Distribution in the Kathmandu Valley: A Practical Playbook

The Kathmandu Valley looks easy on a map. Three cities, short distances, the largest concentration of shops in the country. In practice it is the hardest place to run a tidy distribution operation: traffic that turns a ten-minute trip into forty, narrow bazaar lanes where a vehicle cannot enter, restricted hours for heavy vehicles, and outlets so close together that salespeople waste time deciding where to go next. A good valley operation is less about covering more ground and more about removing wasted minutes.

This playbook walks through how to structure the valley, what to measure, and how to run it in gamitrack.

What makes the valley different

• Density. Many outlets per square kilometre means beat design matters more than vehicle count.
• Congestion. Delivery time is unpredictable, so promising "same day" without a plan creates complaints.
• Mixed outlet types. Kirana shops, pharmacies, cafés, supermarkets and wholesalers sit side by side and need different visit frequencies.
• Walking and two-wheelers. Many beats are best covered on foot or by motorbike; stock rarely travels with the salesperson.
• High expectations. Retailers can switch to another supplier who walks in the same afternoon.

Step 1: Cut the valley into beats, not zones

Zones are too large to manage. Beats are small, named, repeatable loops that one person can finish in a working day. A useful method:

1. Export or list every outlet with its area name and approximate location.
2. Group by natural boundaries: a main road, a bazaar, a ward cluster, a ring-road segment.
3. Order the stops so the day flows in one direction and avoids doubling back across the same junction.
4. Name the beat after something your team recognises, such as the bazaar or road.
5. Assign it to one salesperson as the default owner and one backup.

Keep the first version rough. Beats improve after you look at real visit times.

Beat design checklist

Question	Good answer
Can the day be completed without crossing a major junction twice?	Yes
Are high-value outlets visited early, before shutters-down hours?	Yes
Is there a lunch break and a buffer for traffic?	Yes
Does every outlet have a saved location?	Yes
Is there a named backup person?	Yes

Step 2: Set visit frequency by outlet value

Not every shop deserves the same attention. A simple A/B/C approach works without any invented benchmarks:

• A outlets, your largest or most strategic, are visited most often.
• B outlets are visited on a regular cycle.
• C outlets are visited less often or served through a wholesaler.

Review the grading monthly using your own order history. Outlets move between grades.

Step 3: Protect the delivery promise

Orders are only half the job. In the valley the delivery window is where trust is won or lost.

• Agree dispatch cut-off times (for example, orders booked before a set hour go out the same day) and publish them to the team.
• Group deliveries by area so a driver makes one loop, not five.
• Confirm receipt with a photo or receiver name so disputes about "we never got it" end quickly.
• Collect payment at delivery where terms allow, so a delivered order does not become a chasing job.

Step 4: Keep stock close to demand

Valley outlets often want small, frequent top-ups. That suits a central warehouse with fast dispatch. Watch three things:

• Fast sellers at risk of running out before the next beat visit.
• Short-dated batches that should go to high-turnover outlets first.
• Returns arriving back at the warehouse and needing to be put back on the shelf, or written off.

How to run it in gamitrack

1. Add outlets with location. Create each outlet as a party with its GPS position. Salespeople can add new outlets from the mobile app; a manager approves them so duplicates and strays do not pile up.
2. Build routes. Create routes with ordered stops matching your beats and assign them to salespeople. The mobile Today tab shows the day's stops in sequence.
3. Start and end the day with GPS. Day start and end are recorded, and attendance is derived in Nepal time, including late arrival and early leave.
4. Geofenced visits with photo proof. Each visit is checked against the outlet location. Visits outside the geofence, very short visits or visits without a photo are flagged for a manager to review.
5. Take orders in the field. Orders are priced from your price lists, with VAT applied only on taxable lines, and linked to the visit.
6. Assign delivery. Assign a delivery person; the driver sees amount due, location and directions, and marks the order delivered with GPS, photo and receiver name.
7. Collect and reconcile. Record cash, eSewa, Khalti, Fonepay, bank or cheque payments and watch the aging statement for overdue outlets.
8. Watch the movement map. The day movement map and store-visit time help you see where beats are too long.

Pair this with the stock side: see how to prevent stock-outs at retailers and how to run a physical stock count. If you sell masala or packaged food in the valley, the masala and spices and FMCG and packaged food pages describe the setup in more detail.

A weekly rhythm that works

• Monday: review last week's visits that were flagged, and any outlets with no visit.
• Midweek: check low-stock SKUs against planned beats.
• Friday: compare targets against actuals and plan next week's focus outlets.

Common mistakes

• Making beats so long that the last stops are never reached.
• Letting every salesperson keep a private outlet list.
• Promising same-day delivery without a dispatch cut-off.
• Ignoring returns until month end.

Where to start

Pick one busy beat, put it through a two-week pilot, and adjust. When it holds, copy the pattern to the next. You can look at the plans and what they include on the pricing page when you are ready to put your team on it.