trakki
Route planning for manufacturers' reps
By Manuel Ober · · 4 min read
The problem is not the driving, it is the choosing
A rep with 400 customers across three regions faces the same question every Monday: where this week? Not because they do not know where the customers are, but because 400 is too many to hold in your head.
Most people solve that with habit: the same rounds, the same customers, and the ones at the edge of the territory see the rep once a year. That is exactly where the orders are then picked up by someone else.
Due dates instead of habit
Every customer gets a cycle: the big specialist dealer every three weeks, the small shop every eight, the new customer every two until the business runs. The cycle and the last visit together give you the due date. The map shows it in colour: red overdue, yellow soon, green done.
That turns the question around. No longer "where to?", but "where are this week's red and yellow points closest together?". That is answered in a minute.
How the list gets onto the map is in the guide Getting your customer list from Excel onto a map.
Large territories mean multi-day tours
If you cover three regions, you cannot drive home every evening. The question is when an overnight stay pays off and where the hotel should be. The rule: if the drive home and the drive back the next morning cost more than two hours together, and a second full day is waiting in that area, the night is worth it. The hotel goes next to the first customer of the following day, not in the city you happen to know.
In trakki you mark the overnight stay in the weekly plan, and the two days arrange themselves around it. More on this in the guide Stay overnight or drive home.
What a week with trakki looks like
Friday. Open the map, look at the red and yellow points, two clusters for a two-day tour, the rest as day trips around the office. trakki works out the drive times for each day, with opening hours and your break. Ten minutes.
On the road. The day is on your phone. At the customer, document one line: what was discussed, what was ordered, when to come back. That is the call history that counts next time.
A cancellation. The third customer has no time today. Move them to next week, the rest is recalculated, a customer nearby moves up.
End of month. Export the calls as Excel, for your own bookkeeping or for the company you represent, in the scope you decide yourself.
Why the data stays with you
For an independent sales agent the customer list is the business. It does not belong in the cloud of a software provider that changes its terms tomorrow or is sold the day after. trakki stores everything on your device, without an account. Phone and computer keep in step through your own storage, or at home over your Wi-Fi. If you stop, you take your list with you in full.
What trakki is not
Not a CRM with quotations, no order entry, no team administration. trakki plans the week and documents the calls. If you record orders in another system, you carry on doing that there; trakki takes the customer list from it and gives the call history back as Excel.
Trying it costs nothing, to the home page.
Frequently asked questions
How many customers can trakki handle?
The sample data has 43 customers; the import was tested with around 1,500 customers from a real territory. The map stays smooth and the due dates are calculated in seconds.
Can I keep several territories or principals apart?
Yes, through categories. One customer can carry several, for example the principal and the importance. On the map, categories can be switched on and off.
What does trakki cost for someone self-employed?
€9.99 a month or €99 a year, billed through the App Store or Google Play, cancellable at any time. Trying it with your own data costs nothing and has no time limit. All prices are on the home page.