The best gas delivery software in the UK

The short answer

There are only a handful of systems built for delivering bottled gas and LPG cylinders in the UK. We rank them in this order:

1. Bottle, for small and growing distributors with 1 to 10 vans, where the owner runs the office.
2. RBA, for larger merchants with several branches or a trade counter alongside their deliveries.
3. FuelStar by TouchStar, for bulk and cylinder distribution run from in-cab devices.
4. A route planner such as Maxoptra, which RBA offers as an optional integration, if what you need is routes and proof of delivery.
5. Spreadsheets and paper, which is where most businesses start.

Bottle comes first because it is built around the way a small gas business actually runs: orders become rounds, drivers record everything on their phones, and invoices are raised from what was delivered. It is not the cheapest option, and it is not the right choice for every business. The rest of this page shows why, feature by feature.

Feature comparison

As each company stated on 29 September 2026. “Not stated” means the company does not say so publicly, not that the product cannot do it. Check with each supplier before you choose.

1. Bottle

Bottle is built for one kind of business: a UK distributor delivering bottled gas and cylinders, with an owner who runs the office and a small team out on the rounds. Everything in it is aimed at taking office work off that owner.

• Orders become rounds. Plan every van’s day in one go, with the load and the driver’s working hours checked before the round goes out.
• Drivers work from their phones. The iPhone and Android apps show the round, and drivers record deliveries, empties back and cash taken, including when the signal drops.
• Invoices come from what was delivered. They bill the quantities that actually went out, per delivery, weekly, monthly or quarterly, and sync to Xero.
• Cylinder rent is worked out for you from what each customer holds and for how long, and added to their invoice.
• Customers can check on their delivery with a tracking page, using their order reference and postcode, instead of phoning you.
• Built to be easy to use. The office works in a web app in any browser, with light and dark modes, and the native iPhone and Android apps follow the phone’s own settings for larger text, dark appearance and reduced motion, and work with VoiceOver and TalkBack.
• Flame AI connects your own Claude or ChatGPT to your records, so you can ask about the day in plain English.

On price, Bottle is not the cheapest option. Starter is £249 a month for 1 van. Round is £399 a month for 3 vans, then £79 a month for each extra van up to 10. Above that is Depot, priced with you. Every plan includes every feature, and Round is free for 30 days with no card.

What the price buys is the office. The jobs that usually need a second person, taking orders, planning each van, chasing invoices, reconciling each driver’s cash and answering “where is my gas”, are done in the system rather than by hand. For an owner running without office staff, that is the comparison that matters.

Where it is not the right fit: Bottle has no trade counter or till, and it does not run several branches.

2. RBA

RBA sells an EPOS and business system for trade, retail, wholesale and distribution, and lists gas distribution among the trades it serves. Its cylinder gas module is aimed at cellar gas, industrial gas and LPG distributors.

RBA states that the module tracks the movements of full and empty cylinders, takes deposits and pre-payments, supports pre-defined delivery days, areas and rounds with automatic repeat orders, and produces vehicle loading and route schedules for drivers. It offers Google route sorting and an optional integration with Max Optra for advanced routing, and an optional app for live order updates on delivery, which RBA describes for Android only. Its multi-drop page says it currently handles fleets of up to 34 vehicles.

RBA’s strength is breadth. It runs a trade counter, several branches from one centre, and links to Sage 50 or Xero, or uses its own accounts. For a merchant with a shop and a delivery arm, that is a real advantage. RBA does not publish its prices, so ask for a quote.

3. FuelStar by TouchStar

FuelStar is TouchStar’s system for LPG bulk and cylinder distribution. TouchStar describes electronic proof of delivery for instant invoicing, cylinder tracking with RFID and barcodes, stock reconciliation across vehicles and depots, drag and drop job planning with live traffic, and in-cab safety prompts on ATEX-certified devices. It suits larger operations that want dedicated in-cab hardware. Prices are not published.

4. A route planner such as Maxoptra

Maxoptra is route optimisation and delivery management software for mid-size fleets. RBA lists it as an optional integration for advanced routing, so it is a common pairing for RBA users. Maxoptra describes route optimisation and multi-drop planning, a driver app for iPhone and Android, proof of delivery with signatures, photos and comments, customer updates by email and SMS, vehicle checks, and reporting.

It is a route planner rather than a stock system: Maxoptra does not state that it tracks cylinders, stock, invoicing or payments, so you would run those somewhere else. Its prices are bespoke; the one published figure is that packages for fleets under 5 vehicles start at £200 a month on a 12-month contract, and it offers a free trial.

Lighter general apps exist too. Spoke Dispatch, for example, publishes prices in US dollars from $125 a month and covers routes, proof of delivery and customer notifications, but not cylinders or invoicing.

5. Spreadsheets and paper

Many gas businesses still run on a diary, a whiteboard and a spreadsheet, and it works until it does not: a missed order, an unbilled delivery, cylinders nobody can account for. Our guide on moving off spreadsheets covers what to gather before you switch.

How to choose

Start with your business, not the feature list:

• How many vans? 1 to 10 fits Bottle’s self-serve plans. A bigger fleet should talk to Bottle about Depot and look at RBA and FuelStar too.
• Do you sell over a trade counter as well? Bottle is built for the delivery side of the business. If a till and walk-in sales are a large part of your day, weigh how much of your week goes on the counter against how much goes on the vans.
• Who does the office? If it is you, weigh how much of it each system does for you.
• Do your drivers lose signal? Ask each supplier exactly what still works when it drops.

Then ask every supplier the same questions: the full price including setup and any hardware, which phones the driver app runs on, how cylinders on hire are charged, how long the contract is, and how you get your data out if you leave.