If you are old enough, you are sure to remember the days before GPS when drivers had to rely on paper maps to find addresses. Things have certainly changed a lot in just the last couple of decades.
Indeed, drivers can now make deliveries more efficiently and accurately when they use route planning software.
Route planners are transforming the courier industry in various ways. Let us take a look at the most significant ways in which the software is revolutionizing deliveries.
Route Planning Software Saves Time
It takes time to manually plot the most efficient routes for couriers to take. Furthermore, without technology, those routes cannot be adjusted as required.
On the other hand, with route planning software, the most efficient routes are automatically generated and can change throughout the day based on real-time updates that take things like traffic congestion and bad weather conditions into account.
Therefore, both dispatchers and drivers can save a lot of time in comparison to those who do not use route optimization software.
Addresses can be located easily, multiple stops can be re-optimized as needed, and drivers can be monitored by dispatchers; all of which save time and make courier services more efficient and accurate than they have ever been before.
Route Planning Software Lowers Costs and Improves Efficiency
As any business professional knows, time is money. We have already seen how much time can be saved by using route planning software. So, of course, in turn, that means courier companies save money and increase productivity.
For example, with route optimization software, drivers can make more deliveries in a day or work fewer hours.
Basically, route planners enable courier firms to save costs on wages, fuel, and other expenses while also making processes more efficient.
Route Planning Software Can Do Things Humans Cannot
Today, courier companies need to deliver goods seven days a week if they want to remain competitive in the industry.
In addition, customers expect much narrower delivery time margins than ever before, such as morning or afternoon deliveries or deliveries between, say, one and two p.m.
Without route planning software, to provide such exact services, courier services would probably have to send out delivery vans that are less than half full, thereby pushing up their costs.
On the other hand, when they use a route planner, advanced smart algorithms find the most efficient and achievable routes to easily incorporate narrow delivery windows.
The algorithms go through almost infinite possibilities to come up with the best solution; something no human could do in the same amount of time.
With such smart technology being employed more and more by route planning software, route optimization, as well as the tech surrounding logistics, is sure to become even more advanced in the coming years.
Route Planning Software Is Creating Greater Customer Satisfaction
Customers and clients are at the heart of any business. As seen, today’s customers expect to have more choice and control over their deliveries. Not only do modern-day customers want to pick precise delivery times to fit in with their busy days. They also want to be able to track their orders.
By automating customer communication with route planning software, courier companies ensure customers are kept up-to-date with the statuses of their deliveries in real-time, via SMS or email alerts.
That also frees up courier firms’ customer service departments as they will need to deal with far fewer queries regarding late deliveries.
Also, when customers are regularly updated about order statuses, they will feel as though the courier company cares. In turn, that leads to high customer satisfaction and loyalty.