Setting Up Delivery Zones and Route Planning
How to define delivery zones in AskBiz POS — drawing coverage areas, assigning zones to drivers, setting zone-based delivery fees, and optimising routes for efficiency.
Key Takeaways
- Delivery zones define where you deliver and at what price — create zones by drawing a radius or polygon on the map.
- Assigning drivers to zones ensures the right vehicle type covers the right area.
- Route optimisation groups multiple deliveries by zone to reduce total travel time and fuel cost.
Why delivery zones matter
Without zones, your logistics operation accepts every delivery request regardless of distance or cost. A delivery 30 miles away might generate £5 in delivery fees but cost £25 in driver time and fuel — a significant loss. Delivery zones solve this by defining exactly where you deliver, at what fee, and with which vehicle type. When a customer address falls outside all defined zones, AskBiz flags it as undeliverable (or allows you to override and handle it as a special case).
Creating a delivery zone
Go to POS > Logistics > Zones. Click Add Zone. Give it a name — 'City Centre', 'Zone 1', 'North Suburbs'. Choose the shape: Radius (draw a circle from your depot — enter the radius in miles or km) or Polygon (draw a custom shape on the map for irregular coverage areas). For radius zones, enter the depot address and the maximum distance. For polygon zones, click points on the map to draw the boundary. The map updates as you draw. Set the Delivery Fee for this zone and the Maximum Delivery Time promise (e.g. 45 minutes for city centre, 90 minutes for outer zones).
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On each driver's profile, find the Zones section. Tick the zones this driver is authorised to cover. A bicycle courier might cover only the city centre zone; a van driver might cover zones 1, 2, and 3. When you dispatch a delivery to an address in Zone 2, only drivers assigned to Zone 2 appear in the Available Drivers list. This prevents routing mismatches — you won't accidentally send a scooter driver 15 miles into the suburbs. Drivers can cover multiple zones; you can also leave zones unrestricted if your team is small and flexible.
Zone-based delivery fees
Each zone has its own delivery fee, set when you create the zone. When a delivery order is created and the customer's address is matched to a zone, AskBiz automatically populates the delivery fee field with that zone's rate. The operator can override it for special cases. For businesses offering free delivery within a certain radius and charging beyond it, set the inner zone fee to 0 and the outer zones to your standard rates. Complex tiered pricing (e.g. free under £30 spend, £3.99 for smaller orders) can be configured in Logistics > Settings > Fee Rules.
Route optimisation
When multiple deliveries are ready to dispatch, click Optimise Routes in the Logistics tab. AskBiz groups pending deliveries by zone and suggests the most efficient delivery sequence for each driver — minimising total travel distance while respecting delivery time promises. The optimised route is shown on a map with a numbered sequence: Stop 1, Stop 2, Stop 3. Review the suggested route and click Accept — the driver's app updates with the stops in optimised order. For time-sensitive deliveries (e.g. hot food), you can manually prioritise a specific stop to be first regardless of distance.