to API integrations.
   
   
3. Premium: $799 per month for 5,000 tasks. In this plan, you get everything from the first two plans, plus your drivers can now scan barcodes on packages — a plus for courier companies with an inventory system.
   
   
4. Professional: $1999 per month for 12,500 tasks. The Professional plan gets you all the previous features above, plus your team gets priority customer support, complete access to driver analytics, and more.

Onfleet Pricing

Onfleet charges a flat rate per month but also limits the number of tasks (stops) your delivery team can complete each month.

This is a different approach than Routific and other Routific competitors such as Circuit, who charge per driver and put no limit on the number of stops you can make per month. Depending on your fleet size and your average monthly volume, Onfleet’s pricing model may or may not be in your favor.

If you’re a small business leaving Routific because you need to be able to scan barcodes, then you’re looking at Onfleet’s Premium plan, which is $799 per month with 5,000 tasks. That means your delivery team is limited to an average of 250 deliveries per day.

Depending on the size of your delivery team, and the number of deliveries your drivers make per month, Onfleet may be a viable alternative to Routific.

3. Tookan

Tookan is an order management platform that offers common features such as route optimization and route tracking, but also offers services catered towards on-demand delivery courier companies.

For example, Tookan lets you:

• Create waybills: With a waybill, you can create orders for your couriers that tell them where they’re going and who they’re delivering to. Plus, Tookan’s waybills come with barcodes that your couriers can scan when they pick up a parcel and again when they drop it off.
  
  
• Geofence specific areas: Create operational areas to organize your couriers by availability or preference. This is a feature for delivery teams who are made up from various independent couriers.
  
  
• Fulfillment automation: This is a feature that’s beneficial for the healthcare industry or any delivery service where drivers have a surplus of goods in their delivery vehicle. A customer can place an order and that order will automatically be sent to the driver nearest them who has stock.

Tookan is part of a larger company called Jungleworks, which has platforms for contractors, individuals who want to rent out cars or homes, and even drone delivery services.

Tookan is differentiated by Routific because of how it caters to more self-service, on-demand courier companies who are managing dozens of contractors or clients.

Tookan Pricing

Tookan pricing is similar to Onfleet’s, in that it’s a per month rate with unlimited drivers but a limited amount of deliveries. However, unlike Onfleet and other Routific competitors, what changes from plan to plan isn’t Tookan’s features but how many deliveries you can make per month.

Tookan models its pricing off of stages of a company’s growth, from the early stages of growth to a standard courier company. Here is the breakdown of how many deliveries you can make per month, and the pricing per plan*:

• Early stage: $15 per month for 150 deliveries.
• Startup stage: $49 per month for 500 deliveries.
• Growth stage: $159 per month for 2000 deliveries.
• Standard stage: $299 per month for 5000 deliveries.

*Note: These prices are based on an annual commitment. If you use Tookan on a month-to-month basis, these rates will increase.

Whether or not this pricing is competitive depends on the size of your delivery fleet and how many deliveries you’re making per month. If you’re a bike courier company that averages around 400 deliveries a day across three couriers, that means your team is completing roughly 8,000 deliveries per month.

If you were using Tookan, you’d be on the Standard stage plan at $299 for 5,000 deliveries, and then you’d be charged an extra $0.08 for every delivery over your allotted amount. So, in this case, your monthly fee would be a total of $539.

Compare that to Circuit’s pricing structure — with Circuit, you’re paying monthly for each driver, not each delivery. This means you’re not penalized for making more deliveries — and if you ran the same-sized courier team (3 couriers making 8,000 deliveries per month), you’d only be paying $180 per month with Circuit.

If one of the reasons you’re looking for a Routific alternative is that you’re trying to grow your delivery business, then Tookan’s pricing model might be counterproductive to your overall goals.

4. OnTime 360

OnTime 360 offers integration with QuickBooks (helpful for courier companies who are trying to view the cost of delivery alongside the cost of their services), and a cloud-based system of collecting invoices, waybills, and bills of lading.

Some things worth noting:

• In OnTime 360, all route optimization needs to be completed by the dispatcher. Drivers can’t re-optimize their routes but instead need to call dispatch to do it for them and then have dispatch push the new route back to them, which could be an issue if the driver doesn’t have access to the internet.
  
  
• The route optimization included in OnTime 360’s basic plans do not include common features such as time windows and priority stops. You can add those features to the basic plan by buying advanced credits.

However, OnTime 360 does have some unique features that set it apart from services like Routific.

• You can set it up so that when a vehicle hits a certain mileage, it’s automatically flagged for a preventative maintenance check. This helps catch any potential mechanical issues and could be helpful for large-fleets that are dealing with dozens of courier trucks.
  
