Top 7 Fuel Delivery Software to Consider in 2024

From barrels on horse-drawn carts to modern fuel delivery trucks, modes of fuel transportation and delivery have evolved significantly over 100 years. However, fuel delivery is still one of the most complex industries to date.

Why? Unlike other delivery businesses, fuel delivery requires meticulous scheduling and specialized personnel capable of safely handling fuel deliveries. Moreover, stringent environmental, transportation, and safety regulations make legal compliance non-negotiable. 

This is where fuel delivery software comes in handy. It helps you automate route planning, dispatching, and order tracking to make your fuel delivery service seamless. 

Yet, with an overwhelming number of options available, selecting the right software can be challenging.

If you are also having trouble selecting the right software for your fuel distribution business, this blog is for you. It explores the features, pros, cons, and reviews of the 7 best fuel delivery software solutions to help you make an informed decision.

7 Best Fuel Delivery Software

Fuel Delivery Software	Ideal for	Key Features	Overall Rating
Upper	Fuel delivery businesses of all sizes and types, including commercial, residential, and industrial	Multi-constrained route planning & optimization Route scheduling GPS tracking (Detailed live tracking) Customer notifications Actionable reports & analytics Open API integration Vehicle capacity constraints	Capterra – 4.5 (18 reviews) G2 – 4.7 (5 reviews)
Workwave Route Manager	Handling residential and commercial fuel deliveries	Scheduling & dispatching Route optimization Flexible API integration Route manager voice	Capterra – 4.3 (68 reviews) G2 – 4.2 (45 reviews)
Smart Service	Fuel oil delivery scheduling and dispatching for QuickBooks-based businesses	Single-click delivery routing Delivery dispatch Multi-day planning Service history	Capterra – 4.3 (265 reviews) G2 – 4.2 (12 reviews)
Cargas Energy	Propane, heating oil, and wholesale fuel delivery businesses	Centralized management Onsite signature capture Advanced pricing Customer notifications	Capterra – 3.7 (3 reviews) G2 – 3.8 (4 reviews)
Omnitracs	Large-scale oil and gas delivery fleets	Automated rerouting Real-time communication Informed decision-making Turn-by-turn navigation	Capterra – 3.5 (45 reviews) G2 – 2.9 (10 reviews)
FuelCloud Enterprise	For automation of fuel deliveries	Inventory reconciliation Customer control Real-time driver & vehicle management Custom reports	Capterra – 4 (4 reviews)
RedRiver	Fuel wholesalers, jobbers, and dealers, especially propane industry professionals	Delivery ticket import Invoice emailing Demand forecasting EDI creation	Capterra – 3 (1 review)

1. Upper

Ideal for delivery businesses of all sizes and types, including industrial, commercial, or residential

Upper is one of the best delivery routing software solutions for planning multi-stop fuel delivery routes. It lets you import multiple fuel delivery locations, as many as 500 in one go, and optimize routes in a few minutes.

Upper’s strength lies in the advanced route optimization algorithms that it leverages to optimize routes while adhering to all delivery constraints, including time windows, delivery distances, traffic patterns, and drivers’ availability. 

While other software like Workwave provides live tracking, Upper tops the chart in real-time tracking capabilities. This is because it provides detailed live GPS tracking that not only indicates drivers’ real-time locations but also sends and saves information on their locations even when they go off-grid for future reference.

Upper also offers transparent pricing plans, unlike most software on this list, which require you to contact customer support. However, if barcode scanning is a deal breaker, Upper may not be an ideal choice.

Key Features:

1. Unlimited routes: Upper allows you to create unlimited routes, providing the flexibility to accommodate varying schedules and locations.
2. Proof of delivery (POD): Allows you to capture your customers’ digital signatures, photos of delivered items, and notes for delivery confirmation. It helps enhance transparency, reduce lost parcel liabilities, and minimize fake delivery attempts.
3. GPS tracking: Tracks the real-time progress of routes through visibility into drivers’ live locations to ensure better control over delivery operations and proactive issue resolution.
4. One-click dispatch: Facilitates sending your optimized routes to multiple drivers in one go via email, text, or directly to the driver’s app, unlike Google Maps. Lets you print route manifests for non-tech-savvy drivers to complete deliveries efficiently.
5. Customer notifications: Keeps your customers informed of up-to-the-moment delivery statuses through automated notifications with real-time ETAs to keep transparency issues at bay and enhance your customer satisfaction.
6. Actionable reports and analytics: Provides insights into total stops delivered or missed per driver to pave the way for focused improvements.
7. API integration: Upper provides open API integration, allowing you to incorporate multi-stop route planning into your existing business systems effortlessly. 
8. Vehicle capacity constraints: This allows you to define your vehicle’s constraints, including area or weight, to schedule loads matching those specifications and send them on routes to maximize their capacity utilization.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

