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A couple decades ago, consumers only had local options for most goods and services. Then, the internet happened and with it Amazon and eBay sprung up. Now, it’s easy for consumers to order whatever they want from wherever they want.
This has put a massive strain on small- and mid-sized businesses. All the extra competition has forced these companies to lower their prices to compete. And, lower prices make it hard to turn a profit. Fortunately, route optimization software will help you.
Using such software, you can guarantee that every route you give your drivers is the most efficient possible. This allows you to increase your profit margin in two ways:
- It lowers your expenses.
- It increases your income.
So, how exactly does a route planner do that?
Lower Your Fuel and Insurance Expenses
You can reduce your expenses with route management software because it provides you with more efficient routes. In this way, you can visit all your customers on time, while using less fuel. And, fuel is probably one of your biggest expenses.
Also, the best route planners come with a GPS tracking feature that immediately informs you if a field rep wastes time by making unplanned stops or taking longer lunch breaks. You can then take the necessary action to remedy the problem.
In addition, using the GPS tracker, you can set alerts for speeding and idling. In this way, you’ll get an alert when a driver speeds or idles his or her vehicles for too long. You can then communicate with the driver to rectify the behavior.
So, you can control additional fuel expenses that might have been wasted because of speeding, idling or making unnecessary and personal stops.
GPS trackers also help you ensure driver safety. And, when you make fewer claims due to fewer accidents, you’ll get lower insurance premiums!
Plus, you can regulate overtime costs. When you plan routes, you don’t exactly intend to include overtime hours because you want to maximize productivity. So, overtime expenses can be seen as unplanned (and supposedly unnecessary) and result in decreasing your profits. So, by minimizing such overtime compensation, you’ll reduce your overall expenses.
Delivery routing software can help you here as you’ll be able to control your time by ensuring equal workload distribution. In this way, the work is divided evenly among all your drivers and no driver has more addresses to visit compared to the rest.
Want To See For Yourself How Route4Me Can Boost Your Profits?
Identify Good Leads
Getting new customers is part of every business’s yearly plan. But, what if you only have a few drivers (say 6) and want to serve a lot of new customers (say 80), with some located outside the areas you originally service. It’ll be expensive to hire new drivers and purchase new vehicles as well to do so.
Luckily, a fleet management software will help you focus on strategic sales planning and expansion, without the need to spend more on new recruits and vans.
For example, using Route4Me’s Territory Optimizer will allow you to upload multiple driver locations and customer locations and automatically match them up in terms of finding the nearest driver to each of the customers.
Additionally, Territory Optimizer lets you mark in which areas you are active and inactive and where you have potential customers. In this way, you can create better strategies for business growth.
Long story short, a route optimization software will help your drivers show up on time more often, which will make your customers happier. And, those satisfied customers will perhaps recommend your services to their friends and family. Such personal recommendations will attract new customers more effectively than any other kind of marketing method. So, a good business reputation is the best advertising tool.
Route optimization software lets you expand your business without adding a single dollar to your payroll. You can have your cake and eat it too. Won’t that be simply great?
Have you explored route optimization software before? Let us know in the comments section below.
Want To See For Yourself How Route4Me Can Boost Your Profits?