  
• OnTime 360 lets drivers update their availability from the mobile app. This is a good feature for couriers who are outsourcing deliveries to independent contractors. Drivers can log on or log off based on their availability, making it easier for dispatch to see who is available to take orders.

OnTime 360 Pricing

OnTime 360 pricing has four different plans:

1. Essential: $39 per month for 2 Users: This plan gives you route optimization, delivery tracking, and more. But it’s limited to 2 users (see our note below for more information) and is missing out on valuable features such as driver scheduling and delivery vehicle management.
   
   
2. Professional: $129 per month for 6 users: The Professional plan includes everything in the Essential plan, plus 4 more users. Also, you’re getting extra features such as a time clock for couriers and integration with Quickbooks.
   
   
3. Enterprise: $199 per month for 10 users: The Enterprise plan includes everything from the Professional plan, but now you’re getting 10 users. Plus, this plan comes with preventive vehicle management maintenance scheduling and barcode label generation.
   
   
4. Enterprise Plus: $349 per month for 18 users:  The best plan OnTime 360 offers. The Enterprise Plus plan has 18 users and comes with advanced features such as white label templates, extended 90 day audits on delivery analytics, and no limits on API transactions.

Note about users: A user is defined by OnTime 360 as an employee or contractor logged into the OnTime account. This means if your driver is using OnTime 360’s optimized route offline, then they will not count as a user.

Finally, OnTime 360 doesn’t offer advanced route optimization features (such as priority stops or time constraints) with any plans. Those features need to be purchased a la carte for $.15 per advanced optimization and added to your account.

That extra charge can add up, especially if you’re a business like one of our customers in Argentina, who needs the first half of her day’s deliveries done by specific time. Plus, it’s just easier when using a tool like Circuit that includes advanced optimization features in every plan, because that way you don’t have to worry about running out at an inconvenient time.

5. OptimoRoute

OptimoRoute is similar to Routific in some areas (it offers route optimization, route monitoring, and customer updates) but less sophisticated in others — e.g. it doesn’t seem to offer proof-of-delivery, which is a staple feature.

The main differentiator with OptimoRoute is that optimized routes can be downloaded to Garmin TomTom or Navigon GPS devices. If you’re a delivery team reliant on TomTom or Navigon — and don’t need a proof-of-delivery app built into your route planning tool — then OptimoRoute might be worth considering.

OptimoRoute Pricing

OptimoRoute uses a per driver, per month pricing model, which is broken into three different plans.

1. Starter plan: You can create a route of 250 orders at once, but this plan doesn’t include route monitoring or API integration.
   
   
2. Business plan: You can plan a route with 500 orders at once, but customers don’t get delivery tracking.
   
   
3. Enterprise plan: Your delivery team gets all of OptimoRoute’s features and is able to plan 750+ orders at once.

Keep in mind: None of the three OptimoRoute plans offer proof-of-delivery, which means if you want PoD functionality, you’ll need to find a separate solution, such as a standalone proof-of-delivery app.

6. Route4Me

If you’re looking for an alternative to Routific because you need something that’s built more for field service technicians, then you might be interested in Route4Me.

Due to its marketplace catalog, Route4Me offers significant customization, which makes it a tool worth considering for fleets that need to do more than deliver packages.

For example, with Route4Me, you can:

• Monitor driver behavior, supervising vehicle speed, breaking patterns, and which drivers made their predicted travel times. This data can be exported into an analytics dashboard so you can grade the performance of couriers.
  
  
• Use geofencing to set up parameters around your customer’s location. Set up geographic zones to notify a customer when the driver is nearby, choosing parameters such as ten miles away or 30 minutes away.

Route4Me Pricing

Route4Me offers three tiers:

1. The Route Management tier: This tier is just to manage routes, and doesn’t offer critical features such as route optimization. This tier isn’t really a route planning tool, as it’s more of a way to connect couriers and dispatchers. 
   
   (Your delivery drivers would still need a tool like Circuit to help them optimize their route and collect proof-of-delivery.)
   
   
2. The Route Optimization tier: In this tier, you get route optimization — but only for single-drive routes.
   
   
3. The Route Optimization Plus tier: This gives you all the typical features that are generally included in route planning software.

All three plans are based on a per-month fee.

Did You Find Your Next Route Planner?

Your reasons for considering Routific competitors will vary — based on the type of industry you’re in and your required level of sophistication. However, what’s likely to remain constant are the four core functional elements of any quality route planning tool:

1. Route optimization
2. Route monitoring
3. Order tracking
4. Proof-of-delivery

Circuit started as a route optimization software that was used by couriers to plan their multi-stop routes. Since then, we’ve listened to our customers — delivery drivers, local delivery businesses, and larger courier companies — to build an easy-to-use, intuitive route planning tool.

If you want to see how Circuit can improve your delivery processes, sign up for a free trial of Circuit.