Setting up delivery areas

Delivery areas let you tell Breww where you deliver, which vehicles cover each area, and (via each area's delivery rules) on which days of the week you deliver there. Breww automatically assigns your customers to the right delivery area based on their delivery address, and uses this when scheduling deliveries and calculating the next delivery date for an order.

Creating a delivery area

To create a delivery area, head to Deliveries -> Settings & config -> Delivery areas -> Create new area. Give the area a name, choose its type (see below), and optionally restrict which vehicles can deliver to it.

You can disable a delivery area at any time using its status, if it's not currently in operation.

Note: Restricting an area to specific vehicles, or requiring vehicle attributes, needs Breww's Advanced Deliveries addon to take effect. Leave all vehicles unticked to allow any vehicle to deliver to the area.

Delivery area types

There are four ways to define a delivery area:

• UK postcodes - Enter postcode outcodes (the first half of a postcode, before the space), for example BS1 or EX16.
• Australian postcodes - Enter 4-digit postcodes, for example 3000. Ranges are supported, for example 3000-3010.
• US ZIP codes - Enter 5-digit ZIP codes, for example 80210. Ranges are supported, for example 80210-80239. Don't include ZIP+4 extensions when defining the area - Breww will still match customers whose addresses use ZIP+4 (for example 80210-1234) to the right area automatically.
• Area drawn on map - Draw the boundary of your area directly on a map instead of listing postcodes or ZIP codes.

For the postcode and ZIP code types, you can add multiple entries separated by a comma, a space, or a new line. Use a dash only when entering a range. If any of the entries can't be recognised, Breww will show an error listing exactly which ones need correcting.

Using the map

While creating or editing a postcode or ZIP code area, the map alongside the form shows a live preview of the boundaries of the codes you've entered, along with your other existing delivery areas, so you can see coverage and spot gaps or overlaps.

For US ZIP code areas, you can also click directly on the map to add the ZIP code for that point to your list - handy when you know where you deliver but not the ZIP codes by heart.

After saving an area, Breww generates the merged map for it in the background. If you open the area straight away, you may briefly see a "Generating map…" message - just refresh shortly and the map will appear.

If an area covers a very large number of postcodes or ZIP codes, Breww won't be able to draw it on the map, and you'll see a message explaining this instead. This is only a display limitation - customer matching and delivery scheduling for the area work exactly as normal.

Setting the days you deliver to an area

Once an area has been saved, you can add delivery rules to it to record which day(s) of the week you deliver there. Breww uses these when suggesting delivery dates and calculating a customer's next delivery date. To have Breww schedule deliveries automatically based on your areas and other conditions, see Delivery rules.

How customers are assigned to delivery areas

Breww automatically assigns each customer to a delivery area by matching their delivery address against your areas' postcodes, ZIP codes, or map boundaries. When you change an area's codes or type, Breww recalculates the affected customers in the background - please allow a few minutes for this to complete.