Spoke (Circuit) Route Planner

Review by eFreeware

If your working day is a list of addresses that has to be turned into a sensible order, Spoke Route Planner is built for you. It is a multi-stop route planner for couriers and delivery drivers, and it carries the name Circuit used to go under. The pitch is straightforward: get more drops done and get home sooner, without spending your morning shuffling stops around by hand.

What that means in practice is a tool that takes your stops, works out a sequence and maps the driving between them. The developer says the app has been downloaded more than 10 million times and holds a 4.5 average from 187,691 ratings, which is a lot of feedback for a niche utility. It is free to install, carries no ads, and offers in-app purchases for the paid tiers.

One click to reorder the whole day

The central idea is that you add stops and then let the app sort them out. A single action optimizes every delivery on the list and maps the fastest route between them, according to the developer. You are not expected to reason through the order yourself; you hand that job over and work down the resulting list.

Adding stops is meant to be quick, which matters when you are standing at a van door. You can enter addresses with the keypad, dictate them by voice, or upload a spreadsheet if the day's work arrives as a file. Once a route exists, you can still rearrange it: pick a stop and move it to be next, first or last.

The app also handles the awkward parts of a real round. You can set delivery time windows and priority levels for individual stops, adjust how long you expect to spend at each one, and add rest breaks. Estimated arrival times are described as instant and accurate, which is the sort of claim worth treating as a target rather than a guarantee.

Package details, live changes and your existing GPS

Beyond ordering, Spoke stores information about what you are carrying. Package details can be attached to a stop so that loading the vehicle and finding a particular item later is less of a hunt. That is a small feature in theory and a large one on a day with a hundred parcels in the back.

Routes are not fixed once you set off. The app allows last-minute changes to be slotted into the day as they come in, which is the normal reality of courier work: something gets added, something gets canceled, someone is not home. You can also have an unlimited number of routes per day, so a morning round and an afternoon round are not a problem.

Navigation is handled by whatever mapping app you already trust. Spoke works alongside Waze, Google Maps and other GPS software rather than replacing them, so you keep the voice and interface you know. The developer notes that location data comes from Google Maps, which is why the app functions in almost every country; users are spread across more than 190 countries.

What the free tier gives you, and what it doesn't

The free version is not a demo that expires. It gives access to all the features, but each route is capped at ten stops. That ceiling is the dividing line: ten drops is a light day or a personal errand run, and it is nowhere near the 150 packages a day that one courier quoted in the developer's own marketing.

Above that sit two paid tiers. Lite removes the limits on routes and stops but restricts some features; Standard removes the restrictions as well. Both are subscriptions that renew monthly and are charged through your Google Play account, and prices vary by country, with the local rate shown before you pay. Canceling means switching off auto-renew at least a day ahead of the renewal date.

There is a 14-day trial, which is the sensible way to find out whether the optimizer's ordering suits the way you work before committing. The app is said to save most multi-drop couriers at least ten hours a week, a figure I would treat as marketing rather than a promise, since it depends entirely on how inefficient your current method is.

Getting the most from it

The spreadsheet upload is the feature I would build a routine around if you plan your day at a desk. Typing twenty addresses by keypad is tedious; importing them in one go and then letting the app sequence them is where the time saving actually lives. Voice entry makes more sense for the odd stop added while you are out.

Spend a little time on the per-stop settings before you rely on the arrival times. Time windows, priority levels, expected time at each stop and rest breaks all feed into the schedule, so a route built without them is only as good as its assumptions. The more honest your inputs, the more useful the ETAs.

The recent update added bulk editing, which is a welcome addition for anyone who has ever needed to change a note or a time across a whole run. You can long-press a stop, use the more menu, or draw around several on the map, then change their type, color, notes, sequence, planned arrival and time on site for the whole group at once, delete them, or make them next. There is also a revised sign-in screen, an updated settings screen, a smoother proof-of-delivery screen, and navigation that stays centered on wide displays.

What it asks of you

The requirements are modest but real. You need a phone with Google Maps working in your region, since the app relies on that location data. The interface follows your phone's language where it is supported and falls back to US English otherwise, so an unsupported language means working in English.

The cost structure is the part to think through. Ten stops per route on the free tier is a genuine limit, not a nudge, and if your day runs to thirty or fifty drops you will be subscribing. That means a monthly charge, auto-renewing, priced by region. The app itself is free to download, shows no ads, and the purchase is the subscription.

I would judge it on the routing rather than on extras. What you are paying for is the ordering and the schedule, and the trial exists precisely so you can compare its output with your own instincts.

A planner for people whose day is a list of addresses

Spoke Route Planner is a focused tool for a specific job: turning a set of deliveries into an ordered, timed run. It does not try to be a general navigation app, and it does not need to be, because it hands you off to the mapping software you already use. The combination of one-click optimization, time windows, package details and live changes covers the working parts of a courier's day.

The free tier suits anyone with a short list, and the trial is the right way to test the paid tiers against a real round. If your routes are long and your stops numerous, the subscription is the price of admission, and the question is simply whether the ordering saves you more time than it costs.

For couriers, multi-drop drivers and anyone whose work is measured in drops per hour, this is a well-established option with a large user base and a long track record. I would start with the trial, import a real day's spreadsheet, and see whether the sequence it produces beats the one you would have driven.

What's new in version 3.69.1

What's new • Bulk edit: select many stops at once. Long-press a stop, tap more, or draw around them on the map. Then change type, color, notes, order, arrival time or time at stop for all of them, remove them, or make them next. • New sign-in screen with more ways to continue. • Updated Settings screen. • Smoother proof of delivery screen. • Navigation stays centered on wide screens. • Bug fixes and lower memory use.