round control
Streamline your distribution
with complete delivery transparency
The Problem
You’d think asking a team of people to deliver some magazines or leaflets door to door, would be fairly easy…but you know it’s not. You need
- Accurate maps, street names and number of properties for each route
- A schedule of what products are being delivered, when and where
- To manage your team of distributors, especially challenging as you can’t actually see them delivering
- Reports for your own use and for your customers
RoundControl helps you manage all the pre-delivery preparation work. Then the team use their own mobile phones to pull up all the delivery detail and to GPS track themselves, giving you a time-stamped record of each house that has been visited. This tracking is the ultimate reassurance that your customers are getting their message to the householders.
The Solution
1. Area planning
One of RoundControl’s outstanding features is how easy it is to plan a distribution route. On a Google map, you draw a shape, adjust as needed, then press Count. The software will return the latest information on street names and numbers from Royal Mail. You can split a road (either down its length or width), exclude roads, and make manual adjustments
2. Team details
Each of your distributors will have an entry on Round Control, and there’s a built in waiting list too. You can see where everybody lives on a map, bulk text some or all of your personnel, and add helpers to each record, where two or more people are sharing a route.
3. Reviewing distribution
The GPS tracking comes in each day, even when the delivery is not finished, so you have full visibility of progress. When the route is finished, the disti will fill in a short form advising of product overs or shortages, any comments and whether they are available next time. You’ll see the total time it took to do the route. You can download a report to do bulk payments for the team (where your bank supports it) and another report with all route feedback.
4. For the distributor
They download the app from Google Play or Apple’s App Store. Once they’ve logged in with details you’ve given them, they’ll see the route assigned to them. The next screen will show them a list of the roads to cover, any message (e.g. properties to exclude), a route map, the list of products to deliver and how much they’ll be paid. Then they’ll get a timer screen to start their tracking and – importantly – they’ll be able to see which roads they’ve already done.
Simple and fair pricing
System and subscription
There’s no sign-up cost for Round Control and we’re happy to let you trial the software without charge. If you want to do area maps and pull in the street data, we are charged by Google and Royal Mail so pass that fee on at £8/1000+VAT properties. However this is a one-off cost. The data is stored in your account so you can adjust your maps and street info as often as you need, and this will be free.
Monthly subscription
For ease of budgeting, RoundControl is a monthly subscription. However if you don’t do deliveries every month you will pay a lower rate.
The pricing is based on the number of properties you deliver to, averaged over two months. For example if you deliver to 10,000 every month, you’ll be in the £41/month band. But if it’s every other month, you’ll be in the ‘Up to 5,000 properties’ band, so £29/month.
If your delivery schedule follows a different pattern, just let us know and we’ll work out a fair rate for you.
Up to 5,000 Properties
£ 29
Monthly
Up to 10,000 Properties
£ 41
Monthly
Up to 15,000 Properties
£ 57
Monthly
Up to 20,000 Properties
£ 73
Monthly
Up to 30,000 Properties
£ 97
Monthly
Up to 40,000 Properties
£ 114
Monthly
Up to 50,000 Properties
£ 131
Monthly
50k+ properties
£13.50 for each additional 10,000 properties
FAQs
System and subscription
How long does it take to draw a map?
It depends on the size of the area you want to map, but a couple of minutes for each one when you are a beginner. Once you press ‘Count’ the street info will be in your account in under 5 seconds.
What about new developments?
If Royal Mail has assigned a postcode to a property, Round Control will pick it up. We can’t tell if the house has anyone living there yet, so it’s likely you’ll have to tweak the numbers.
What if two or more people want to share a route?
You just add extra names to the main person’s record. ‘Helpers’ then login with their own details and, in the GPS tracking review screen, you’ll see different colours for each person.
What support and training do you offer?
We’ll do some one-to-one training before you start. There’s quite a lot to take in, so if necessary we can do this over a couple of sessions. Any shorter questions, you can just send an email and one of the team will respond. It’s often best if we log into your account and create a short video to explain what you need to do – our subscribers love this personalised support. For your distribution team, we have a YouTube video which explains all they need to know.
Does my subscription start straight away?
It’ll take a little time for you to draw your maps, and to get your team familiar with the software. So you don’t start paying until you do your first lot of tracking, or three months after signup whichever comes first.
Is there any limit on the number of people using the system – either from the office or distributors?
No, you can have as many as you want. There’s no additional charge.
Distributor questions
How much data does this use on the distributor’s phone?
The tracking uses GPS which is different to mobile data so for that, none. There’s a tiny amount used to show their map while they are out, but this is no more than a Google map lookup.
Will the distributor mind using their own phone?
They really won’t. People expect to have to use their mobile phones for everything these days.
Will the distributor object to me seeing where they are?
The default setting on the app is not to do live tracking. All the data is stored on the phone and is sent to the servers when the mobile picks up a Wi-Fi signal.