How to survive August: planning deliveries when half the team is on holiday
In August the work doesn't drop: the people do. The planner leaves, two drivers are off, and the orders keep coming just the same. The problem isn't only missing staff — it's that the knowledge leaves with them. Here's how to prepare the cover so the operation doesn't depend on who's in.
By Routal Team
Operations and product specialists focused on practical logistics content. LinkedIn
It's 1 August. Marta, who's run the planning for six years, starts her holidays today. In her chair sits Dani, who can do plenty of things but has never built a route. He opens the usual spreadsheet and just stares at it. On top of that, two drivers are off this week and the one with the big van is back on the 20th.
The orders, though, haven't gone on holiday. They keep coming just the same — or more, if you deliver on the coast. And that's August's trap: the work doesn't drop, the people do.
In summer the work doesn't drop, the people do
We take it for granted every year and every year it catches us out. Half the team rotates through their holidays right when, in many sectors, volume holds or rises. The operation is the same, but you have to run it with half the team.
And when people are missing, it doesn't break where you'd think. It's not that there aren't hands to load boxes. It's that the person who knew how things were done isn't there.
The problem isn't missing people: it's that the knowledge leaves with them
Here's the knot. If only Marta knows how to build the city-center route, when Marta's away that route gets done worse. If the order of stops in the industrial estate lives in one specific driver's head, their holiday week is your week of chaos.
That's not having a solid operation: it's having a balancing act. And balancing acts fall. We go into it in more detail in the most frequent delivery problems, but in August it shows more clearly than ever: when the knowledge lives in a few heads, one of them heading to the beach is enough to make everything wobble.
Prepare the cover before August arrives
The good news is this is fixed in advance, not with overtime. What's a calm task in June is an emergency on 31 July.
- Document what only lives in heads. Which customer receives at what time, which street is pedestrian-only, which stop is tricky. If it's written down, it doesn't go on holiday. It's a company asset.
- Cross-train. More than one person should know how to build the routes. Not everyone needs to know everything, but no one should be irreplaceable.
- Decide who covers whom. Beforehand, not on the day. A simple cover chart avoids the "so who does this now?" question.
Make the plan not depend on who's in
The underlying goal is simple to say and hard to do by hand: the operation should work whoever looks at the screen. A stand-in should be able to sit down, see the day's routes, and understand them without calling someone who's at the beach.
For that, the plan has to come out of clear rules, not one person's intuition. Each customer's windows, the zones, each van's capacity: if that's in the system and not in a memory, the route comes out just as well whether Marta runs it or Dani does.
And for the stand-in driver, the same: give them the route in order, with the sequence and the time for each stop, and their unfamiliarity with the area stops mattering. They don't need to know the neighborhood; they need to know which stop is next.
Leave slack: August is the month of surprises
With a reduced team, every surprise hurts more because there are fewer people to absorb it. A breakdown, a last-minute order, a customer who changes the time. In August they all happen, and they happen at once.
A plan with no slack falls apart at the first setback. Leave room, and when something goes sideways you can rearrange without the whole day collapsing.
This is where Routal helps: routes are generated following your rules and stay visible to the whole team, so a stand-in understands the day without depending on who's in. They're rebuilt in minutes when a van is missing or an order comes in, the driver carries their stops in order even without knowing the area, and the customer gets an automatic heads-up on arrival. The knowledge stops living in one head and moves to where everyone can see it.
It's not about having more people in August. It's about the people who stay not having to guess.
Start with the most fragile thing: write down today what only one person on your team knows how to do, before they go on holiday.
And if you want to reach August without scares, ask us for a call →
Frequently asked questions
How do I cover routes if my planner goes on holiday?+
By making the planning not depend on their head. If routes are generated in a tool following clear rules and stay visible to the whole team, a stand-in can look at the screen and understand what's due today. The goal is that the reliever doesn't have to guess what the regular knew by heart.
Is it worth hiring temporary staff just for August?+
Sometimes, but it's rarely the first answer. A new driver without the area learned performs much worse, and can take almost a month to learn it. Before expanding, see if you can cover the peak with better planning and cross-training the team that stays. Temporary hiring is a complement — as long as you give them tools to be efficient — not the whole plan.
How do I get a stand-in driver to perform without knowing the area?+
By giving them the route in order, with the stop sequence and a realistic time for each one, instead of a list they have to interpret. When the app tells them where to go and in what order, not knowing the area stops being a problem and they stop wasting time going in circles.
When should I start preparing for summer?+
In June, not on 31 July. Documenting routes, spreading the knowledge, and testing who covers whom takes a few weeks. If you leave it until the people are already missing, you improvise all August. Preparing it with time turns the critical month into just another month.
In summer volume doesn't fall, but the team does. The same operation with half the people breaks at its most fragile point: the knowledge.
If only the person on holiday knows how to build the route, you don't have an operation: you have a balancing act.
August's cover is prepared in June: document, cross-train, and get the knowledge out of people's heads.
A plan anyone can run is worth more than a perfect plan only one person understands.
By Routal Team
Operations and product specialists focused on practical logistics content. LinkedIn
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