Route Planner Programs

Route planner programs simplify the delivery of Shoah Yellow Candles by volunteers to congregants’ homes.

The annual increased postage costs have enticed many clubs to distribute candles with a more personal touch. They can involve various groups within the congregation to help with packing and delivery. This hands-on approach offers an opportunity to teach and educate your community about the importance of the Shoah Yellow Candle™ program.

Managing and arriving at the door of hundreds of congregants in a week or two is not an easy manual task. It would be best to have a fast, reliable, and automatic organizer. This should be the responsibility of an inexpensive but dependable route planner program. Each volunteer could have 15 to 20 candles to distribute in a Zip Code area.

A route planner helps users plan routes, save time, reduce fuel costs, and enhance navigation efficiency. Well-designed software can save hours of route planning. Using a route planner program gives your volunteers efficient routes with accurate ETAs, with the support for their favorite navigation apps (Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Waze).

Some apps are free up to a certain number of visits, usually around 10-20. But once you get to more than 25 stops or need routes for more than one vehicle, you must pay for access to genuinely efficient route planners. Organizations that save money on postage by hand delivering candles to the door of congregants usually will pay for one month of service every year. Some apps offer a seven or ten-day trial period.

FJMC cannot endorse a route planner program. A few Men’s Clubs have indicated the following two websites have inexpensive and helpful route planner programs for once-a-year candle delivery.

Route Planner (route4me.com)

https://www.myrouteonline.com/

Other route planners may be found on your phone app store or by searching the internet using a computer search engine. The selection criteria depend on what you expect from a route planner. All of them are good at something, while others are too sophisticated and expensive for once-a-year use. FJMC suggests that you choose a route planner that is low-cost, fast, feature-rich, reliable, and hassle-free.

**An Important Reminder: Candle bags should be placed on doorknobs or inside a screen door. Putting anything in anyone’s mailbox, with or without consent, is a federal crime. Mailboxes are considered federal property; tampering with them is a federal crime. It is also illegal to place items in your mailbox with the intent of someone other than the mail carrier to retrieve them. No one but postal personnel should ever open or remove something from anyone’s mailbox.**