Same-day shipping has not always been the norm. As recently as a couple decades ago, customers were willing to wait for their orders to arrive. If a delivery was made a day or two late, it was no big deal.
But now, with the emergence of online shopping and increasingly speedy delivery options, customers want their orders to arrive immediately.
Some customers even choose their vendors based on how quickly they can ship their orders. Based on a 2014 survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 61% of customers said that when vendors offer same-day shipping services, it makes them more likely to buy.
So, if you want to make your customers happy, same-day shipping is a must. To succeed with these tactics6, your business must be completely efficient from the moment you receive an order to the moment you send it out for delivery. This is where a route planner for deliveries same day can help you. Read on to learn more.
Make Your Warehouse Operations More Efficient
For your deliveries to become more efficient, you must make your warehouse more efficient. Routing optimization software allows you to do just that.
Its advanced route optimization technology can optimize the pick-and-pack routes inside your warehouse or yard for robotic and human operators. The software creates a map of your warehouse, designs a road network inside it, and then uses the mapping data to create highly efficient routes. These routes will help you quickly find products when they need to be shipped.
You just need to input the descriptions of the goods and the types of goods located in each part of your warehouse in the software. The delivery route optimization software will then route your employee or automatic loaders to the closest pick-up location in the warehouse.
The software also ensures that loading equipment is never overloaded, and you’ll get real-time analytics about all the routes inside your warehouse.
Read more about how a route planner can make your warehouse more efficient here.
Plan Accurate Routes In Less Than 30 Seconds
Offering same-hour or same-day shipping means you must plan your routes much faster than you would with a manual planning process. Route optimization software makes that possible.
Such software will help you plan well-optimized and 100% accurate routes in 30 seconds or less. Simply upload the locations of your customer, set the parameters (such as avoidance zones and left turn restrictions), and that’s it. Your routes will be ready, and they’ll avoid obstacles that prevent your drivers from making their visits on time, such as heavy traffic, bad weather conditions, one-way streets, and under-construction roads.
You’ll save so much time on route planning that you can focus on improving other areas of your business.
Also, since the software gives your field reps the shortest distance possible, you’ll be more fuel efficient. And route optimization software ensure equal workload distribution, so none of your drivers will be overworked or underworked. When everyone gets equal opportunity for work, they can all make their assigned deliveries on time and increase customer trust.
Make Your Drivers Productive
No matter how perfect your routes are, it won’t mean anything if your drivers don’t actually follow the routes you give them.
What if your drivers aren’t as efficient as you’d like? What if they’re taking extra-long coffee breaks? What if they make unscheduled and personal stops during valuable work hours? They’re on the road and you’re in the office, so it’s difficult to know what they’re really doing. You can’t have a supervisor in the back seat of each driver’s vehicle at all times.
Delivery optimization software helps you here by enabling you to track your drivers in real time through the GPS tracking feature. So, you can see if your drivers are productive and make sure they’re engaging in safe driving behavior.
Consider the following example: A driver is fulfilling a same-day delivery request, but they get a flat tire en route. With the GPS tracking feature, you’ll know about this immediately. Right away, you can then send them the roadside assistance they need to make it to the stop on time.
So, have you ever considered using route optimization software help you make same-hour and same-day deliveries? Do you have any questions? Please feel free to leave your comments below.
Also, here are three quick questions to sum up how a trip planner can help you meet customer expectations for same-hour and same-day shipping:
- How can the software help improve the pick-and-pack process in your warehouse?
- How does the software ensure that the routes created for your drivers are the most efficient?
- What feature does the software offer that can prove whether or not your drivers are sticking to their routes?
