The benefits of using a route planner are obvious. It guarantees that all the routes you give your drivers are the most efficient routes possible. Your fleet won’t need as much time or gas to visit all your customers, which allows you to save a bunch of money.
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Your drivers will show up on time more often, too. That’ll make your customers happier.
So, what’s stopping you from adopting a multi stop route planner right away?
Maybe you’re worried about the hassle of switching over to new software… well, don’t worry. It’s not as difficult as you think.
Adopting Route Planning Software Is A Piece Of Cake
Do you still plan routes with pen and paper?
If that’s the case, then yes, switching over to route mapping software will be a big change.
But this change is relatively easy to make. You can transition at your own pace. If you want, you can start small by testing out the software on a couple drivers before you introduce it to everyone. Or you can change everything immediately if that’s what you’d prefer. It’s up to you.
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It helps that most route planning software providers have dedicated training staff that will walk you through every step of the transition.
Also, it’s not like you need to buy new hardware. To access a cloud-based road trip planner with multiple stops, all your drivers need are the smartphones they already own.
The Benefits Of Route Planning Software
Using a route planner with multiple stops like Route4Me route planner makes your drivers more efficient. They’ll be able to visit more customers every day, so you can expand your business and increase your income without the expense of hiring new employees.
It doesn’t make any sense to send your drivers back and forth across your entire service area. Instead, you should divide your service area up into different territories and assign a driver to each territory.
A territory mapping feature allows you to do exactly that. Your drivers will be more productive when their stops are closer together.
Your route planner should have a GPS tracking feature as well. With GPS tracking, you can see where your drivers are and how fast they’re going in real-time. Whenever you want, you can check in on a driver and confirm that they’re sticking to their route and staying on schedule.
And when your drivers know they’re being watched, they’re less likely to slack off in the first place. That’s why vehicle tracking makes your drivers much more productive.
GPS tracking also makes geofencing possible.
Geofencing involves drawing custom borders over a real-world map. Then, you can set it up so that certain actions are triggered when your driver crosses through one of those borders.
For example, geofencing can be used to automatically send customers a text message when your driver is about to arrive. They’ll appreciate the notice.
Only Pay For What You Use
Legacy software usually has to be stored on your own equipment, which can be a headache to handle. Invest in too little IT equipment, and you won’t be ready for a sudden increase in demand. But if you invest in too much equipment, you’ll end up paying for stuff that you don’t even use.
Cloud-based routing software fixes that problem, because you’re accessing someone else’s servers instead of your own. You only pay for what you use, and if you ever need to scale up, you can do so with just the touch of a button.
Do you have any questions about route planning software? Let us know in the comments section below.
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