How to manage a small road-haulage business with Excel

In brief

Excel can be an excellent first management tool for a micro-business. It is affordable, familiar and flexible. The problem is not using Excel: it is building a file in which every row means something different, cells contain colours with no logic, and several people overwrite information.

With a minimal structure, a small fleet can already improve considerably. The aim is to turn the spreadsheet from a ‘digital notebook’ into an elementary database.

When Excel is still a reasonable choice

It can work when:

• there are few daily orders;
• one person, or a very small team, updates the plan;
• many users do not need to sync in real time;
• drivers still receive instructions through a separate, manageable channel;
• the document volume is limited;
• version errors are rare.

If you spend much of the day looking for the latest version of the file, Excel has stopped saving time.

The five sheets to create

1. Orders

One row for each order. Columns: ID, customer, collection, delivery, dates, goods, weight/quantity, status, driver, truck, notes, commercial reference.

2. Daily plan

A view of activities in sequence by date and driver. It is better derived from orders than copied out manually.

3. Customers

Customer ID, company name, recurring addresses, operational contacts, references and essential notes. This prevents writing “Rossi Customer” five different ways.

4. Drivers

Driver ID, name, operational status, and any qualifications/expiries strictly needed for planning. Sensitive HR information should not be placed in the operational sheet unless it is needed.

5. Vehicles

Registration number/ID, type, capacity, operational characteristics, status and relevant expiries.

Using IDs and structured data

The most important rule is to use identifiers, not free-text descriptions, to link sheets.

Example:

• Customer: CLI-0042
• Driver: AUT-0011
• Truck: MEZ-0007
• Order: OT-2026-00418

The order should refer to these codes through drop-down menus. That way, “Trasporti Rossi Srl”, “Rossi” and “ROSSI SRL” do not become three different customers in the statistics.

Validations and checks

Excel makes it possible to create data validations and formatting that reduce errors:

• order statuses from a closed list;
• drivers selectable from the directory;
• trucks selectable from the directory;
• mandatory dates;
• indication of missing fields;
• highlighted duplicates;
• formulas to calculate delays or loads, used with caution.

Colour alone must not carry the information. If “red” means cancelled, also create a Status = cancelled column.

Versions, access and backups

The greatest risk begins with final_plan_v7_real.xlsx.

It is better to use a shared file with:

• individual access;
• version history;
• backups;
• consistent permissions;
• a rule on who can change the structure;
• limited local copies.

If the file contains personal data, the GDPR principles apply: data minimisation, security, accuracy, storage limitation and access control.

What Excel does not solve

Excel does not automatically make a business compliant. It does not calculate driving times with legal certainty, check authorisations, replace the tachograph, or independently manage CMRs, DDTs or privacy.

It also becomes fragile when you need:

• simultaneous office-driver updates;
• a reliable history of changes;
• advanced roles and permissions;
• linked documents;
• notifications;
• integrations;
• many rows and interlocking processes.

Example order structure

References to documents kept in a folder with the same ID can be added to this row.

Excel checklist

• One row = one order?
• Are there unique IDs?
• Do customers/drivers/vehicles come from directories?
• Are statuses standardised?
• Is the file shared and versioned?
• Is there a backup?
• Is personal data limited to what is necessary?
• Are critical formulas checked?
• Is the file still easy to use under pressure?