It doesn’t matter whether you run a one-man show or an international chain of stores – the customer is always king. Without them, you wouldn’t have a business.
If you need to send employees out to meet with customers, then it’s incredibly important that your drivers show up on time. Keep your customers waiting, and they’ll get upset. Eventually, they’ll leave you for one of your competitors.
Even if you offer great deals and have a skilled staff, when your drivers don’t show up on time, you lose a lot of business.
Poor route planning will delay your drivers. It makes it harder for your drivers to show up when you said they would. Bad routes might even send your drivers directly into obstacles like traffic jams and roads closed due to construction. That’ll really delay your drivers.
Bad routes are expensive, too. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that drivers get paid $0.28 to $0.40 per mile. On top of that, you need to pay for fuel and vehicle maintenance. If you use inefficient routes, all those extra miles add up, and your operating expenses will be much bigger than they need to be.
Route Optimization Software Keeps Your Drivers On Schedule
With route optimization software, you can guarantee that every route you give your drivers is the most efficient route possible. That’ll save you a fortune on gas.
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Route optimization software also makes it easier for your drivers to show up on time, which will give your customers more incentive to stick with you. That saves you money as well.
How much will it save you, exactly? The math is pretty simple. For every customer that stops using your service, you lose the revenue they were generating for you.
For example, the average plumbing job in America costs $300. Most people need a plumber about once every year. So each customer you lose in this situation siphons $300 annually from your revenue stream.
Try these calculations out with your own price points to see how much being late will hurt you.
Can You Afford Driver Retraining?
Of course, sometimes it’s not the route’s fault that a driver didn’t arrive on time. Your employee’s driving behavior might be to blame.
Surely when you hired a driver, they had an impressive resume that convinced you they were worth adding to your team. But resumes won’t tell you everything. People exaggerate their abilities when they’re trying to get a job. You won’t know how good a driver they really are until they’ve worked for you for a while.
They might turn out to be lazy, or even a little dumb. Worse yet, they might be the kind of driver that takes their frustration out on the road. Inattentive or angry driving often results in your driver getting into an accident, and if your driver gets into an accident, they won’t just be late to the customer – they’ll never make it at all. Your insurance rates will get jacked up, too.
Depending on where you operate, your driver might need to attend mandatory retraining after getting into a wreck.
In Massachusetts, such retraining would run you $135 per program. You’d also be on the hook for the additional education it takes to fix your driver’s problem (driving lessons ain’t cheap). Plus, you’ll need to pay for the time off your driver needs to do all this.
Let’s say they miss 16 hours (that’s a conservative estimate), and they earn the US Bureau of Labor Statistics average driver rate of $19/hour. That’s $450 out of your pocket.
Finally, think about the lost production you’ll need to deal with when you’re one driver short.
One mistake by one driver can set you back thousands of dollars. That’s why managing driving behavior is so important.
GPS Tracking Improves Driving Behavior
Final mile delivery software gives your drivers 100% accurate and optimized routes, but those routes won’t do you much good if your drivers don’t actually follow them.
You need route optimization software that comes with a GPS tracking feature. That way, you can see what your drivers are doing in real-time. You can make sure they’re sticking to the routes you give them.
GPS tracking also allows you to see if your drivers are speeding or driving recklessly. You’ll be able to call them up immediately and tell them to cut it out (and they’re less likely to drive like that in the first place when they know they’re being watched). You can stop them from getting into an accident. That’ll save you from all those retraining expenses mentioned above.
Read the following article for more information about GPS tracking software:
GPS Tracking Software Allows You To Provide Five-Star Customer Service
Do you have any questions about how to improve driving behavior? Let us know in the comments section below.
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