Monsoon Route and Delivery Planning for Nepali Distributors

In Nepal the monsoon is not a surprise. Every year the rain arrives, some roads close, some bridges are damaged, a few areas become unreachable for days, and everything takes longer. Businesses that treat it as an emergency suffer; those that treat it as a season with a plan lose far less. This guide covers how to plan routes, stock, deliveries and people for the rainy months with gamitrack. Where we give numbers they are hypothetical, and conditions vary by region, so use your own knowledge of the roads.

Step 1: Map the risk

Before the season starts, list the places where disruption is likely: roads prone to landslides, river crossings, areas that flood. Then open Territories and Routes to see which beats pass through them. Mark each route:

Route status	Meaning
Green	Reliable most days
Amber	Occasional delays; has an alternative
Red	Often cut; needs a fallback

Ask your drivers and senior officers. They know which crossing floods first. Their knowledge is more accurate than any map.

Step 2: Pre-position stock

The cheapest way to survive a road closure is to have stock on the right side of it. Use Stock to see each branch's level, then plan transfers to regional branches before the heavy rains. See moving stock between branches and warehouses. Increase reorder levels on SKUs for remote branches, because replenishment takes longer; the method is in low-stock alerts and reorder discipline.

Be careful with perishables. Humid, wet conditions shorten the life of some goods. Check batch dates and use first-expiry-first-out as described in batch and expiry control. Do not pre-position more than a branch can sell and store dry.

Step 3: Rebuild routes for the season

Routes designed for dry-season speed often fail in the rain. In Routes:

• Reduce planned stops on amber and red routes. A route that normally covers twelve stops may realistically manage eight.
• Group stops by road, not by distance on the map, so that one blocked road does not strand the whole day.
• Put the most important shops, by volume and credit position, first in the sequence.
• Leave slack at the end of the day for catching up.

Create alternatives in advance: a second route for the same area using another road, ready to assign when needed. Switching to a prepared route takes minutes; inventing one takes a day.

Step 4: Plan deliveries with margin

Delivery times stretch in the rain. Set your promise to dealers and shops with a margin, and tell them in advance. In the admin panel, assign deliveries by area so a driver does not zigzag; the driver sees the amount due, location, directions and a call button in the Deliveries tab. Encourage calling the shop before leaving, because a closed or flooded shop is a wasted trip. For the driver's view see a delivery person's day in gamitrack.

Dispatch carefully: dispatch is all-or-nothing and starts the payment due clock, so avoid dispatching orders that cannot realistically be delivered for several days. The invoice's due days count from dispatch, and a shop will not be happy to be charged days of credit for goods stuck on the road.

Step 5: Use data to protect fairness

Rain makes performance data messy. A manager who does not understand why numbers dropped will blame people. The system gives you context:

• the day movement map and time at stores show where an officer actually went,
• visits skipped can be explained with a market note,
• day comparison shows how a day compares with the same officer's recent days and the team,
• flags such as far deliveries or outside-geofence visits may be genuinely caused by detours.

When reviewing flags in the rainy season, ask first, judge later. Compare against the whole team: if everyone's numbers drop in the same area on the same day, the cause is the road, not the people.

Step 6: Communicate early and often

Use Broadcasts to send push notifications to all staff, a region or specific people. Examples (hypothetical): "Road to the western ward closed. Use route B today." "Deliveries after 3 p.m. postponed to tomorrow." Short, specific and timely messages reduce phone calls and prevent unnecessary risk. Never ask staff to cross a dangerous road to make a target. Safety first, and say so in writing.

Step 7: Adjust targets and collections

A target that ignores reality demoralises people. In Targets, consider lowering monthly targets for officers in affected areas, or reviewing mid-month. Make the adjustments visible and fair. For collections, shops in cut-off areas may genuinely be unable to pay or be reached; the weekly plan in Collections can be set with that in mind. Past weeks cannot be edited, so set realistic plans going forward. For month-end consequences see the closing checklist.

Step 8: Run a daily rainy-season check

Add three questions to the morning routine in the owner's 10-minute routine:

1. Which routes are affected today and what is the fallback?
2. Which orders are waiting for dispatch because of roads?
3. Which branches could run out before the next truck can reach them?

Monsoon checklist

Task	Page
Mark routes green, amber, red	Routes, Territories
Transfer stock to remote branches	Stock
Raise reorder levels for remote SKUs	Products
Reduce stops on risky routes; add alternatives	Routes
Brief drivers; delivery margin	Deliveries, Orders
Adjust targets and collection plans	Targets, Collections
Broadcast rules and daily changes	Broadcasts
Safety rule written and shared	Policy

After the rains

Review the season. Which routes failed, which alternatives worked, which branches ran out, how many deliveries were late? Write it down and use it when you plan the next one, as with festival planning in Dashain-Tihar demand and stock planning.

Next steps

Routes, deliveries, stock and broadcasts are all in the standard workspace. Compare plans on the pricing page, and find setup articles in the Help centre.