Brewery Logistics Cost Calculator
What is a per delivered litre rate?
Your PDL rate is the true cost of getting one litre of beer from your brewery to a venue. It covers driver wages, vehicle costs, fuel and maintenance — the full cost of running your own delivery operation, divided by the litres you actually move.
Most breweries have never calculated it. They know their wage bill and their fuel costs separately, but they've never added it all up and divided by litres delivered. When they do, the number is consistently higher than expected.
The calculator above works out your current PDL rate and compares it to Tap'in's rate. Enter your vehicles, drivers and average daily volumes — it does the rest.
Tap'in PDL rate
Per delivered litre into London and the South East venues.
Example in-house PDL rate
One van, one driver, delivering 16 x 30L kegs per day — before warehouse costs.
Enter your own figures above to see your actual PDL rate. The gap typically widens when warehouse costs are included.
The real cost of a part-empty van
The PDL calculation changes significantly depending on how full your vehicle is.
A delivery van costs roughly the same to run whether it's carrying 100 litres or 1,000 litres. Driver wages, fuel, insurance, maintenance — those costs are largely fixed per day. That means every litre you don't deliver increases your cost per litre on everything you do.
For breweries running one or two vans into London, this is where in-house delivery becomes hard to justify. If your venues won't all accept deliveries on the same day, or you can't consolidate your route tightly enough to fill the van, you're paying full fixed costs for partial volume.
The breakeven point
Below 690 litres per van per day, it costs a brewery the same or more to deliver in-house as it does with Tap'in — and that's before warehousing costs are factored in. Above that volume, the in-house economics start to make more sense.
Tap'in consolidates deliveries from multiple breweries into the same routes. That means vans leave full, routes are optimised, and the cost per litre stays low regardless of your individual volume. It also means fewer vans on the road — better for costs, and better for emissions.
Part-empty van costs
Fixed costs spread across fewer litres. Your PDL rate climbs. Any day a venue pushes back a delivery or volumes dip, you absorb the full cost of the run.
Consolidating with Tap'in
Your stock shares van space with other breweries. Routes go out full. Your PDL rate stays consistent regardless of weekly volume fluctuations.
The warehousing gap
The calculator doesn't include your warehouse costs. A small London-area facility can add £50,000–£90,000 per year on top of delivery. With Tap'in, storage is built into the PDL rate.
Is this the right calculation for your brewery?
The PDL tool is most useful if any of these apply.
You're running your own vansYour delivery operation works, but fixed vehicle and driver costs eat into margin regardless of weekly volumes.
You want to grow without fixed cost growthMore venues means more deliveries. Another driver or van is a large fixed commitment for what might be variable demand.
You need to scale up or down seasonallyFestival season, new accounts, quiet months — your distribution costs should flex with your volume, not stay fixed regardless.
You want your team focused on brewingEvery hour spent managing deliveries is an hour not spent on the product. Outsourcing removes that overhead entirely.
How to use the calculator
Five inputs. Instant result. Takes under a minute.
Number of vehicles
How many vehicles do you use for London and South East deliveries? Include leased and owned.
Number of drivers
Your delivery driver headcount. Include part-time drivers on a pro-rata basis.
Daily volume
Average daily cases, 30L kegs and 50L kegs. Use a typical delivery day, not your busiest.
Read your result
Your PDL rate appears alongside Tap'in's rate and your projected annual cost difference.
Ready to talk through the numbers?
If your PDL calculation shows a meaningful difference — or you want to factor in your warehousing costs — get in touch. We'll walk through what outsourcing your London and South East distribution would actually look like for your brewery.