What's the Best Food Delivery Software for Distributors?

If you look at the food delivery software page on Capterra, you get quite an odd mix. Many of the options, like Hunger Rush and Toast, are POS systems with capabilities for managing deliveries from storefronts to diners. Others, like Routific, are last mile delivery routing solutions that could theoretically be used to generate delivery routes across a variety of food-related use cases.

But there’s nothing that jumps out as being obviously designed with the unique needs of food distributors in mind. After all, there’s a huge difference between getting a pizza to an apartment complex while it’s still hot and getting a week’s worth of canned tomatoes from the distribution center to the pizzeria.

So where are the software solutions for this latter use case? How can distributors find the best software for getting the right pallets to the right customers at the right time? We’ll cover those questions in depth over the course of this post. 

Key Takeaways:

• Food distributors need purpose-built software designed for B2B wholesale operations, not consumer delivery platforms or retail POS systems that lack the complexity to handle recurring bulk deliveries.
• Essential capabilities include strategic route planning that balances recurring and new orders, end-to-end visibility across all roles and functions, what-if scenario planning, and integrated customer communication tools.
• The right distribution software differentiates between customer tiers and delivery windows, treating high-priority customers with narrow time frames as fixed route tentpoles while routing flexible customers around them for maximum efficiency.
• Purpose-built distribution platforms reduce costs through optimized routing that cuts miles per stop, automated planning that saves person-hours, fewer failed deliveries, improved driver retention, and enhanced customer loyalty.
• Integrated solutions that combine strategic planning with daily execution management outperform separate systems by eliminating data gaps and operational inefficiencies across the last-mile journey.

What Is Food Delivery Software?

Food delivery software means different things to different people. For some, the key pain point that this software should address is taking in food delivery orders—these businesses can work out the delivery details from there as needed. 

For others, it’s about actually dispatching and routing delivery drivers to customers’ homes. But for food wholesalers and distributors, the key pain point is around managing recurring deliveries in an efficient way. This means generating repeatable delivery routes that can be altered as needed based on daily order volumes and mixes. 

So, for food distributors, an efficient food delivery system is all about managing complex routes and powering the execution of those route plans—this means leveraging not just sophisticated route optimization algorithms, but also dispatching, tracking, and customer communication capabilities to ensure that your food deliveries are executed in a cost-efficient way. 

In other words, the best food delivery software covers the entire last mile logistics journey from end to end. 

Best Software for Food Delivery

Not all food delivery software is created equal—and understanding the different categories can help you avoid investing in the wrong solution.

Consumer-Facing Delivery Platforms

Platforms like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub are designed for on-demand restaurant delivery to consumers. These lightweight solutions excel at connecting individual diners with restaurants and managing gig-economy drivers for single-order deliveries. However, they're completely unsuited for food distribution operations. They lack the capacity planning, bulk order management, recurring route optimization, and B2B customer communication features that distributors require. If you're moving pallets rather than pizza boxes, these platforms won't solve your problems.

Basic Routing Solutions

Tools like Routific, Route4Me, and similar routing software offer basic optimization capabilities that can generate efficient routes. While these are a step up from the consumer focused platforms and may help create more efficient routes on paper, most lack integrated execution capabilities, strategic planning tools for recurring deliveries, real-time tracking, customer communication features, and the flexibility to handle a complex mix of scheduled and hot shot orders.
POS-Based Delivery Management

Toast, Square, and Hunger Rush are point-of-sale platforms with delivery add-ons designed for food retail operations: restaurants, cafes, and quick-service establishments. These solutions excel at managing orders from storefront to customer doorstep, integrating payment processing with delivery logistics. However, they're designed for retail workflows, not wholesale distribution. They lack the strategic route planning, fleet capacity management, and multi-customer sequencing capabilities that distributors need to manage dozens or hundreds of commercial accounts.

Purpose-Built Distribution Software

The best software for food distributors is purpose-built distribution management software that addresses the entire last-mile journey—from strategic route planning through execution and customer communication. These comprehensive platforms combine sophisticated optimization algorithms with execution tools, offering strategic planning for recurring routes, daily flexibility for order variations, end-to-end visibility across operations, integrated customer communication, and what-if scenario planning. Unlike lightweight routing tools or retail-focused POS systems, distribution-specific software is designed to handle the complexity, scale, and recurring nature of B2B food logistics.

Must-Haves for Your Food Delivery Management Software

If your food delivery needs are more complex than the average pizza parlor, it’s important to find delivery management software with the right capabilities. That means looking for something that can directly address each of these areas:

Strategic Route Planning

Every week will bring a mix of new and recurring orders, and it’s critical to balance the flexibility to take on new orders with the stability that your recurring customers demand. Your fleet can’t run entirely new routes every week—but they can’t run the same routes either. 

This is where a strong strategic planning process comes into play. By taking all of your distribution routes and optimizing them by frequency and days of the week, you can create the foundational plan you need to get the most out of your fleet. When you have an optimized plan that’s built for flexible reroutes and directly integrated with your daily routing process, you can ensure that you’re positioned to utilize your assets efficiently each day of the week no matter what orders get thrown your way. 

End-to-End Visibility

Effective fleet management depends on having visibility into fleet capacity, your asset locations, your delivery statuses, etc. 

