Dynamic routing technology is a game changer for businesses that rely on field operations.
It streamlines operations, improves employee productivity, and gives your sales figures a big boost. If you want to stay ahead of your competition, you need route optimization software.
What can dynamic routing technology do for you, exactly? Well, read on to find out…
#1 Create Optimized Routes In 30 Seconds Or Less
Yes, you read that right. Dynamic routing software can create 100% accurate and optimized routes for you in 30 seconds or less.
If you’ve been planning routes with pen and paper up until now, you know how time-consuming route planning can be. In addition to figuring out directions, you need to consider other factors, such as traffic, weather, and construction. That can take hours, especially if you have dozens of customers and multiple drivers to worry about.
With dynamic routing software, route planning takes seconds instead of hours. Imagine what you can do with all that extra time…
#2 Track Your Field Operatives
Of course, giving your drivers optimized routes won’t do you much good if your drivers don’t actually follow those routes.
Any kind of worker tends to slack off a bit when they’re unsupervised, and drivers are almost always unsupervised. There are many ways to waste time on the road. A driver might stop for a bite to eat when they’re not scheduled for a break, or they might even run personal errands while they’re on the clock.
Payroll is one of your biggest expenses, right? You can’t afford for your employees to waste time that you’re paying for. But how do you know your drivers are doing what you want them to do when you can’t physically see them?
Certain dynamic routing programs have GPS tracking capabilities. With GPS tracking software, you can see where your drivers are and how fast they’re going in real-time. Whenever you want, you can check in to make sure a driver is sticking to their route and staying on schedule.
GPS tracking is also helpful for when one of your drivers breaks down. You’ll know when such an event happens immediately, so you can send help right away.
#3 Real-Time Re-Optimization
A customer’s needs can change at any time.
For example, they might call in after your drivers have left for the day and ask you to make a delivery to a different address.
Changing one address affects how you approach every other stop in your route. You pretty much need to start from scratch. Planning a route can take hours to get just right when you do it manually. How are you going to get an entirely new route ready for your driver in time?
And even if you do make a new route in time, how would you relay those new directions over to your driver? You could call them, but distracting your driver with a phone call is dangerous.
Dynamic routing software solves both of these problems for you. It only takes 30 seconds to make a new route from scratch, so changing up an address or two is no problem. And with route scheduling software, any change you make to a route is automatically reflected on your driver’s mobile app, so there’s no need to distract them with a phone call.
#4 Find A Better Balance
Balancing your fleet’s workload is important.
If you give a driver too much to do, they’ll speed and drive recklessly to stay on schedule. That’s no good. And they probably won’t make it to every stop on time anyway, which will upset some of your customers.
But if you give a driver not enough to do, you’ll end up paying them to just sit around and do nothing sometimes. Is that how you want to use your payroll dollars?
With sales territory mapping software, all you need to do is plug in your addresses and adjust a few settings to make your workload as balanced as possible. You’ll be able to keep your employees productive, yet not overworked.
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#5 Dynamic Routing Helps You Control Fuel Expenses
Payroll is one of your biggest expenses, and so is gas.
Using a route planner saves you money on gas. When you provide your drivers with the most efficient routes possible (which is what dynamic routing technology allows you to do), it’s doesn’t take as much time or fuel to visit all your customers.
The information collected with GPS technology will help you save gas, too. You can try out different gas saving techniques, analyze your fuel efficiency metrics, and see what works best for you.
Read the following article to learn more about how dynamic routing software reduces your fuel expenses:
How A Route Planner Can Help You Reduce Fuel Costs
#6 eSignatures Make It Easy To Settle Disputes
Collecting confirmation signatures with paper slips is annoying. It takes a lot of time to organize those slips, and as drivers make their way through their route and back to the office, it’s easy to lose a slip or two along the way.
What if you have a dispute where a customer says a delivery was never made, your driver says they did make the delivery, and it turns out you’ve lost the confirmation slip?
That puts you in a tough position. Do you trust your employee or the customer?
Route optimization software that comes equipped with an eSignature feature will quickly settle such disputes. eSignature software allows your customers to sign for deliveries on your driver’s mobile device, so there’s nothing to lose in the first place. You’ll always know whether a delivery was made or not.
Read the following article to learn more about how eSignature software will benefit your business:
#7 Dynamic Routing Software Keeps Customers In The Loop
Delays are never ideal. But when there is a delay, the sooner your customer knows about it, the better.
That way, instead of waiting around and expecting you to show up soon, the customer will know that they have the time to do something else if they want.
When route mapping software has a GPS tracking feature, you can ensure that the ETAs you give your customers are always accurate, no matter what happens.
Your map routing software should also have a geofencing feature. You can set up geofencing so that when a driver is a certain distance or time away from the customer (you set the distance or time, of course), the customer gets a text message telling them your driver is nearby. They’ll appreciate the notice.
#8 Save Time With Auto Check-Ins and Check-Outs
You can use geofences to automatically check drivers in and out of each of their stops, so that they don’t need to do it manually.
This will save your drivers 30 seconds or so per stop. This doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up. Imagine how many stops each of your drivers make in a week, a month, a year… over time, you’ll save countless hours and a whole lot of money by automating the check-in/check-out process.
Read the following article to learn more about the benefits of dynamic routing software and geofencing technology:
Automate Your Delivery Logs: How Geofencing Is Eliminating Tedious Paperwork
#9 Increase Your Sales
Dynamic routing technology is particularly useful for sales managers.
Sales routing software comes with many features, such as territory management and color coding, that will help you convert more prospects into paying customers.
Territory mapping lets you split your service area up into different (you guessed it) territories and assign a driver or team of drivers to each territory. You’ll save time and gas when each driver’s set of stops is close together, as opposed to sending them back and forth across your entire service area.
With color coding, you can assign a color to each of your stops. This’ll help you keep everything organized. For example, you can make hot leads red and cold leads blue, so it’s easy to see which prospects you should prioritize visiting.
Also, routing optimization software gives you the ability to create mock routes that show you exactly how much it costs to visit a hypothetical set of addresses. This is helpful for when you’re bidding on a new contract: you’ll know exactly where to set your bid so that it’s low enough to be competitive, but high enough for you to turn a decent profit.
Read the following article to learn more about sales mapping software:
Why Every Sales Manager Needs Sales Territory Mapping Software (And How Route4Me Can Help)
So, do you have any questions about dynamic routing technology? Let us know in the comments section below.
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