A van, six addresses and nobody home at number four
You offer to collect bikes for servicing and bring them back, because plenty of customers cannot get a bike to the shop. The bookings come by phone and email. On Thursday the van goes out with six addresses written on a list. The route zigzags across town because the list is in booking order. At the fourth address nobody is in, and the bike is locked in a shed.
Two days later the same van returns bikes to the same streets, again in a different order, and one customer wants to know why their bike has a scratch it did not have before.
Bookings are taken without thinking about the round
Collection and delivery is a logistics job bolted onto a workshop. Bookings are taken for whatever day suits the customer, without grouping them by area. Nobody tells the customer a time window, so they are not in. And the van driver has no record of the bike's condition at pick-up.
- Pick-ups are booked for any day, anywhere in your area.
- Routes are planned from memory on the morning.
- Customers are told a day, not a time window.
- Condition at pick-up is not photographed.
- Return runs are not planned alongside new pick-ups.
Where the van time goes
Van time is expensive: a driver, fuel and a staff member out of the shop. Zigzag routes and failed pick-ups mean fewer bikes per run. Failed pick-ups also mean a gap in the workshop plan for the day. And condition disputes without photos are hard to resolve fairly for either side.
Collection work also tends to be done by whoever is free, which in a small shop can mean the owner or a mechanic. Each wasted trip is an hour of that person's time away from the shop, and the workshop falls behind while they are out. The customers who use collection are often the ones who cannot easily get to you, such as older riders, families with several bikes and people without a car, so a service that works well keeps a group of loyal customers you would otherwise not reach.
Collection and delivery planned as rounds
We build a collection booking and route planner linked to your workshop.
- Online booking asks for the postcode and offers only the days your van covers that area, so pick-ups are grouped naturally.
- The service is chosen at the same time, so the workshop knows what to expect.
- The evening before, the planner orders the day's stops using a mapping service's route optimisation and gives each customer a time window by text.
- The driver uses a phone with the route, customer notes such as 'bike in side passage', and a quick checklist with photos at each pick-up.
- Collected bikes are booked into the workshop plan for that day, and return trips are added to future rounds when the job is complete.
- Missed pick-ups are recorded and the customer is offered the next available round.
| Area | Van day | Stops | Windows sent |
|---|---|---|---|
| North of town | Tuesday | Pick-ups and returns together | Evening before |
| South and villages | Thursday | Pick-ups and returns together | Evening before |
| Town centre | Saturday morning | Short round | Evening before |
Rounds that pay for themselves more easily
More bikes per run, fewer wasted trips, and customers who are home when the van arrives. The workshop knows what is coming in each day. Condition disputes are settled with photographs, and the service can grow without the owner planning routes at night.
Drivers also have what they need on the doorstep: the customer's name, the access note, the service booked and the amount to take if payment is on return. A new member of staff can run a round on their first week because the route and the notes are on the phone, not in someone's memory. And because rounds are grouped by area, you can see which parts of your patch have enough demand to add another van day.
Does your collection service run on guesswork?
- The van criss-crosses town in booking order.
- Customers are not home because they had no time window.
- Pick-ups and returns are planned separately.
- You have had disputes about damage with no photos.
- Only one person knows how to plan the rounds.