How far ahead should daily runs be planned?

Two weeks is a practical default. It is far enough to spot clashes and plan leave, and short enough that route changes do not mean rewriting a month of bookings.

What should happen to past runs when a route changes?

Nothing. Change only future runs that have not started. Completed runs are the record you invoice from, so they should never be rewritten.

How do you bill a client for staff transport?

Invoice from the runs that were actually completed in the period, not from the plan. That way cancelled days and holidays are never billed by mistake.

How to run an employee pick-and-drop roster without spreadsheets

By The Odobase team Published 18 September 2026

Employee transport is one of the most predictable kinds of fleet work, and one of the easiest to get wrong. The same routes run every working day, but drivers take leave, holidays interrupt the pattern, and clients add and drop routes. A spreadsheet can hold the plan; it cannot stop two routes being given the same van.

Why does staff transport outgrow spreadsheets?

Every day is a copy. A route that runs five days a week becomes hundreds of rows a year, and a change means editing all of the future ones.
Clashes are invisible. Nothing stops the same driver being written into two routes at 8:00.
Billing is reconstructed. At month end someone counts which days actually ran.

Step 1: Define each route once

Treat a route as a standing duty: where it starts and ends, the weekdays it runs, the start time, the default driver and vehicle, and the contract dates. Everything else follows from that definition.

Step 2: Create the daily runs ahead of time

Generate each day’s run as a real booking a couple of weeks ahead. Real bookings block the driver and vehicle, so other work cannot be assigned on top of them, and drivers can see what is coming.

Step 3: Manage change on a weekly roster

Lay out every route against the days of the week. When a driver is on leave, reassign that day. When routes are reshuffled, reassign that day and every one after it, skipping any days where the new driver is already busy, and deal with those dates one by one.

Step 4: Handle holidays and breaks deliberately

Skip public holidays and pause a route while a client’s office is closed. Cancelled days should stay cancelled; they must not reappear the next time the plan is extended.

Step 5: Bill from what actually ran

At month end, invoice each client company from its completed runs. The plan said 22 days; the invoice should say how many were actually driven.

Doing this in Odobase

Recurring trips and the roster in Odobase follow exactly these steps: set up a route once, let Odobase create the daily trips 7 to 60 days ahead, reassign from the roster, skip and pause, and invoice from completed trips. See how it fits employee transport providers.