App builder

Sequence the day’s stops in a route logistics app
and print a sheet for every van.

Tell the agent how your vans run and get a web app that orders stops, checks each delivery window and prints route sheets drivers can follow — live preview included, code yours to keep.

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Starter prompt

Build a route logistics web app for a produce distributor that delivers to about 70 restaurants daily from one depot with five box trucks. Store customers with address, zone, access notes, usual delivery window and minutes on site. Each evening the planner assigns tomorrow’s stops to routes, sets the stop order and enters drive minutes between stops. Show each stop’s planned arrival and flag any outside its window. Give every stop a directions link and each route a printable sheet with blank columns for arrival time and initials. At check-in, mark stops Delivered, Partial or Not delivered with a reason and move missed stops to the next day.

Build it in Netiva Paste the prompt into a new workspace and adjust it to your business.
Overview

Who this route logistics app is for

Most local delivery routes still start as a spreadsheet sorted by hand the night before. The planner knows the corner café wants its order before 7 a.m. and the downtown dock closes at 11, but the printed sheet doesn’t say so, and the driver finds out at the door. A route logistics app built with Netiva keeps delivery addresses, windows and stop order together, works out when each vehicle should reach each stop and prints a clear route sheet, while drivers and field teams open every address from a map link on their phones.

Key features

What your route logistics app can do

  • Ordered stop lists per route

    Build each route from the day’s pool of unassigned stops, then set the order. Stop numbers come from your own sequencing or from a route optimization provider’s API that you connect.

    • Unassigned stops for the day grouped by zone
    • Move a stop up or down and every number after it updates
    • A suggested sequence from a routing provider, kept for review
    • Stops, cases and planned finish time totaled per route

  • Delivery windows checked against arrival

    Each stop keeps the window the customer asked for. The route page works out a planned arrival from the departure time, drive minutes and time on site, then flags stops that miss their window.

    • Early and late flags beside each planned arrival
    • Usual window copied from the customer, editable per stop
    • Stops without a window treated as any time
    • An evening email telling each customer tomorrow’s window

  • Map links on every stop

    Addresses become directions links that open in the phone’s maps app. Drivers and technicians sign in with their own accounts and see only the routes assigned to them.

    • A directions link on each stop, built from its address
    • Dock hours, buzzer codes and drop spots beside the link
    • Routes filtered to the driver who is signed in
    • Long routes linked in short legs to stay within map link limits

  • Route sheets and check-in

    Every route gets a print-ready sheet with stops in order, windows, addresses, access notes and cases. When the paper comes back, the check-in screen follows the same rows so results go in quickly.

    • Header with date, driver, vehicle, depot and departure time
    • Blank columns for arrival time, cases left and initials
    • Delivered, Partial or Not delivered, with a reason per stop
    • Missed stops copied to the next delivery date
Data model

The collections behind it

Netiva keeps your records in built-in collections. Here’s a starting structure — the agent adapts it to your prompt, and you can change it any time.

Customers

Every delivery address, with the details a driver needs at the door.

  • Name (required) Text
  • Address (required) Full street address, city and ZIP code; used to build map links Text
  • Zone (required) Area or ZIP code group used when building routes Text
  • Contact phone Text
  • Usual window For example 06:00–09:00; copied to new stops Text
  • Minutes on site (required) Typical time spent at the stop, used for planned arrivals Number
  • Access notes Dock hours, buzzer code, where to leave the delivery Paragraph

Routes

One vehicle’s run on one day, from depot departure to check-in.

  • Route date (required) Date
  • Route name (required) For example North 1 or Downtown early Text
  • Driver (required) Matches the driver’s sign-in so they see their own routes Text
  • Vehicle Text
  • Load limit Cases the vehicle carries, compared with the route total Number
  • Depot (required) Start address for the first leg Text
  • Departs at (required) Date & time
  • Status (required) Draft, Ready, Out or Checked in Text

Stops

A single delivery or service visit on a given date, assigned to a route or waiting in the day’s pool.

  • Customer (required) Relation to Customers
  • Delivery date (required) Date
  • Route Blank until the planner assigns the stop Relation to Routes
  • Stop number Position in the route Number
  • Window opens Leave both window fields blank for any time Date & time
  • Window closes Date & time
  • Drive minutes From the previous stop or the depot, typed in or from a routing provider Number
  • Cases (required) Added up for the route’s load Number

Stop results

What happened at each stop, keyed in at route check-in.

  • Stop (required) Relation to Stops
  • Outcome (required) Delivered, Partial or Not delivered Text
  • Reason Closed, No access, Refused, Wrong address or Ran out of time Text
  • Completed at Date & time
  • Cases left Cases brought back to the depot Number
  • Carried to Delivery date of the new stop created for a missed delivery Date
  • Checked in by (required) Set from the account that keys in the result Text
  • Driver note Paragraph

Required field. Types are Netiva collection field types.

Screens

Pages and screens to start with

A typical first version. Ask the agent for more, or annotate the preview to change any of them.

  • Day plan

    The day’s unassigned stops grouped by zone with windows and cases, next to each route’s stop count, load and planned finish time.

    Signed-in users

  • Route builder

    Stops in order with move up and move down, planned arrival against each window, early or late flags and a directions link per stop.

    Signed-in users

  • Route sheet

    A print layout for one route: a header with driver, vehicle and departure time, one row per stop and blank columns for arrival time and initials.

    Signed-in users

  • Route check-in

    Follows the sheet row by row so a returned route is keyed in fast: outcome, reason, completion time and cases left for each stop.

    Signed-in users

  • Delivery address

    One customer’s address, zone, usual window, time on site and access notes, with a map link and recent stop results.

