Pick Your Break Time Before You Sort the Run

The break that wrecks the afternoon

You sort the run, the stop order looks tidy, and you head out. Then lunch happens. Half an hour later every arrival time you promised has shifted, the depot is ringing, and the customer who was told "around 1pm" is standing at the door at 1:40.

The problem isn't the break. It's that the break wasn't in the plan when the plan was made.

StopSorted lets you decide when your break happens before it sorts the run. Set a time, take it midway, or leave it to the end — the break becomes a row in the stop list, and the arrival times on every stop after it account for it. This article shows how to set it up on a fleet phone and on a Play subscription, and what it changes on the road.

How the mechanic works

Break planning isn't a separate screen you visit later. It's part of the sort.

• Before the app sorts, it asks when your break will be taken. You pick Set time, Midway, or End.
• The app then builds the sorted stop order with a Break row sitting in the list at the point you chose.
• Every stop after the break is timed with the break length included, so your delivery arrival time stays realistic.
• When the break comes up, you tap Start break on the break row. The same button appears on the StopSorted notification and on the map bubble when the break is next.

The office controls how long the break is, and which of the three choices drivers are allowed to see. If your fleet hasn't turned any of them on, you won't see the question at all — the sort just runs as normal.

Setting it up on a fleet phone

Your office has to have planned breaks switched on first. If they have:

1. Add your stops as usual, then tap Ready to optimize.
2. Answer VIP stops first? — VIP areas, No — sort the route, or Keep this order.
3. If your fleet allows it, When is your break? appears.
4. Choose Set time, Midway, or End. You'll only see the options your office turned on.
5. If you picked a set time, tap the clock and choose when the break starts.
6. Tap Sort the route.

One thing worth knowing: if you choose Keep this order, the break-time question is skipped. That path doesn't re-sort the run, so there's nothing to build the break into. If you want the break planned into the times, sort the route.

The break length itself isn't yours to set on a fleet phone — that lives in Fleet Settings → Breaks → Default break length. Ask your controller if the default doesn't match your run.

Setting it up on a Play subscription

Solo drivers get the same choices, set up in the app menu under Settings:

1. Turn on Use planned breaks. It's off until you turn it on. Turn it off again to drop the break from the sort and hide the break row.
2. Tap + Add break.
3. Choose Set time, Midway, or End.
4. If you chose a time, tap the clock and set how many minutes the break runs.
5. Tap Save.

Before you sort, the app asks you to confirm when the break is taken. After the sort, tap Start break on the break row when you actually stop.

Set time, midway, or end — which one?

Each option suits a different kind of day.

• Set time works when your break is fixed by law, by a site, or by a habit you don't want to break — a 12:30 lunch, say. The app places the break row so the run flows around that clock time.
• Midway suits long days where you'd rather stop once the work is half done. It splits the run and keeps the second half realistic.
• End is for short runs where you'd rather finish the drops and take the break after the last one. It keeps the customer-facing times tight and puts the break where it costs nothing.

If you're not sure, midway is the safe default for a full day. For a three-hour suburban run, end is usually better.

What the driver sees vs what the office sees

The driver sees the practical version: a numbered stop list with a Break row in it, a Start break button on that row, and the same button on the notification and map bubble when the break is next. Tapping it is the record that the break happened.

The office sees the shape of the day. The controller sets the break length once under Fleet Settings → Breaks, decides whether drivers can pick their own time, and then sees runs sorted with breaks already inside them. That means the arrival times the office quotes to customers aren't built on a driver who somehow never stops for lunch.

A worked example

A driver has eleven drops across a morning and early afternoon. No planned break.

Before: The run is sorted with no break in it. Around stop six, the driver stops for 30 minutes. The remaining five stops each run roughly half an hour late. Two customers ring the depot. The controller spends part of the afternoon explaining, and one delivery is left at the door rather than handed over.

After: Before sorting, the driver picks Midway. The break row lands in the middle of the stop list, and the app times the back half of the run with those 30 minutes included. The arrival times the depot quotes already allow for the stop. The driver taps Start break on the break row when it comes up, takes the break, and finishes the remaining drops inside the times the customers were given.

Same run, same break, same driver. The only change is that the break was in the plan before the plan was built.

Questions drivers and controllers ask

Why didn't I get asked about my break? Either your office hasn't turned on driver-picked break time, or you chose Keep this order. The break question only appears when the app is about to sort the route.

Can I change the break length from the phone? On a fleet phone, no — the office sets it under Fleet Settings → Breaks. On a Play subscription, you set the minutes yourself when you add the break in Settings.

What if my break doesn't happen when I planned it? The break row is a plan, not a lock. If the day moves, you take the break when you take it and tap Start break then. The point is that the arrival times were built on a break existing, not on pretending it wouldn't.

Does the break show up if I turn planned breaks off? No. On Play, switch Use planned breaks off and the break drops out of the sort and the break row disappears. On a fleet phone, the office controls whether the option is available at all.

Try it on your next run

If your arrival times keep slipping after lunch, the fix is small: decide the break before you sort, then let the break row carry it through the rest of the day.

Read the full walkthrough at /help/drivers/pick-break-time, see how sorting and breaks fit together at /how-it-works, or check what a fleet seat costs at /pricing. Coverage grows country by country — Australia is live today, and you can ask for yours at /coverage.