This route capacity planning spreadsheet is a free Excel template for comparing route demand with vehicle payload, cargo volume, available shift time, and estimated fuel use. It is designed for fleet managers, dispatchers, delivery teams, service fleets, small carriers, and owner-operators planning daily work.
Four connected sheets cover the workflow: Dashboard, Route Plan, Vehicles, and Settings. Users enter route and vehicle information, while formulas calculate utilization, remaining capacity, planned hours, fuel estimates, and route status. The workbook supports planning decisions based on entered totals; it does not sequence stops, provide mapping, or optimize routes.
In practice
What this workbook helps you do
- ✓Compare load weight and volume with the assigned vehicle's stated capacities.
- ✓Identify routes that are near capacity, over capacity, near a shift limit, or over shift.
- ✓Estimate route fuel gallons and fuel cost from planned miles, vehicle MPG, and fuel prices.
- ✓Review date-based totals, depot summaries, and a short list of route exceptions.
Instructions
How to use the file
Set the planning assumptions and lists
Begin on Settings. Editable assumptions include average planning speed in mph, service time per stop in minutes, capacity warning threshold, and time warning threshold. Fuel prices are entered in U.S. dollars per gallon for Diesel and Gasoline. The supplied lists also provide five depots, five route statuses, Yes and No values, and the two fuel types. Changes affect formulas when Excel recalculates.
Maintain the vehicle capacity records
Use Vehicles to enter Vehicle ID, description, type, home depot, Active?, maximum payload in pounds, cargo volume in cubic feet, fuel type, and planning MPG. Rows 6 through 9 contain sample vehicles, including straight trucks, cargo vans, and a box truck. The prepared vehicle range continues through row 105, with blank input rows available beyond the supplied samples. Vehicle IDs must be unique.
Enter daily route demand
On Route Plan, the blue input cells cover Plan Date, Route ID, Depot, Vehicle ID, Driver, Status, Shift Start, Shift End, Planned Stops, Planned Miles, Load Weight, Load Volume, and Notes. The operating range runs from row 6 through row 205. Rows 6 and 7 show confirmed sample records, while blank input rows remain available in the prepared range. Clear or replace sample inputs for operating use without removing formulas in the calculated columns.
Validation limits dates to 2020 through 2035, stops to 0 through 200, miles to 0 through 1,000, load weight to 0 through 50,000 pounds, and load volume to 0 through 5,000 cubic feet. Depot, vehicle, and status fields use lists, and Route ID validation checks for duplicates.
Review calculations and the selected date
The gray calculated columns run from Payload Capacity through Overall Check. They retrieve vehicle capacity, calculate weight and volume utilization, show remaining payload and volume, estimate route and shift hours, calculate fuel use and cost, and return capacity and time statuses.
On Dashboard, enter a valid Planning Date in B3. The summary then reports scheduled routes, stops, miles, load weight, utilization, fuel estimates, ready routes, and exceptions for that date.
Inside the file
Included features
Match Route Loads to Vehicle Weight and Volume
Assigning a Vehicle ID pulls its maximum payload and cargo volume from Vehicles. Weight utilization divides load weight by payload capacity, while volume utilization divides load volume by cargo volume. Capacity Utilization uses the higher of those two percentages, so either physical constraint can drive the route result.
Remaining Payload and Remaining Volume show the unused amount. Capacity Status identifies incomplete data, over-weight loads, over-volume loads, combined weight and volume exceptions, routes near the warning threshold, and routes within capacity.
Compare Planned Work With Shift Time
Planned Route Hours are calculated as planned miles divided by the average planning speed, plus planned stops multiplied by service time per stop. Shift Hours come from the entered start and end times, and Time Utilization compares route hours with that available window.
The Time Status result distinguishes incomplete records, over-shift routes, routes near the configured time threshold, and routes within the shift. These are planning estimates based on the entered assumptions rather than recorded drive or duty time.
Estimate Route Fuel Use and Cost
Estimated Fuel in gallons divides Planned Miles by the assigned vehicle's Planning MPG. Estimated Fuel Cost then multiplies those gallons by the Settings price for the vehicle's fuel type. The supplied sample prices are $3.78 per gallon for Diesel and $3.45 for Gasoline, and both can be edited within the validated $0 to $10 range.
These values support planning comparisons. They are not actual fuel purchases, invoices, or accounting entries.
Review Daily Totals and Depot Exceptions
The Dashboard uses the selected date to summarize routes scheduled, planned stops, planned miles, load weight, average and maximum capacity utilization, over-capacity routes, over-shift routes, ready routes, fuel gallons, fuel cost, and exception routes. Its depot section compares assigned load with summed vehicle capacity and includes a route-count chart.
Route Exceptions displays up to 10 non-ready routes with Route ID, depot, vehicle, capacity utilization, time utilization, overall check, load weight, and planned miles. The full route list remains on Route Plan.
Common questions
About this workbook
Route Plan provides 200 prepared operating rows from 6 through 205. Vehicles provides 100 rows from 6 through 105. Calculated Route Plan formulas are already present through row 205, while user-input cells include samples and available blank rows.
No. Route Plan's Vehicle ID list references the full vehicle ID range, and the capacity formulas match on Vehicle ID without using Active? as a condition. The Active? field can record availability, but users must review it when assigning vehicles.
Shift Hours uses the difference between Shift End and Shift Start with a formula that wraps across midnight. An end time earlier on the clock can therefore represent the following day. Because the inputs are times rather than separate start and end dates, the calculation does not represent shifts lasting 24 hours or more.
Dashboard capacity is summed from the capacity of every assigned vehicle on the selected routes. If the same vehicle is assigned to multiple routes, its capacity is counted multiple times. Review repeated vehicle assignments before treating depot totals as unique fleet availability.
The main Dashboard formulas exclude Route Plan rows whose Status is Canceled when calculating scheduled routes, demand, utilization, fuel, and exception totals. The canceled record remains in Route Plan for reference, and its Overall Check returns Canceled.
No. It evaluates entered route totals against vehicle capacity, planning assumptions, and shift windows. It does not map stops, determine stop order, track actual operations, or replace accounting, legal, tax, DOT/FMCSA, safety, or compliance advice.
Editorial team
Prepared and checked with care
Casey Morgan
Fleet operations editorCasey turns dispatch, driver, vehicle, and delivery workflows into clear workbook guides.
About the editorial identities
Jordan Lee
Workbook quality editorJordan documents the automated formula, recalculation, download, and usability checks applied before publication.
About the editorial identities