• Essentials: $80 per month for 3 users (billed annually) – Save 20%

  Includes: 250 stops, route optimization and planning, priority stops, and one-click dispatch

• Growth: $160 per month for 5 users (billed annually) 

  Includes: Adds custom reports, export to Garmin, and detailed live tracking to Essentials

• Enterprise: Not publicly available

  Includes all the features of Essentials and Growth and offers a dedicated support manager + technical consulting

  Free Trial: 7 days

2. Workwave Route Manager

Suitable for handling residential and commercial fuel deliveries

Trusted by over 375,000 service professionals, WorkWave Route Manager deserves the second spot on our list. The user-friendly driver mobile app enables syncing with your dispatcher interface so your drivers can view their daily routes and updates, offering greater flexibility.

We also liked the barcode scanning this fuel delivery scheduling software provides within the driver app for package validation and accuracy. A standout feature that flattered us is route simulations. It allows for changing different variables in a simulated environment to evaluate route modifications and implement the most suitable changes. 

However, what we expected but found missing was the ability to blackout the dates and times for scheduled delivery truck maintenance. It led us to consider some manual workaround to make sure a truck isn’t dispatched for deliveries on their due date for maintenance. 

Key Features:

1. Scheduling and dispatching: This allows you to efficiently schedule appointments and dispatch drivers based on availability, proficiency levels, and location.
2. Route optimization: It lets you optimize routes for your drivers to ensure timely arrivals and efficient deliveries.
3. Flexible API Integration: This facilitates integration with your order management portal to auto-update your route plan based on the incoming orders from your customers, saving time and labor.
4. Route Manager Voice: This enables your drivers to call your customers through their mobile app and notify them of the upcoming or canceled delivery.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

Starts at $54 per month per vehicle and offers two subscription plans.

1. Route Manager: Includes route optimization, driver mobile app, order import, and simulations.
2. Route Manager 360: Includes everything in Route Manager plus route performance dashboard, customer notifications, proof of job completion, and virtual tracking

3. Smart Service

Suitable for fuel oil delivery scheduling and dispatching for QuickBooks-based businesses

SmartService calls itself the “QuickBooks” scheduler for fast-growing fuel delivery businesses. Its drag-and-drop scheduler simplifies creating delivery tasks, changing their schedules, and redistributing them among available drivers.

This fleet delivery scheduling software lets you pull all your orders directly from QuickBooks and schedule deliveries quickly. We also liked how this software empowers your drivers to collect payments after delivery and email electronic receipts instantly.

However, testing revealed discrepancies in tracking individual drivers’ time spent on each delivery or on a working day. While this software provides passive location tracking, it lacks detailed live tracking, in contrast to Upper, which lets you view the paths your drivers took even when they are off-grid.

Key Features:

1. Single-click delivery routing: This feature lets you add your delivery stops for each driver and creates optimal routes to reach them fast and efficiently.
2. Delivery dispatch: It enables you to send daily orders and routes to your drivers, track their real-time progress, and make necessary schedule adjustments on the go.
3. Multi-day planning: This allows you to schedule your recurring work for multiple days in your recurrence pattern, i.e., weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or annually to eliminate last-minute scheduling chaos.
4. Service history: This functionality enables you and your drivers to access the details of stops visited in the past to know if they need special arrangements for any delivery and to stay prepared to avoid run-time issues.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

The price is not available publicly and is based on the total concurrent user count.

4. Cargas Energy

Suitable for propane, heating oil, and wholesale fuel delivery businesses

With its tagline “Be there for Your Customers,” Cargas Energy enables you to fulfill your customers’ fuel demands promptly. This software provides seasonal K-factors, degree days, and baseloads for forecasting customer fuel usage rates and demands.

We liked how Cargas Energy enables compliance with HAZMAT transportation regulations while following optimal routes it creates through built-in routing capabilities. This software helps increase agility by accommodating emergency stops, route changes, and price updates even after dispatching delivery tickets. 

While there isn’t much information on how users found it, there are reported instances of inadequate integration capabilities and issues with the K-factor. 

Key Features:

1. Centralized management: It enables you to handle your new delivery tickets, routing, and dispatching from a unified location to eliminate silos in delivery management.
2. Onsite signature capture: This feature lets you capture your customer’s signature when they complete a delivery to prevent future disputes.
3. Advanced pricing: This empowers you to configure your pricing structures, including pre-buy or tiered pricing, to calculate the correct price for each delivery automatically. 
4. Customer notifications: This functionality allows you to send personalized messages to your customers based on the information pulled from incoming orders and mark conversation threads as complete for successful deliveries.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

Not publicly available

5. Omnitracs

Suitable for large-scale oil and gas delivery fleets

Omnitracs is an advanced fuel delivery software solution that helps maximize the safety and efficiency of end-to-end fuel transportation. Its USP lies in the ‘Video-Based Safety Program’ feature, which lets you load vehicles with smart drive-assist sensors to detect risky driving behaviors and avert fatal accidents.

