How to plan firewood delivery runs.

Start with the kitchen table.

An invented example, not a real yard. It's Thursday evening and Mel has a pile of orders on the kitchen table: some on envelopes, some copied from texts, one scribbled on a feed bill. Nothing is wrong with the orders. They're in the order they arrived, not the order the van will drive.

That's most of the job. To plan firewood delivery runs, you turn a pile in arrival order into a few groups in driving order. The method below works on paper or in software, and it starts with places, not roads.

Group by area, then give each area its days.

Pick areas the way you'd explain them to a new driver: one postcode district, or a few that sit together. Then give each area its days. Say the HX districts on Tuesdays and the BD ones on Fridays.

Fixed days do half the planning for you. An order arrives, you know which run it joins, and the customer learns the pattern too.

Decide in advance what happens to the odd order from somewhere you don't cover. It waits for a run that way, or you say no kindly. Either is fine. Deciding on the spot at ten at night isn't.

Set a cut-off and keep to it.

A cut-off is the moment an order stops joining tomorrow's run and joins the next one. Choose a time the evening before, and write it where you'll see it.

You'll bend it sometimes. Bend it on purpose, and mark the late addition on the sheet so the load gets checked against it.

Build the load before the van.

Add up what the run needs by product: bulk bags, net bags, crates, kindling, coal if you carry it. Check that against what is in the yard before the driver is out of bed. A run that's short of a product is better found in the office than at the third door.

Know what your van and trailer take, and don't guess on a heavy day. If the run is too much, split it now. Loading the last drop first puts the first drop within reach.

Put the stops in a sensible order.

With the orders chosen, order the stops. A few rules of thumb go a long way:

• Start with the cluster nearest the yard and work outwards, so any trouble costs you the far end, not the start.
• Write awkward access beside the stop: the steep drive, the low branch, the gate that sticks.
• Mark the narrow lane that won't take the big trailer, and send that stop out with the vehicle that fits.
• Note anyone who asked for a time, or who is out on certain days.

A maps app or a route planner helps with the order of stops once you know which stops are on the run. That's a different job from deciding which orders belong together, and you still do that part.

Write a sheet the driver can read in a van.

Picture the reader: poor light, a mug in one hand, engine ticking over. One line per stop. Name, phone, address with the postcode written large, what goes on, paid or cash, access notes, and a box to tick.

Print it on one side of A4 in black and white. There's a free one to print in our run sheet guide, and your own notebook layout works as well.

Tell customers their day.

Once a run is fixed, tell each customer their delivery day. Use whatever reaches them: email, a phone call, a message you send yourself. If you can keep to a time window, give one. If not, give the day and leave the hour out.

People who know their day are in, or have moved the car off the drive. It saves a lot of failed drops.

Plan for the drop that fails, then look back.

Someone will be out, a gate will be locked, a tractor will block the lane. Decide beforehand where a failed drop goes: to the top of its area's next run, with the reason written down and a call to the customer. Agree with the customer before leaving anything outside.

The next morning, spend a few minutes on the sheet. What took longest, what surprised you, what would you move? One change a week beats a grand reorganisation in March.

Where LogRun fits.

LogRun covers the grouping part. Phone and web orders sit in one pool by area, sorted by postcode. You tick the orders going out together, pick a date, driver and van, and make a run. Stops can be put in order by hand or sorted by postcode, with totals by product and cash to collect, and warnings for can't-do days and unpaid orders.

Then it prints the load sheet and run sheet, emails customers who have an email address, and lists the rest to ring. It doesn't work out the quickest route, and there's no phone app for drivers or live map of the van. Drivers get paper and use their usual maps app. A route planner for drivers is something we can add for your yard.

Questions people ask.

More guides.

• A free firewood delivery run sheet template to print
• How to sell firewood online in the UK
• Spreadsheet or software for a firewood business