Hills District Delivery Route: A Real 12-Stop Run in Sydney
We ran MiliRoute on 12 real places in Sydney's Hills District. The quickest order was 43.0 km and 1 h 19 min of driving. Taking the same stops in list order would have been 62.6 km and 1 h 53 min. (source: our MiliRoute run on 7 November 2026)
Key takeaways
- Same 12 stops, two orders. Quickest: 43.0 km, 79.0 minutes. List order: 62.6 km, 113.1 minutes.
- The difference is 19.6 km and 34.1 minutes. 62.6 − 43.0 = 19.6, and 19.6 ÷ 62.6 = 31% shorter. 113.1 − 79.0 = 34.1, and 34.1 ÷ 113.1 = 30% quicker.
- The quickest order visits stops that are only 0.2 to 0.4 km apart back to back: 3 such pairs.
- The longest leg is Rouse Hill Town Centre to Dural Mall: 12.1 km and 17 minutes.
- This is one test on one day with Google's estimated driving times for average traffic. Your day will not be identical.
- It has 12 stops, which is over the Free plan's 10. You would use Premium, or split the day into two routes.
What did we test?
- 12 public places across the Hills District: Metro stations and shopping centres in Castle Hill, Baulkham Hills, Norwest, Bella Vista, Kellyville, Rouse Hill, Dural and Cherrybrook.
- A neutral list order. We listed them alphabetically, as a driver might paste them from a spreadsheet. We did not arrange the list to look bad.
- Start and end fixed by the list. The first place is the start and the last is the end, so the optimizer re-ordered the 10 stops in between.
- MiliRoute's optimizer, using Google's estimated driving time between every pair of stops for average traffic. For 10 stops between the start and the end, MiliRoute finds the exact quickest order, not a guess.
- One run on 2026-11-07. The saved results are kept so the numbers can be checked.
What were the 12 stops?
In list order, as entered:
| # | Place | Suburb |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (start) | Bella Vista Metro Station | Bella Vista |
| 2 | Castle Hill Metro Station | Castle Hill |
| 3 | Castle Towers Shopping Centre | Castle Hill |
| 4 | Cherrybrook Metro Station | Cherrybrook |
| 5 | Dural Mall | Dural |
| 6 | Hills Showground Metro Station | Castle Hill |
| 7 | Kellyville Metro Station | Kellyville |
| 8 | Norwest Marketplace | Norwest |
| 9 | Norwest Metro Station | Bella Vista |
| 10 | Rouse Hill Town Centre | Rouse Hill |
| 11 | Stockland Baulkham Hills | Baulkham Hills |
| 12 (end) | The Hills Centre | Castle Hill |
What does the quickest order look like?
| Stop | Place | Leg from the stop before | Leg time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (start) | Bella Vista Metro Station | ||
| 2 | Norwest Metro Station | 2.9 km | 5 min |
| 3 | Norwest Marketplace | 0.2 km | 2 min |
| 4 | Kellyville Metro Station | 5.4 km | 12 min |
| 5 | Rouse Hill Town Centre | 3.3 km | 8 min |
| 6 | Dural Mall | 12.1 km | 17 min |
| 7 | Cherrybrook Metro Station | 6.8 km | 10 min |
| 8 | Castle Towers Shopping Centre | 2.9 km | 6 min |
| 9 | Castle Hill Metro Station | 0.4 km | 3 min |
| 10 | Stockland Baulkham Hills | 3.8 km | 6 min |
| 11 | Hills Showground Metro Station | 4.9 km | 9 min |
| 12 (end) | The Hills Centre | 0.2 km | 1 min |
| Whole route | 43.0 km | 1 h 19 min |
(source: our MiliRoute run on 7 November 2026)
What does the quickest order do?
- It keeps close stops together. Norwest Metro Station and Norwest Marketplace are 0.2 km apart, so they are visited one after the other. The same happens for Castle Towers Shopping Centre and Castle Hill Metro Station (0.4 km) and for Hills Showground Metro Station and The Hills Centre (0.2 km).
- It crosses the district once on the long leg. The 12.1 km from Rouse Hill Town Centre to Dural Mall is what it costs, in this order, to link the north-west stops to the Dural stop. The list order criss-crosses the district instead, as the left-hand drawing shows.
- It does not choose the start or the end. The start and end came from the list, so only the stops between them moved. In real life you set these yourself, for example your depot or your last drop.
What does this mean for a Hills District courier?
- Group by area before you drive. The map above shows it: the Norwest stops, the Castle Hill stops and the Dural stop each sit together. A good order visits one area, then moves on.
- Do not rely on "next closest". Always going to the nearest stop can leave you a long way from the end. See why the closest stop is not always the fastest route.
- Re-plan when an order is added. A new stop can change the best order of the whole day. The step-by-step checklist for planning a delivery route shows where this fits in your morning.
- Plan the area as a whole. If you deliver across Sydney, see courier route optimization in Sydney and the multi-stop delivery app for NSW.
Questions
Why not always drive to the nearest stop next?
It looks sensible but can leave a long drive at the end. A planner compares whole routes. Our post on the closest stop versus the fastest route shows a real example.
How were the 12 stops chosen?
They are well-known public places in the Hills District, so anyone can repeat the test. They are not customer addresses.
Will I get the same result?
Not exactly. The result depends on your stops, your start and end, the traffic and the time of day. The method is the same.
What does "quickest" mean here?
The shortest total driving time, using Google's estimated driving times for average traffic. It is not always the shortest distance.
Can I plan 12 stops on the Free plan?
The Free plan covers routes of up to 10 stops. For 12 you would use Premium, or split the day into two routes. See Free vs Premium.
Sources
- MiliRoute optimizer run on 2026-11-07: 12 public places in the Hills District, Google driving-time estimates for average traffic, exact solver. Results saved.
Last updated 7 November 2026.