The Last Mile Delivery Management Software You Need in 2023
Changing customer behaviour and delivery expectations has made “fast deliveries a new normal” According to a report by the World Economic Forum, to grow and retain customers. Meeting customer demands and giving them a good customer experience requires businesses to make their last-mile deliveries more efficient, profitable, and productive. Doing so is crucial for competing in a competitive market environment.
Businesses not only need to manage last-mile deliveries to attract customers but also to survive and grow in the market. Efficient last-mile delivery reduces costs and adds to the net profit of the business. Delivery management software is an integrated software platform that streamlines and optimises the entire delivery business along with last-mile delivery with its route optimisation feature.
In this blog, we’ll understand the features of this software in detail and see how it can help you optimise your last-mile deliveries.
Features of the software that help in making last-mile delivery more efficient
Contactless Deliveries – Contactless deliveries became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rising health consciousness and fear required businesses to shift towards contactless deliveries. Leaving the order on the doorstep with electronic proof of delivery accomplished order fulfilment. The electronic proof of delivery includes clicking on a picture of the order and notifying the customer or fulfilling the order using OTP. The major benefit of contactless deliveries is that all payments are done online or via wallets.
Auto-Order Assigning – The vendor creates a route according to their serviceable areas and assigns drivers to these routes. The route is pre-defined based on which any new order placed is auto-assigned to the delivery driver to whom the order is assigned. All delivery details are auto-updated in the driver application as any new order is accepted by the customer. Auto-order assigning increases efficiency and contributes to speeding up the delivery process.
Auto-dispatching and Scheduling – The schedules are the time slots within which the delivery is to be done. Businesses predefined these schedules as per their choice. And based on the schedules defined, the order is dispatched and picked up for delivery. Auto-dispatching doesn’t require vendors to take a print of the order and address details and hand them over to delivery drivers. The delivery scheduling software auto-updates the orders in the driver application, which mitigates the chances of errors.
Route Optimisation – Route optimisation is the most important feature of this software. The software creates the shortest distance and optimises the route while ensuring fast and accurate deliveries. Creating the shortest possible distance reduces turnaround time and fuel costs. In addition to route optimization, sequencing is another component in which orders are arranged according to the order in which they should be delivered. Doing so reduces the driver’s turnaround time and cuts off the extra fuel cost and reduces the impact of carbon footprinting, also making last-mile deliveries sustainable. According to a study by Business Insider, “The last-mile delivery can account for 53% of a shipment’s costs.” The route optimisation feature offered can help in optimising the last-mile delivery and take the edge off the costs.
Telematics – The software generates the estimated time of time so that the customer exactly knows the time slot when the order is arriving and doesn’t have to wait the whole day for the order. Customers can contact their delivery partners in case of delayed deliveries due to any unexpected event. Providing telematics promotes transparency between the customers and the business and enhances the customer experience.
Live Order Tracking – The GPS feature of the software allows customers and business owners to track their business via a customer application and admin panel. This way helps business owners track the efficiency of delivery drivers and vehicles. Knowing where the order is, is one of the crucial requirements for increasing the customer experience.
Delivery management software is a powerful integrated suite that optimises and streamlines last-mile delivery. It automates last-mile delivery and speeds up the delivery process, which increases operational efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction scores. Route optimization, auto-dispatching and route planning features offered can help in calculating the most cost-effective routes for delivery drivers that allow them to make changes to delivery windows and revise the route plan in real time. Schedule an appointment to see how our software allows fleet management and sales reps to optimise driver management and allow planning for future business changes.
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He loves to explore. His passion for helping delivery industries in all aspects flows through in the vision he has. In addition to providing smart solution to make delivery process flawless, Ravi also likes to write sometimes to make it easier for people from business industry looking for digital solutions.