What it means
A courier visiting ten addresses along one short street has a denser route than one driving many kilometres between ten rural stops. The first may spend less travel time per delivery, but parking, access and service time still affect its cost.
A simple distance measure is stops divided by route kilometres or miles, so twenty completed stops over forty kilometres is 0.5 stops per kilometre, or two kilometres per stop. Stops per hour is a related productivity measure that includes the effects of traffic, parking and time at each location, so it should not be confused with the geographic closeness of addresses alone.
CIGO Tracker describes stops per mile, stops per hour and average distance per stop as practical views. Its examples are vendor material, so use the definitions without assuming the advertised savings apply to every business.
Define whether a stop means an address, one parcel or one successful delivery, because a driver may deliver three parcels to one building in one stop and counting parcels can make the route look denser than its travel pattern. A failed attempt consumes time and distance even without a completed delivery, so include attempts or report them separately.
Route boundaries matter too, as one planner may count travel from depot to first stop and back while another counts only distance between stops, and the method should be stated and kept consistent. Higher density can reduce driving per stop when deliveries cluster, but it may create bottlenecks if many stops share poor loading access.
A dense city route in heavy congestion may take longer than a less dense route on clear roads, so pair route density with cost per stop and on-time performance. Customer time windows can force a driver to revisit an area or wait, which means routing needs both geography and service commitments.
A business can increase density by grouping deliveries into a service day, using collection points or adding orders in an existing area, and each approach affects customer convenience. For field-service work, ten short inspections are not equivalent to ten long repairs, so report service time alongside travel density.
A low-density route may be necessary to serve remote customers, and the question is whether pricing and scheduling cover its cost. Track distance from reliable route or telematics records, since straight-line distance between addresses understates real roads and turns.
Seasonal volume can change density, so compare similar weeks or annotate changes, and watch that a rising stop count does not push a driver past safe working hours. If density improves only after excluding failed attempts, the result may be a reporting change rather than an operational gain, so reconcile completed, attempted and cancelled stops.
In practice
Real-world examples.
Example
A driver makes 20 completed stops over 40 kilometres, or 0.5 stops per kilometre. The depot-to-first-stop leg is included in the 40 kilometres, and the planner notes this in the report.
Example
A courier separates parcels delivered from physical address stops. Twelve parcels went to five buildings, so the route has five stops, not twelve, and its density looks lower but honest.
Example
A manager compares urban and rural routes only within sensible peer groups. A rural route at 0.1 stops per kilometre is not a failure if its pricing covers the longer travel.
Formula
Calculation
Distance-based route density = defined route stops / route distance. A separate time-based rate = defined route stops / on-road hours. State the treatment of depot travel and failed attempts for both.
Worked example: a driver completes 20 stops over 40 kilometres in 8 on-road hours. Distance density = 20 / 40 = 0.5 stops per kilometre, which is 40 / 20 = 2 kilometres per stop, and the time-based rate = 20 / 8 = 2.5 stops per hour.
If grouping appointments cuts the route to 30 kilometres for the same 20 stops, density rises to 20 / 30, about 0.67 stops per kilometre. If fuel and vehicle cost are $0.50 per kilometre, that saves 10 x $0.50 = $5 a day, a modest figure that shows why density must be paired with driver time and service quality.Case study
Seen in the real world.
In this entirely fictional case, Fieldline Repairs serves twenty customers across a forty-kilometre route. It reports 0.5 stops per kilometre under a completed-stop method. The manager then checks job duration and customer windows before grouping appointments more tightly. The metric alone does not prove a cost saving.
After regrouping, the route falls to 30 kilometres and density rises to about 0.67 stops per kilometre. However, two customers must wait until the afternoon, and the manager records this against the saving rather than hiding it. Fieldline's review concludes that density is a useful planning input but not a target in itself. The team keeps tracking cost per job and on-time arrivals next to the distance figure.
Watch out
Common mistakes.
- Counting parcels as address stops without saying so.
- Ignoring depot travel in one period but including it in another.
- Assuming a dense route is automatically cheaper or on time.
Questions
People also ask.
Does higher density always mean lower cost?
No. Traffic, service time, parking and failed attempts also affect cost.
Should I use distance or time?
Both can help, but they answer different questions and should be labelled.
What counts as a stop?
Define whether it is an address visit, attempt, completed delivery or parcel.
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