Butcher and frozen meat delivery routing

Why butcher routes break generic planners

A frozen half-hog or a stack of subscription boxes is not a light dry parcel. Weight fills capacity fast. Temperature cannot be a sticky note. A planner that only shortens miles will happily put a freezer load on an ambient van because the address was close. That is the failure mode behind why frozen can't ride the dry truck.

Butchers who deliver themselves need the opposite: multi-vehicle plans that respect freezer vans, refrigerated trucks, and any dry runs for ambient goods — on the same morning if the fleet mixes them.

USDA's food-safety guidance for food shipped to consumers is that perishable orders should arrive frozen, or at or below 40°F on arrival. A freezer load that rides an ambient van because the address was close does not get a second chance to meet that line — the vehicle has to be right before the route is built, not fixed after a customer complains.

Hard frozen / refrigerated / dry on your vans

• Per-vehicle capability. Mark each van for frozen, refrigerated, dry, or a true mix.
• Hard constraint. The optimiser will not place frozen on a dry truck to save a mile.
• Unassigned with a reason. If no capable vehicle is on the day, the stop waits instead of riding wrong.
• Heavy stops and capacity. Unknown weights are flagged — never counted as zero.
• Own fleet, own brand. Drivers get a link; customers track under your butcher or farm name.

What you need before your first route

Before you build the first route, mark every van's temperature capability honestly — a van that ran cold once is not the same as one that holds a frozen temperature over a full loop with the doors opening at every stop. Addresses resolve on OpenStreetMap, so there is no Google Maps key to buy or billing account to set up. Import this week's stops from a CSV or your order system, mark frozen boxes and their weight where you know it, and the rest of the setup is picking a day and the vans, then building the route.

Weight, not just temperature

A frozen half-hog or a stack of subscription boxes fills a van's weight capacity long before it fills the floor space. Set each vehicle's weight limit honestly, and weigh what you can — a box entered without a weight is flagged for a human to check rather than counted as zero, so it cannot quietly push a van over its limit. On a heavy week, that flag is often the first sign a route needs a second van rather than a later stop time.

A butcher delivery morning

1. 1

   Orders in with temperature and weight

   Send stops over the API with your order numbers, import a CSV, or enter them by hand. Mark frozen meat clearly. Addresses resolve on OpenStreetMap — no map key to buy.

2. 2

   Pick the day's vans

   Freezer vans, reefers, and any dry vehicle get honest capability. Porch Routes builds routes that respect those rules and shows what stays unassigned.

3. 3

   Text drivers a link

   No app install required for seasonal help. Drive mode is one stop at a time in the browser, with maps hand-off, photo or signature proof, and an undo window before the customer is told. Staff drivers can log in if you prefer.

4. 4

   Customers track under your name

   Branded texts and a live tracking page stay under your business name. Outcomes can return over a signed webhook when you use an order system.

What drivers see on their phone

Drivers do not need an account or an app install to run a route. Dispatching a route texts a link that opens drive mode in the phone's own browser: one stop at a time, in big type, with a button to hand off to Google Maps or Apple Maps for the actual driving. Delivered, Couldn't deliver, and Skip are one tap with a quick reason, photos and signatures are captured at the door, and a mis-tap can be undone for a few minutes before the customer hears anything. Staff drivers who run the same route every week can log in instead and see their day's stops without a text at all.

What customers see

Customers see your butcher or farm name, not the software behind it. Texts go out under your business name at each stage — scheduled, on the way, delivered, or couldn't deliver — and the tracking link opens a branded page showing the driver's progress and the proof photo once the box lands. Nothing in the message or the page points back to Porch Routes.

A Wednesday cutting-room morning, worked out

Say Wednesday brings 15 stops out of the cutting room: 9 subscription boxes that have to stay frozen, and 6 standing wholesale drops of fresh, refrigerated cuts for a restaurant account. Mark the freezer van for frozen and the refrigerated van for chilled. The plan builds around both: the 9 frozen boxes route onto the freezer van in sequence, the 6 fresh drops fill the refrigerated van, and if the freezer van needs a repair that morning the frozen stops sit unassigned with the reason attached rather than thawing in the refrigerated van alongside the fresh cuts.

Butchers, farms, and mixed cold chain

Many shops sit between butcher counter and farm store: frozen meat shares one week, chilled and dry the next. The industry overview for that mix is butchers and meat. Packing and door-open discipline still matter on the road — see cold chain for small delivery fleets — but the planner's job is strict: never assign the wrong temperature class to the wrong truck.

USDA's 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 116,617 U.S. farms selling directly to consumers, totaling $3.26 billion in sales — a good number of them running exactly this kind of frozen meat route on their own van rather than through a courier marketplace.

Common mistakes on a frozen meat route

• Marking a van freezer-capable because it ran cold once, not because it holds frozen over a full route in summer.
• Guessing a box's weight instead of leaving it flagged for someone to check before the van is loaded.
• Loading frozen boxes last so they ride farthest from the doors, which still open at every stop before them.
• Sending a driver link before the route is actually built.

A loading checklist for frozen meat

1. Every van's temperature capability and weight limit marked honestly.
2. Every box carries a weight, or is flagged for a human to check before loading.
3. Routes built with zero unassigned stops — or a clear reason next to each one that is.
4. Frozen boxes loaded last, closest to the doors that open least on the route.
5. Driver links sent only after the route is built and checked.

What you can do on Porch Light (free)

Porch Light is free up to 150 orders a month with no credit card. That is enough to run a real weekly butcher or frozen-subscription day and see whether hard frozen routing fits before you pay. Every feature sits on every plan; plans differ by order volume, included customer texts, and support.