Another standout feature is the accurate calculation of capacity in trailers, oil tankers, and compartments to plan flushing based on that. Omnitracs also relies on a robust route algorithm to fulfill your current orders efficiently and stay prepared for future ones.

However, testing revealed the driver app to be less user-friendly and non-intuitive. We also heard from our existing customers that customer support is not up to the mark as found on review platforms.

Key Features:

1. Automated rerouting: It lets you not only create efficient routes but also auto-adjust them based on new priorities, emergencies, or cancellations to minimize disruptions. 
2. Real-time communication: This enables your drivers to log their arrival and departure from each stop to stay updated on their progress throughout the day.
3. Informed decision-making: This feature provides insights into performance metrics and events from past deliveries to improve future route planning and avoid delays.
4. Turn-by-turn navigation: Provides commercial navigation directions on a preferred navigation app for your drivers to reach remote locations not directly available on maps.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

Not publicly available

6. FuelCloud

Suitable for automation of fuel deliveries

Fuelcloud is a cloud-based fuel routing software solution intended to automate fuel delivery operations, including dispatching and tracking. What impressed us was the intuitive FuelCloud app, which allows drivers to locate nearby pumps on their mobile devices and save them time on the road.

It also features a web portal that lets you check your customers’ fuel and sends low-level alerts to help you dispatch your drivers and ensure timely refills. Another good feature is that it allows you to set limits on the quantity of fuel your drivers can pump for a given day to prevent fuel theft.

However, as it depends on drivers inputting deliveries, you may want to cross-verify every delivery you make. Testing also revealed no real-time live tracking capabilities as robust as software like Upper on this list.

Key Features:

1. Inventory reconciliation: This helps you match your tank inventory against inventory value when needed to avoid discrepancies at any point in time.
2. Customer control: It allows you to define the degree of access you want to provide to your customers for placing refueling orders and making payments.
3. Real-time driver and vehicle management: Allows you to make as many adjustments to your individuals’ or teams’ schedules as required.
4. Custom reports: This tool lets you format your analytics reports on different fuel delivery metrics and export data as .xls, .csv, or .txt files for increased flexibility.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

Offers monthly subscriptions but not publicly available

7. RedRiver (RR)

Suitable for fuel wholesalers, jobbers, and dealers, especially propane industry professionals

Founded in 1978 with inventory tracking issues for sellers of farm equipment, Red River software developed the RRFuel Package in 1984. This software helps you dispatch, track, and report incoming replenishment stocks and outgoing orders for effective delivery planning. 

Another feature worth considering is DTN integration. It eliminates the hassle of staying up-to-date with fluctuating fuel rates, as you can auto-import the latest prices directly into your software. RR-fuel also provides contract tracking to enable quick access to contractual obligations to avoid violations and retain customers.

However, testing couldn’t find detailed live tracking to inform customers about delivery status updates, unlike Upper, which offers it. 

Key Features:

1. Delivery ticket import: This functionality lets you import your delivery tickets automatically from your CRM to eliminate manual entry errors.
2. Invoice emailing: This feature auto-sends digital invoices to your customers once a delivery is complete, shortening your billing cycle and maintaining cash flow.
3. Demand forecasting: This feature enables you to monitor degree days, k-factor, and time between customer deliveries to project their future demands and plan your schedules accordingly.
4. EDI creation: This allows you to generate Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) files to ensure adherence to state requirements for fuel tax reporting and maintain legal compliance.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

Not publicly available

5 Primary Benefits of Using Fuel Delivery Software

A fuel delivery software solution equips you with the ability to manage multiple delivery-related operations, including route optimization, dispatching, and scheduling from a single centralized platform. 

The following are the benefits it provides. 

1. Cuts down on operational costs

A fuel business thrives on maximizing deliveries while minimizing operational costs. Fuel dispatching software helps optimize delivery routes for your drivers. Traversing these most efficient routes helps reduce your drivers’ time and distance on the road to reach delivery stops.

Moreover, when your delivery vehicles spend less time on the road due to optimal routes, their wear and tear are reduced. This minimizes your fleet repair and maintenance costs, decreasing your overall operational costs.

2. Enhances fuel inventory management

Accurate inventory tracking and management are crucial to minimizing cycle count-related errors and issues. Fuel management software allows you to track your inventory levels and customers’ demand or consumption patterns in real-time.