    Signed-in users

  • Missed stops

    Stops not delivered in the last 30 days, by customer and reason, with the date each one was carried to.

    Signed-in users
How it works

From prompt to a live route logistics app

  1. Describe your delivery day

    Tell Netiva how many vehicles run, where they leave from, how customers choose windows and what belongs on a route sheet. The agent drafts collections for customers, routes, stops and stop results.

  2. Load your delivery addresses

    Add customers in the collection grid, or ask the collection assistant to draft records and tidy address formats, zones and usual windows so every map link points to the right door.

  3. Test a real route in the preview

    Build tomorrow’s route in the live preview, print its sheet and compare it with the paper run you use today. Annotate the preview to move a column or change what the sheet shows.

  4. Publish and hand out the link

    Publish in one click and send planners and drivers the link to sign in. Every later tweak is checkpointed, so a change to the sheet that confuses drivers can be rolled back.

Why Netiva

Netiva vs a traditional build

Building a route logistics app with Netiva compared with a traditional build
Criterion With Netiva Traditional build
Stop order and arrival times Numbered stops per route, with planned arrivals worked out and window misses flagged A whiteboard or spreadsheet sorted by hand, with arrival times guessed from memory
Route sheets A print layout generated from the stop list, plus directions links for drivers on their phones Retyped each evening, or printed from a spreadsheet with columns cut off
Getting started Describe what you need in chat and watch it take shape in a live preview Hire developers, or stitch together templates, plugins and a hosting plan
Content and data Built-in collections with nine field types, bound straight to your pages Set up and connect a separate database or CMS
Making changes Ask the agent; every change is checkpointed and reversible File a ticket, wait for a sprint, redeploy
Hosting and domain Global hosting and automatic SSL; connect a custom domain from the Starter plan Buy hosting, then install and renew SSL certificates yourself
Code ownership Clean production code you own and can export Locked into a template, plugin or agency setup
Examples

Ways teams use it

  • A restaurant supplier running early routes

    Kitchens want produce before prep starts, and some loading docks close mid-morning. The planner builds five routes each evening, clears the late flags and prints sheets for drivers who leave the depot before dawn.

  • A florist working through a holiday rush

    Before Valentine’s Day, one-off home addresses pile up. Staff split orders by zone across extra routes for the day, office buildings get stops timed inside reception hours, and any arrangement that finds nobody home lands on the next day’s plan with its reason.

  • An office coffee and water service

    Route technicians restock machines and swap bottles at dozens of sites a day, but only during building hours. Access notes keep badge desks and freight elevators in one place, and missed sites move to the next service day.

Good to know

Before you build

  • Stop order comes from you or a provider

    The app doesn’t calculate the fastest sequence on its own. For suggested stop orders and real drive times, connect a route optimization provider’s API with your own key; otherwise planners set the order and type in drive minutes.

  • Map links hold only a few stops

    Multi-stop directions links have limits. Google’s Maps URLs, for example, accept up to three waypoints in a mobile browser and nine elsewhere, so ask for a link per stop or a route split into short legs.

  • Driver hours are a separate record

    Trucks rated at 10,001 pounds or more and used in interstate commerce generally fall under FMCSA hours-of-service rules. The short-haul exception (150 air-miles, released within 14 hours) still requires daily time records, which a route sheet doesn’t replace.

  • Clean addresses before the first route

    A map link is only as good as the address behind it. Netiva doesn’t import your customer list or verify addresses, so enter them in the grid or have the collection assistant tidy their format before drivers rely on them.

FAQ

Questions about building a route logistics app

Will the route logistics app put my stops in the best order?

Not by itself. Netiva doesn’t include a route optimizer. Planners can set the order by moving stops up or down, or you can ask the agent to connect a route optimization provider’s API, with your key stored securely. The app then sends the day’s addresses and delivery windows, saves the suggested sequence as stop numbers and leaves the final call to the planner.

How does the app work out when a vehicle reaches each stop?

It starts from the route’s departure time and, for each stop in order, adds the drive minutes from the previous stop plus the time spent at each earlier stop. If a planned arrival lands before the window opens, the stop is marked early and later times can wait for the window; after it closes, the stop is marked late. Drive minutes can come from experience or from a routing provider.

Can drivers open each address in their maps app?

Yes. Netiva builds web apps that run in the phone’s browser, so drivers sign in with their own accounts and see the routes assigned to them, with nothing to install. Each stop has a directions link built from its address that opens the phone’s maps app. Multi-stop links hold only a few stops, so long routes are linked stop by stop or in short legs.

What should a printable route sheet include?

A practical sheet puts the route name, date, driver, vehicle, depot and departure time at the top, then one row per stop: stop number, delivery window, customer, address, access notes and cases to drop. Blank columns for arrival time, cases left and initials turn it into the record you key in at check-in. Ask the agent to add, drop or reorder columns in the live preview.

What happens to a delivery that couldn’t be made?

At route check-in, the planner or driver marks each stop Delivered, Partial or Not delivered and picks a reason such as closed, no access or refused. A missed stop is copied to the next delivery date as an unassigned stop, so it shows up on tomorrow’s day plan instead of in someone’s notebook. The missed-stops screen shows repeat problems by customer.

Do I own the route logistics app if we outgrow it?

Yes. Netiva writes clean, framework-standard code that you can read, edit and export at any time, with no proprietary runtime, so a developer can take it further later. You can build and test on the free plan; publishing on your own domain needs the Starter plan or higher. Check Netiva’s pricing page for what each plan includes.

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Drafted with AI assistance from Netiva’s product pages and reviewed by the Netiva team. Example data models, screens and prompts are illustrative starting points, not customer projects.

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