This user is building a nine-driver route system inside an online spreadsheet, one tab per driver, a main tab for the overview, and a growing suspicion that a third tab full of addresses is the only way forward. Our take: that instinct is correct, but it stops too short. A master address list is the foundation, not the finish line.
The current setup works, barely. Nine identical tabs, each with destination names, item counts, and comments, stitched together on a main route sheet. That is a manual process that scales poorly. Every new delivery means jumping into a driver tab, typing coordinates or a name, and hoping the main view updates cleanly. The user already knows that third-party templates that auto-calculate with Google Maps are off the table because this is an online version. That constraint is real, but it is not a dead end. It is a design prompt.
Here is what the user should build: one tab for all accounts, with columns for account name, street address, city, and a calculated distance column using a simple lookup or a static table of mileage zones. Then, in each driver tab, replace the manual destination name with a dropdown that pulls from that master list. The driver tab becomes a selection interface, not a data-entry form. The main route tab then pulls not just the name but the address and distance automatically. No more typing. No more guesswork about which driver is closest to which stop.
This approach does not require any API calls or browser extensions. It uses the spreadsheet's own data validation, lookup functions, and conditional formatting. The user can even add a column for estimated drive time based on a simple multiplier from the distance table, approximate, yes, but far better than nothing and entirely within the tool's native capabilities. The system becomes adaptive to the workflow, not the other way around.
The next step after that is to add a status column, planned, en route, completed, and a timestamp. That turns a static route list into a live dispatch board. The user can see at a glance which drivers are still on the road and which are free for the next run. Start with the master address list. Then let the spreadsheet do what it is good at: connect data instead of duplicating it.