Route study

Who this is for

The route study is for the person who already runs vans or cars in Georgia and can put a week of drop lists on the table: a courier dispatcher in Gldani, a wine depot sending cases toward Kakheti, a bakery chain with dawn rounds through Vake and Saburtalo, a spare-parts counter whose drivers still write kilometres by hand. You do not need a new radio set. You need someone who will sit with the paper, walk the same kerbs, and hand back drawings a driver will recognise.

If you have no written record of doors and times, start with an observed round instead. A study built on memory alone becomes an argument.

What you receive

The finished study is a bound set of plates and a spoken briefing, not a login. You leave with:

• one overview plate of all rounds in the week we studied, drawn at a scale a dispatcher can read across a table
• a plate per round, with drop order, waits, and reverse runs marked in the margin
• a delay ledger: gates that take a signature, stair drops, market closures, and slopes that stall a loaded van
• a written note on what the present order costs in time, without pretending we can name a precise minute for every door
• a two-hour briefing at your depot, or at Level 6, 39 Marjanishvili Street, Tbilisi 0102 if you prefer to come to us

The plates are ours in draft until the briefing; after that they are yours to copy for drivers. We keep a file copy in the bureau cabinet.

What is included

• A first reading of one typical week of waybills, kilometre logs, and load sheets
• Up to two field days riding or following rounds we agree in advance
• Draft plates sent as printed sheets or as a marked PDF for comment
• One revision after your comments
• The depot briefing and a one-page order of work for the week that follows

What is excluded

We do not fit trackers, hire drivers, buy fuel, or take over dispatch for a month. We do not draw a map of Georgia as a wall decoration. We do not rewrite your invoices. If a street is closed the week we walk it, we note the closure rather than invent a permanent rule.

Who does the work

Nika Beridze reads the manifests and draws the plates. Mariam Tsiklauri takes the field days and writes the delay ledger. Lela Mchedlidze chairs the briefing so the drawings are argued in the same room as the people who will use them. You are not passed to a night shift of unnamed clerks.

How a study runs

1. Note and sample week. You send a short description of the rounds and a photocopy or scan of one ordinary week. We reply with a written estimate and a proposed start date.
2. Deposit and kickoff. A deposit holds the dates. We meet at the depot or on Marjanishvili Street to agree which rounds will be walked.
3. Reading. The first days are spent at the bureau with the paper: matching doors to streets, spotting loops, listing questions.
4. Field days. One of us rides or follows the agreed rounds, noting waits the log never records.
5. Draft plates. You receive the drawings and the delay ledger. You mark what is wrong.
6. Briefing. We sit with dispatchers and, if you wish, with drivers, and walk the plates. The revision is issued after that conversation.

Duration and timing

A study of two or three city rounds usually takes two weeks after the sample week arrives. A fleet that covers Tbilisi plus the S1 toward Kutaisi, or a coastal string toward Batumi, takes closer to three. We do not start three studies in the same week; the calendar is the calendar.

Where the work happens

Reading and drawing happen at the bureau: Level 6, 39 Marjanishvili Street, Tbilisi 0102. Field days happen on your rounds. The briefing is at your depot unless you ask to use our table.

Preparation

Before the kickoff, set aside:

• a week of drop lists with addresses a stranger can find
• kilometre logs or fuel slips for the same week
• a note on van size and any streets you already refuse
• permission for one of us to ride or follow, and a named person at the depot who can answer questions the same day

Blurred photographs of crumpled sheets slow the work. If addresses are only nicknames (“Gia’s cellar”), we will need a morning with a dispatcher to unpack them, billed as extra reading.

Constraints

We work in English on this site and at the desk; Georgian and Russian are spoken on the rounds when the driver prefers them. We do not enter a private courtyard without the firm’s introduction. Winter ice on Sololaki and summer market stalls at Dezerter Bazaar are treated as facts of the street, not as problems we can legislate away.

A study describes the week we were given. If your Fridays look nothing like your Tuesdays, say so at kickoff so we sample both.

Price

Route studies start at 1,800 GEL for a single Tbilisi round with one field day. A second round, a second field day, or a corridor out of the city is quoted after we see the sample week. Travel beyond the Tbilisi municipality is billed as actual transport and lodging, agreed in writing. A deposit of 40 percent holds the dates; the remainder is due at the briefing.

See Rates for how we quote neighbouring work, and Refunds for what happens if a field day is cancelled.

Next step

Send a note with the number of vans, the districts or towns, and a sample drop list if you have one. We reply within two working days with either a date for a short call or a written estimate.