Rental delivery software organizes the part of a vacation-rental gear business that happens in the truck: which orders go out on which run, in what order, who drives, what was handed over at the door, and when it comes back. If you deliver bikes, beach gear, cribs, golf carts or party rentals to condos and vacation homes and collect them after check-out, the booking is the easy half. This guide follows one order through Ribbe's Pickup and Delivery module: planning delivery and pickup runs, loading the truck, working the route from a driver app, recording proof, and pushing every run to Google Calendar.
Vacation-rental delivery has a rhythm. Most guests check out in the morning and the next group checks in that afternoon, on the same day of the week. That means a wall of collections in the morning and a wall of drop-offs in the afternoon, often at the same addresses: collect last week's bikes from unit 12B, deliver this week's bikes to unit 12B.
A whiteboard handles this until the second truck or the first guest who says the cooler never arrived. Then you need answers it cannot give: who signed for the delivery, and whether the paddle boards for the 2 p.m. check-in are on the truck or still in the yard. Everything below is part of Ribbe's Pickup and Delivery module. Where there is a gap, we say so.
A run is only as good as the addresses on the orders. In Ribbe, a rental order carries a delivery address and a separate pickup (collection) address, with the expected delivery date and return date.
Online, the shop can offer delivery at checkout. The customer types the rental property details: hotel or condo name, contact name, street address, city and zip. Shops that work by zones can instead have the customer pick a delivery region. At the counter, staff set the addresses on the order. For how the online side fits with a register, see our rental POS system guide.
A run in Ribbe is one truck, one driver, one date, one time window and a list of stops. There are three run types: Delivery only drops off, Pickup only collects, and Mixed does both, which is what a turnover Saturday calls for.
Driver loading beach cruiser bikes into a cargo van outside a rental shop
Pick a date and Ribbe lists the orders due for delivery (or due back) that are not yet on a run. Filter by region or zone, or by scheduled and unscheduled, and add them. Or let auto-group build runs from the day's eligible orders and adjust from there.
Several orders to one address become one stop, so a family that booked four bikes and two beach chairs separately is still one knock on the door. On a mixed run, a delivery and a collection at the same address combine into one visit, a swap: unload this week's gear, load last week's.
Ribbe run builder Stops and orders tab with stops grouped by address, customer names, items and Deliver or Collect tags
Stops and orders: one stop per address, each tagged Deliver or Collect.
Drag stops to reorder them, or press Optimize and Ribbe orders them by nearest neighbor from the depot using geocoded addresses. The Route map shows a numbered pin per stop, and each stop opens in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze. Ribbe hands navigation off to those apps rather than routing around traffic itself.
Ribbe run builder Route map tab showing numbered pins for each stop on the day's run
The Route map after Optimize, one numbered pin per stop in driving order from the depot.
The run builder has a tab per stage, from Details and Stops and orders through Assign units, Load truck, Delivery, Route map, Live tracking, Messages and Activity. Assign units is where you pick the serial-numbered unit for each line, say bike 41 and bike 42 for the two adult cruisers on an order, so the right size goes to the right door and the fleet record knows which bike is at which property all week.
Load truck is a checklist: tick each item as it goes on, by hand or with a barcode scanner, and optionally photograph the packed truck. A setting allows loading lines with no specific unit yet, useful for chairs and umbrellas that are not serialized.
Ribbe run builder Load truck tab with each item ticked as loaded at the depot
The Load truck checklist, items ticked as they go onto the van.
Each truck is set up once on the Vehicles page with a label, license plate, capacity, default driver and a loading mode: LIFO loads in reverse stop order so the first stop's gear is at the tailgate, FIFO loads in stop order. Drivers are staff with the Driver skill.
Run statuses go Draft, Planned, Loaded, Dispatched, Completed and Cancelled, and a completed run can be reopened. At dispatch, Ribbe sends each customer on the run an on-the-way message with an ETA, by email or SMS, from a template you can edit. There is no live link and no second text when the truck is close; the message goes once.
The driver signs in on a phone with a username and password at a dedicated driver login. No register, no terminal. The phone shows today's runs and stops in order, each with the customer's name, phone, address and items, plus a navigation link.
Ribbe driver app on a phone showing today's run and its stops in order with customer and address
The driver's phone: today's run, stops in order, a navigation link on each.
At the door, Record delivery lists the items for the stop. The driver ticks them off, scans unit barcodes, takes handover photos and has the customer sign on the phone. Ribbe renders a Delivery Note, an editable template like a receipt, with the items and signature, and emails a signed copy to the customer. If a stop cannot be completed, the driver records a partial delivery with a reason per item, or marks it Failed or Skipped. Collections use the Collect flow and produce a Pickup Receipt.
