The best gas delivery software in the UK

The short answer

Only a handful of systems are built for delivering gas cylinders and fuel in the UK. We rank them in this order:

1. Bottle, for small and growing distributors where the owner runs the office. It suits a business that sells and delivers its own orders with no rounds yet, up to one with 10 vehicles.
2. RBA, for merchants who run a trade counter as well as 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 follows the way a small gas or fuel business runs. Customers order on your own shop or by phone, orders go on rounds, drivers record each delivery on their phones, and invoices are raised from what was delivered. Bottle is not the cheapest option, and it is not the right choice for every business. The rest of this page compares them feature by feature.

Feature comparison

From what each company said publicly on 29 September 2026, and RBA’s eCommerce page on 1 October 2026. “Not stated” means the company does not say so publicly. The product may still do it, so check with each supplier before you choose.

1. Bottle

Bottle is for UK distributors who deliver gas cylinders and fuel, where the owner runs the office and a small team does the rounds. It is built to take office work off that owner.

• Your own shop, built for gas. Bottle Shop is a website for your business, on your own domain, ready from the day you sign up. It asks shoppers if they have an empty to swap, and adds the deposit if they do not. It sets VAT at 5% or 20% on each product, shows your delivery areas with order-by times and a countdown, and stops selling anything that is out of stock. Trade customers sign in to see their own prices and can order on account. Shoppers pay by card through Stripe, so Bottle never holds their card details.
• Prices for every customer. Each product has a Consumer price and a Trade price. Price lists cover groups such as pubs or farms, quantity prices make it cheaper to buy more, and a customer’s own agreed prices come first. The same prices apply on your shop, on orders and on invoices.
• Orders go on rounds. Plan every vehicle’s day in one go. Bottle checks the load and the driver’s working hours before the round goes out.
• Drivers work from their phones. The iPhone and Android apps show the round. Drivers record deliveries, empties and cash taken, including when the signal drops.
• Invoices come from what was delivered. Each invoice bills the quantities that went out, per delivery, weekly, monthly or quarterly, and is sent to Xero.
• Cylinder rent is worked out for you from what each customer holds and for how long, and added to their invoice. A customer can pay a deposit or rent. Each deposit has its own refund rule, from a full refund to a sliding scale that gives back less the longer a cylinder is kept.
• Addresses found as you type. Start typing an address and Bottle finds it, then places the stop at the door for round planning. Where the door is hard to find, such as on a farm, your staff can pin it on the map.
• Customers can check on their delivery on a tracking page, with their order reference and postcode, so they do not need to ring you.
• More than one yard. Each vehicle and driver has a home yard. You see stock for each yard or for the whole business, each yard has its own low-stock alerts, and stock moves between yards on one of your own rounds or with a courier.
• Easy to use. The office works in any web browser, in light or dark. The iPhone and Android apps follow the phone’s 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.

Bottle is not the cheapest option. Shop is £69 a month, for a business that sells online or by phone and delivers its own orders, with up to 5 people. Yard is £249 a month for 1 vehicle on rounds, with the driver app, the rota, cash and regular orders, for up to 10 people. Round is £399 a month for 3 vehicles, then £79 a month for each extra vehicle up to 10, for up to 100 people. Above that is Depot, priced with you. Every plan includes your own shop and cylinder rent, and you can move up a plan from Billing at any time. Try the plan you choose free for 30 days, with no card.

The price pays for office work. Taking orders, planning each vehicle, chasing invoices, checking each driver’s cash and answering “where is my gas” usually need a second person. In Bottle those jobs are done in the system instead of by hand. If you run the business without office staff, that is the cost to compare.

Where it does not fit: Bottle has no trade counter or till.

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 for cellar gas, industrial gas and LPG distributors.

RBA says the module tracks full and empty cylinders as they move, takes deposits and pre-payments, lets you set delivery days, areas and rounds with automatic repeat orders, and produces vehicle loading and route schedules for drivers. It offers Google route sorting, an optional Max Optra integration 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 how much it covers. It runs a trade counter and 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 side, 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 lists electronic proof of delivery for instant invoicing, cylinder tracking with RFID and barcodes, stock reconciled across vehicles and depots, drag and drop job planning with live traffic, and in-cab safety prompts on ATEX-certified devices. It suits larger businesses that want dedicated in-cab hardware. Prices are not published.

4. A route planner such as Maxoptra

Maxoptra is route planning and delivery 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 lists 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.

Maxoptra plans routes. It does not state that it tracks cylinders or stock, or handles invoicing or payments, so you would need another system for those. 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. It offers a free trial.

There are lighter general apps too. Spoke Dispatch, for example, publishes prices in US dollars from $125 a month. It 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. That works until an order is missed, a delivery is never invoiced, or nobody can say where some cylinders are. Our guide on moving off spreadsheets covers what to gather before you switch.

If you sell online

Many gas businesses also sell on a website, often built on Shopify, or on WordPress with WooCommerce. Both are strong, flexible platforms that can sell almost anything. Because they are made for every kind of shop, you add the gas parts yourself: a deposit that comes off when an empty is swapped, cylinder rent, delivery areas by postcode with order-by times, and trade prices for account customers. That usually means extra apps or plugins, or paying someone to set them up.

Bottle Shop has those parts from the start. It is built for gas and uses the same products, prices, stock and customers as the rest of Bottle. Sign up, add your products, and your shop is ready to publish. If your WooCommerce or Shopify shop works well, you can keep it and bring its products into Bottle.

How to choose

Start with how your business runs, then compare features:

• How many vehicles? None yet, because you sell online with no rounds: Bottle’s Shop plan. 1 to 10: Bottle’s Yard and Round plans. More than 10: talk to Bottle about Depot, and look at RBA and FuelStar too.
• Do you also sell over a trade counter? Bottle is built for the delivery side of the business. If a till and walk-in sales take up much of your day, compare how much of your week goes on the counter with how much goes on deliveries.
• Do you want to sell online? Ask each supplier whether its shop handles deposits, empties and trade prices without extra apps.
• Who does the office work? If it is you, compare 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.