Here’s what that means in practice:

• Visibility across roles and functions: Sales personnel should be able to access order statuses and ETAs for their orders through their own app. Customer support should have fleet data at their fingertips for resolving issues, etc. 
• Visibility in context: Make sure you have a way to visualize not just locations but statuses and live ETA projections. 
• Predictive visibility: What would happen if you added a new stop to a given route? What about a new route from a new DC? What if you onboarded a new customer? Real fleet visibility means being able to predict the answers to these questions.

What-If Scenarios

What-if scenarios are essentially test environments in which you can simulate what would happen if you made certain adjustments to a given plan. You more or less need SaaS technology and AI-powered routing to make these practicable, but they can be invaluable for utilizing your fleet in the smartest and most cost-effective way possible. 

Customer Experience

Your customers are at the heart of everything you do when it comes to food delivery and distribution. Your food delivery management software needs to reflect that fact by empowering you to give customers the level of visibility they need from end to end. For most businesses, this will mean sending notifications that keep customers in the loop about when to expect their orders to arrive, offering live delivery tracking, and enabling two-way messaging in real time. 

Of course, another crucial aspect of customer delivery experience in food is meeting delivery expectations. This requires more than just wraparound communications—it also requires you to keep your delivery promises by delivering at the right time. Smarter, more integrated route optimization for easier rerouting is an absolute must in that department. 

How an Efficient Food Delivery System Reduces Last Mile Delivery Costs

When you have an efficient food delivery system that tackles the entire delivery planning, routing, and execution journey from end to end, you can simplify your last mile and reduce your delivery costs. 

Here are just a few of the ways you can do that with the right food distribution technology:

• Reduced person-hours spent on routing: Instead of taking months to create a new set of static delivery routes, you can let the software update things in a matter of minutes and make small adjustments as needed. The sheer time savings from this can have a huge impact on a distributorship. 
• Fewer miles driven per stop: There are two ways an efficient food delivery system helps you achieve a reduction in fuel usage and driver hours: First, by providing you accurate visibility into what your cost-per-stop, cost-per-case, and cost-per-route actually are. Second, by giving you the tools to improve route density without causing chaos for your customers. 
• Reduced missed and failed deliveries: When your driver isn’t able to make it to the delivery site at the right time, you risk impacting customer loyalty—but you also risk having to make a costly redelivery attempt (essentially doubling your initial delivery costs). By ensuring that you have route plans that are built to execute, you can deliver at the right time more consistently. 
• Improved driver retention: Driver pay is already a huge driver of costs—and that problem is only exacerbated when you can’t retain your drivers in the long term. The right software sets them up for success, which in turn reduces churn. 
• Improved customer retention: It’s always more expensive to acquire a customer than to retain an existing one. When you choose food delivery software that’s built around the customer experience, you’re investing in keeping the customers you already have. 

How DispatchTrack Empowers Smarter Food Distribution and Reduced Costs

When it comes to choosing the best food delivery software, top brands around the globe rely on DispatchTrack. 

<< See how Wismettac leverages DispatchTrack to get more out of their delivery capacity >>

DispatchTrack is a multi-tenant SaaS solution that is purpose built to provide last mile delivery management capabilities that moves at the speed of the foodservice sector. We offer the features flexibility that industry professionals need to meet the needs of their stakeholders and customers.

We do this with best-in-class capabilities, including:

• Route planning and optimization
• Delivery execution
• Customer experience and engagement
• Delivery tracking and visibility 
• Driver management
• Digital proof of delivery
• Easy integration and setup

The result is that users have an efficient food delivery system that covers the end to end last mile journey for foodservice distribution, so they execute their roles in an easy, connected, and cost effective way.

Request a demo with one of our food distribution experts today to learn more!

Food Delivery Software FAQ

What is the difference between food delivery software and food distribution software?

Food delivery software typically refers to consumer-facing platforms (like DoorDash) or restaurant POS systems that manage single deliveries to individual customers. Food distribution software is designed for wholesale operations, managing recurring bulk deliveries from distribution centers to commercial customers like restaurants, retailers, and institutions.

Can I use basic routing software like Routific or Route4Me for food distribution?

While basic routing software can help optimize individual routes, it typically lacks the strategic planning, execution management, customer communication, and flexibility features that food distributors need to manage complex, recurring delivery operations efficiently.

What features are most important in food distribution software?

The most critical features include strategic route planning for recurring deliveries, end-to-end visibility across operations, what-if scenario planning, integrated customer communication tools, real-time tracking and ETA updates, and the flexibility to adjust routes daily based on order variations.

How does food distribution software reduce delivery costs?

Purpose-built distribution software reduces costs by optimizing route density to minimize miles per stop, reducing person-hours spent on manual route planning, decreasing failed deliveries and costly redelivery attempts, improving driver retention through better route quality, and enhancing customer retention through improved service levels.

Is DispatchTrack suitable for large food distributors?

DispatchTrack is a scalable, multi-tenant SaaS solution that can accommodate operations of various sizes. The platform's flexibility and ease of integration make it suitable for distributors looking to grow their operations efficiently, regardless of current fleet size.

Do I need separate software for route planning and execution?

The best approach is integrated software that combines strategic route planning with daily execution management. Separate systems create inefficiencies and data gaps. Purpose-built distribution software like DispatchTrack provides seamless integration between planning and execution for optimal results.