Record delivery screen on the driver's phone with items ticked, a handover photo and a signature field
Record delivery: items ticked, a handover photo, and the customer's signature for the Delivery Note.
Signature on delivery, signature on pickup and photos are each a capability you can switch off. Three options round it out: start the rental when the gear is delivered, stop it when collected, and close the run when every stop is resolved.
While a run is Dispatched, the driver's phone sends its position about every 15 seconds and dispatch watches the truck move on the Live tracking map; a position older than five minutes shows as stale. The Messages tab is a per-run chat between driver and dispatcher, with push notifications when the other side is away.
The Runs page has a list view, where each run expands into its manifest, and Day, Week and Month calendar views. Week view is where you will live: delivery, pickup and mixed runs sit side by side.
Ribbe Runs page in Week view with delivery, pickup and mixed runs laid out on the calendar
The Runs page in Week view, with delivery, pickup and mixed runs by day and time window.
Runs also appear as a layer on the employee scheduler: create a run there, drag it to another time, resize its window. Ribbe flags a conflict when the driver, crew or truck is double-booked or a crew member is on an overlapping shift. Once a Saturday works, copy the runs to next week or save them as a run template.
Connect the shop's Google account from Integrations, choose a calendar, and Ribbe pushes each run as an event with its date and time window (all-day when there is no window). When a run moves, is dispatched, completed or cancelled, the event is updated or removed. The sync is one-way from Ribbe to Google: edits made in Google do not flow back. Outlook and iCal are not supported yet.
Ribbe Google Calendar integration page with the connected account and the chosen calendar
The Google Calendar integration page: connect the account, pick the calendar.
The module has three levels, Off, Basic and Full, with per-capability overrides: regions, assign vehicle, assign driver, live tracking, chat, load truck, route optimization, ETA alerts, proof, photos, barcode scanner, sign on delivery or pickup, max units and the dispatch stage. A one-truck shop can run Basic; a shop with three trucks and a dispatcher can turn on everything. If you are not sure which level fits, talk to us.
Ribbe Pickup and Delivery settings with the module level set and individual capability toggles
Pickup and Delivery settings: module level and capability toggles.
Take a shop like Boardwalk Bikes in Mission Beach, San Diego, which delivers bikes and beach gear to vacation rentals. The numbers below are examples, not benchmarks.
Beach cruiser bikes and chairs delivered to the porch of a vacation rental condo
Friday afternoon: the dispatcher opens Saturday, sees 18 eligible orders (11 deliveries, 7 collections) and runs auto-group. Two mixed runs come back, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Three addresses have both a collection and a delivery and become swap stops.
Friday evening: Optimize orders the stops, units are assigned, and both runs appear on the scheduler and in the owner's Google Calendar.
Saturday 8:15 a.m.: the driver signs in on a phone and loads in LIFO order from the Load truck tab. Dispatch sends the run out and eleven customers get an ETA email or text.
Saturday 9:40 a.m.: at stop 4 the guests have not arrived. The driver leaves the chairs on the patio as agreed, takes photos, and marks the two bikes not delivered with the reason "customer not present". Dispatch adds a second attempt to the afternoon run.
Saturday 12:05 p.m.: the last stop is resolved and the run auto-closes.
No phone call between owner and driver, and every handover has a signed note or a photo on the order. For the counter side, see our post on bike rental software. The same pattern fits golf cart delivery to resort villas, covered in best golf cart rental software.
Yes. A Mixed run carries both. A delivery and a collection at the same address become one swap stop, which you can split into two if the timing does not line up.
No. The driver signs in on a phone at a dedicated driver login. Runs, stops, navigation, Record delivery, Collect and chat are all on the phone.
Not yet. Runs are pushed from Ribbe to Google and updated or removed as they change, but an edit made in Google Calendar does not come back. Make changes on the Runs page and let the calendar follow.
When the run is dispatched, each customer on it receives an on-the-way message with an ETA by email or SMS. There is no customer-facing live tracking link and no automatic second message as the truck gets closer.
The driver can complete the stop with photos of where the gear was left, since signature on delivery can be switched off. If items should not be left unattended, the driver records a partial delivery with a reason per item or marks the stop Failed, and dispatch schedules a second attempt.
Run your Saturday from one screen Plan the runs, load the trucks, give your drivers a phone app with signed proof at the door, and see it all in Google Calendar. There is no upfront software cost. Start a free trial, or talk to us about which module level fits your trucks. Start a free trial