Restaurant Packaging Delivery Route Tips: How Distributors Are Going Digital
Restaurant disposables and packaging distribution is one of the most overlooked verticals in the route sales industry. It does not get the attention of food DSD or beverage distribution, but it follows the exact same model: independent and regional distributors delivering on recurring weekly schedules to the same restaurants, delis, bodegas, and caterers that food route drivers serve. The workflow — show up, check what is needed, take an order, leave a paper invoice — is identical.
What makes restaurant packaging distribution distinctive is the product complexity. A full-service packaging route might carry 300 to 500 individual SKUs: takeout containers in a dozen different sizes and materials, cups with matching lids, aluminum foil pans for catering, plastic wraps, butcher paper, gloves, trash liners, and more. Managing all of that on paper invoices from manufacturers like Dart Container, Pactiv Evergreen, and Genpak requires constant administrative effort.
Here is how independent packaging distributors are using digital tools to simplify that workflow.
The Cross-Sell Opportunity You Are Already Sitting On
Restaurant packaging distributors have a structural advantage that almost no other route category has: their customers already have an established buying relationship with someone who uses the same sales model. The restaurant that buys chicken and deli meat from a food route driver and bread rolls from a bakery route driver also buys takeout containers from a packaging distributor. All three distributors are running essentially the same business — just different products.
If any one of those distributors gives the restaurant manager a digital ordering experience — a link to browse a catalog and place orders from their phone — the manager immediately understands the value. They will expect it from the others. Early adopters of digital tools in this space have a real competitive advantage in how professional and convenient they are to work with compared to competitors still taking orders by phone.
The SKU Count Problem: Why Paper Fails at Scale
The math on paper-based packaging distribution gets bad quickly. If you carry 400 products and have 35 accounts, and each account orders an average of 25 items per delivery, you are tracking 875 line items per week across paper invoices from multiple manufacturers. Each invoice has different product codes, packaging designations, and size notations. When pricing changes — and packaging pricing tied to raw material costs changes frequently — updating records across all accounts is a manual project.
How AI Invoice Scanning Removes the Data Entry Problem
The Full Truck's AI scanner reads any foodservice packaging invoice from a photo on your phone. Dart Container format, Pactiv format, Genpak format, regional wholesaler format — the scanner handles them all. Every product, size code, and price gets extracted automatically into your digital catalog. When you receive new products or pricing updates from a supplier, scanning the new invoice updates your catalog without any manual data entry.
Managing Eco-Friendly and Conventional Lines Together
The fastest-growing segment in restaurant packaging is compostable and eco-friendly disposables. Municipal regulations in many cities now require restaurants to use compostable containers, and consumer expectations around sustainable packaging are pushing the rest. Independent packaging distributors who carry both conventional and eco-friendly lines are managing two parallel product sets with different suppliers, different price points, and different product certifications.
A digital catalog that organizes both conventional and eco-friendly products in a single browsable interface makes it easy for restaurant managers to find what they need — and for distributors to introduce eco-friendly alternatives to accounts that have not yet made the switch.
The Same Customers as Food Route Drivers
Restaurant packaging distributors deliver to the same bodegas, delis, restaurants, and caterers as food route drivers. This is the easiest vertical to expand into for a Full Truck user with multiple route businesses, and it is the most direct cross-referral opportunity: a restaurant manager who likes the digital ordering experience from their food distributor immediately understands the value when their packaging distributor offers the same thing.
Getting Started
For packaging distributors ready to add a digital layer to their route operations, the starting point is straightforward: scan your most recent supplier invoices and review the digital catalog that gets built from them. Then share that catalog with one restaurant account and see how they interact with it. Most packaging distributors find their accounts placing digital orders within the first week.
Browse the full list of restaurant disposables and packaging distributors we support, or read more about the invoice app for restaurant packaging route drivers. The Full Truck is $49.99 per month with a 14-day free trial — no credit card required to start.