This information helps you adjust your replenishment or delivery schedules accordingly. Thus, fuel routing software helps you prevent situations like stockouts to achieve on-time deliveries and overstocking to avoid wastage, preventing potential disruptions. 

3. Improves customer service

Top-notch customer experience is vital for a business to survive and grow. Delivery management software helps ensure that by letting you send customer notifications, including Advance Shipping Notices and Out for Delivery. 

These real-time delivery status updates help your customers stay available and prepared for incoming deliveries to avoid disruptions to their schedules. Besides, they help increase transparency in your delivery process and boost trust & loyalty.

4. Enables informed decision-making

Collecting and analyzing data about different business aspects is imperative for evaluating business performance. Fuel delivery management provides detailed insights into delivery route performance, vehicle maintenance costs, individual driver performance, and fuel consumption.

It also helps you compare the planned vs. actual data on these metrics to identify variances and spot inefficiencies. Following that, you can readjust your delivery planning to maximize your productivity and operational efficiency.

5. Reinforces security and compliance

Ensuring the security of assets is paramount in any business. A fuel delivery management system provides security features like fuel card access control and transaction tracking. It helps configure your daily fuel delivery and transaction limits, preventing theft and unwarranted usage.

Fuel dispatching software also helps adhere to the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) reporting standards and enables you to comply with stringent safety regulations while handling fuel deliveries.

6. Streamlines delivery-related operations

A fuel delivery software solution can integrate with existing business systems, including accounting, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM).

This seamless integration not only automates delivery route planning but also enhances order processing, invoicing, and payment tracking jobs. It, thus, helps reduce manual errors and improve order fulfillment efficiency.

9 Features to Look for in Fuel Delivery Software

The choice of an ideal delivery solution for your fuel business may vary based on factors such as size, unique requirements, and budget. However, below are the most essential features that your fuel management software must have.

1. Advanced delivery route scheduling and optimization

Your delivery scheduling software must let you schedule your deliveries and create optimal routes for your drivers. It should feature advanced routing algorithms to ensure multi-constrained route optimization. This helps minimize the time and distance to complete orders, enhancing your delivery efficiency.

2. Real-time visibility and order status notifications

Your fuel tracking software must enable monitoring of the real-time fuel transportation status of your orders through GPS tracking. It lets you spot issues like traffic congestion or emergencies through quick route adjustments or sending a replacement driver to take over pending jobs. Based on your vehicles’ real-time locations, it must allow for accurate ETAs to be sent to customers.

3. Automated dispatching

As your business grows, managing route dispatching manually may become overwhelming. Therefore, your fuel delivery software must facilitate auto-sending optimized routes to your multiple drivers simultaneously, considering their delivery zones, skills, distances from destinations, or even route preferences.

4. Electronic proof of delivery

Your fuel dispatching software must log every successful delivery your drivers make and offer electronic proof of delivery. This functionality allows your drivers to scan barcodes on the delivery vehicle compartment and storage tank, helping them confirm that they delivered the fuel in the right quantities to the right destination.

5. Mobile accessibility 

Mobile accessibility is indispensable for your on-field fleet drivers operating across multiple delivery zones. Your software should ideally include a driver app that lets them view their daily delivery schedules, collect proof of delivery, and communicate with you or your customers. 

6. Data analytics and reporting

Your software must let you analyze delivery performance metrics based on fuel usage, the number of stops completed and missed, and environmental impact metrics, including carbon emissions. This functionality helps determine areas of improvement and initiate focused measures to eliminate them.

7. Integration 

Integration with your business systems is integral to smooth data transfer between them. So, the software you pick must come with a flexible or open API to support easy integration with CRM, ERP, or accounting software for a seamless data flow.

8. Customer service

Robust customer support is pivotal to quick issue resolution when using any software. Hence, you should look for software that provides 24/7 customer support. In addition, it must have adequate training and self-help materials to prevent a steep learning curve and maximize software utilization.

9. Pricing

Return on investment is a significant financial metric and must be sufficiently high to keep your business profitable. So, the price of your software forms an important consideration. Make sure your choice provides a good balance between features and cost-effectiveness. Typically, going for the software that provides annual subscription plans at discounted rates.

Fuel Delivery Software: Your Key to Transforming Your Fuel Delivery Business

Fuel delivery software is undeniably an asset to your fuel delivery business and can transform how you handle incoming orders, dispatch your drivers, and track them to ensure timely order fulfillment.

Choosing the right fuel delivery software solution from a plethora of options available out there can be tricky. However, if you have a clear idea of your expectations and unique delivery requirements, you can pick a few solutions that can fulfill them efficiently.

You can then vet each of them and compare their prices, customer support levels, and ease of use. Opting for a free trial or demo is also a good way to find which works best for you. Combining online reviews and this list of the best fuel delivery software can eventually lead you to the most appropriate choice for your business.