Outgrown Your Routing Spreadsheet? It Could Be Time for Routing as a Service Plus (RaaS+)

Your routing spreadsheet probably started as a thing of beauty. Clean columns, color-coded zones, maybe even some fancy formulas that made you feel like a logistics genius.

Fast-forward to today: that same spreadsheet looks like someone exploded a delivery bomb across 17 tabs. Your dispatcher’s got three screens open, drivers are texting about route changes, and somewhere between columns K and Z, there’s a formula nobody remembers writing but everyone’s afraid to delete.

Growing companies eventually hit this wall and realize that something’s got to give. And that’s precisely why we built RaaS+—a human-powered routing service that fills the gap between outdated spreadsheets and those $100K enterprise monsters.

When the Old Methods Fall Short

So how do you know when your spreadsheet has officially expired? And what does life look like on the other side? Basically, in-house routing works great until it doesn’t—and when it stops working, it stops hard.

When Daily Orders Exceed What One Person Can Manually Optimize

Here’s a fun math fact that’ll ruin your day: with just 15 stops on a single truck, you’re looking at more than 87 billion possible route sequences. Billion with a B. Your dispatcher might be brilliant, but they’re not checking 87 billion options before lunch.

The reality hits when route planning stretches from a quick morning task to an all-day wrestling match with spreadsheets. You watch your best dispatcher spend three hours plotting routes, only to realize they forgot about construction on Main Street. Or they finally finish the “perfect” route just as sales drop four more rush orders on their desk.

Mistakes multiply because humans can’t juggle 50 variables at once. Drivers end up zigzagging across town like they’re playing connect-the-dots blindfolded. Miles pile up, fuel costs balloon, and everyone pretends the routing is “pretty good,” when deep down you all know it’s held together with hope and caffeine.

When You Can’t Adjust Quickly to Last-Minute Changes

Your morning route might look pristine at 7 a.m. But what about when Customer A calls at 10 needing their delivery moved up? Or Driver B’s truck decides today’s the day to die? Or that massive order you weren’t expecting drops right when everyone’s already on the road?

Real delivery operations face constant curveballs. Studies show 70% of companies regularly adjust routes midday, with 40% making multiple changes daily. Yet most teams handle these changes with frantic calls, scribbled notes, and instructions that drivers receive while already stuck in traffic.  Manual in-house routing systems simply can’t pivot fast enough when reality bites. 

An Extra Brain for Routing: Meet RaaS+

Think of Routing as a Service Plus as an extra brain and supercomputer for your routing operations—not software for you to run, but a team of routing specialists at NT Logistics who take the daily complexity off your plate. It’s like upgrading from “figure it out yourself” to “hand this to experts who do it all day long.”

Every Constraint Gets Remembered

Manual in-house routing planning falls apart when variables pile up. Your dispatcher might remember that Customer A needs morning delivery, but what about Customer B’s loading dock hours, Customer C’s truck-size restrictions, or Driver D’s overtime limits? Add dozens more stops, and the human brain simply can’t track it.

RaaS+ operates differently. NT’s routing team gathers the requirements, applies them consistently, and runs them through our optimization tools—all behind the scenes.

Nothing for your team to configure. Nothing to learn. Just routing done right.

Real-Time Changes Without the Meltdown

Manual plans work great until reality intervenes. One sick driver or one rush order can throw everything into chaos. With RaaS+, your team doesn’t scramble. You send the change to our routing specialists, and we recalculate the sequence using our optimization engine and practical expertise.

No frantic juggling. No guessing. No software for you to touch. Just updated routing guidance delivered back to your team.

More Deliveries, Fewer Miles

The math here gets interesting.

We recently analyzed a live route and cut miles by 18.5% (from 107 to 87) just by resequencing stops. Across multiple fleets, we consistently see 8–9% total mileage reduction through smarter sequencing alone.

Sometimes the gains get even wilder. One route dropped from 563 to 411 miles (27% reduction) simply by finding a better stop order. Another went from 372 to 317 miles. We’ve helped companies rightsize their fleets from 151 trucks down to 130 while maintaining all service levels. 

The algorithm finds these gains by evaluating millions of route combinations humans never consider. Better yet, drivers actually follow these optimized routes because they make practical sense, with adherence rates jumping roughly 2x from baseline.

Humans and Algorithms Playing Nice Together

Pure automation misses real-world nuances. The computer doesn’t know about that unmarked construction zone or why Driver Tom avoids certain neighborhoods. RaaS+ blends algorithmic optimization with human expertise to catch these details.

Our routing specialists review each optimized plan, applying practical knowledge that the system can’t see. They preserve driver familiarity with territories, respect customer relationships, and override any mathematically perfect but practically problematic suggestions.

It’s not “computer-generated routing.” It’s expert-curated routing powered by the best tech we use internally.

Getting Smarter Every Single Day

Spreadsheets never learn. RaaS+ does—because our humans do. As we handle your routing day after day, we see patterns:

• Which customers run long.
• Which areas bottleneck.
• Which days need buffer.
• Which drivers thrive where.

Your routing improves over time because we’re actively managing it—not because you’re running a piece of software.

Continuous refinement turns routing from a daily struggle into a competitive advantage.

Time to Graduate from Spreadsheet University?

Look, if your routing spreadsheet has become a daily nuisance, that’s good news—it means you’ve grown beyond what got you here.

Every company hits this wall:

• Routes that worked at 20 stops collapse at 70.
• The dispatcher who handled everything solo now needs three screens and a prayer.
• Manual routing stops being the solution and starts being the problem.

You’re not failing; you’re succeeding your way into needing better solutions.

We built RaaS+ at NT Logistics for companies exactly where you are. Our routing specialists and optimization tech take the chaos off your plate while you keep full control.

We’ve helped businesses cut miles by 18%, reduce fleets by 20 trucks, and consistently hit delivery windows—all without buying software or hiring PhDs. Want to see what your routes could look like with an extra brain handling the complexity? Let’s talk. Book a free routing assessment and we’ll show you the savings (and sanity) you’re leaving on the table.