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Running a delivery service successfully is all about efficiency. You need to avoid mistakes as much as possible to turn a decent profit.
Drivers getting lost, dispatchers not being able to track their drivers, and customers not being able to track their orders are mistakes that delivery services often make.
Such mistakes will ruin your reputation and put the future of your business in jeopardy.
Using a route planner will help you avoid those mistakes and more:
1. Using Incorrect Addresses
If your driver starts out with an incorrect address, they don’t have much of a chance of making it to the customer on time.
Sometimes this is the fault of the customer. They might make a mistake while filling in their order information. There isn’t anything you can do about that.
On the other hand, often, the business is to blame for incorrect addresses.
Manually inputting customer data is a long, tedious process.
It’s easy to accidentally type in “3443” instead of “3434” after an hour of mind-numbing number-crunching. That kind of simple error might result in a delayed driver and several upset customers (remember, being late to one-stop will often make your driver late to their following stops as well).
Luckily, delivery routing software like Route4Me allows you to automate the data transfer process.
It can connect with your eCommerce platforms – such as Shopify or WooCommerce – and take all your customer data from there. That way, there’s no risk of you committing any data entry errors.
Make sure the multi-stop route planner you invest in has an address verification feature. This feature will flag any addresses that appear incorrect and give you a chance to change them before your optimized route is created.
Related: How To Eliminate Costly Mistakes Caused By Incorrect Addresses And Drop-off Locations
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2. Keeping Customers in the Dark
A decade or two ago, customers didn’t expect much. After placing an order, they were happy as long as it got to their home within a day or two of the scheduled arrival date.
Now, customers are more demanding. They breathlessly anticipate their order’s arrival. They want to know where it is at every stage of the delivery process.
Give your customers what they want. Keep them in the loop.
The best route planners come with a customer alerting and notification feature that automatically sends a text message to the customer when your driver is about to arrive. They’ll appreciate the notice.
3. Not Tracking Drivers
Everyone tends to slack off a bit when they’re unsupervised, and drivers are almost always unsupervised.
They might be stopping for snacks or even running personal errands while they’re on the clock.
You can’t see them, so how do you know?
That’s another reason why your driving route planner needs to have a built-in GPS tracking feature.
A delivery route planner with GPS tracking shows you 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.
Since vehicle tracking will show you speed in addition to location, you can also use it to see if any of your employees are driving aggressively.
Reckless driving is a waste of gas, and it puts your drivers at greater risk of getting into an accident. It’s bad for your reputation, too.
With GPS tracking, you can nip reckless driving in the bud, before it results in a costly collision.
Related: Are Unions Angry About Your GPS Tracking? Here’s How To Work With Them
4. Using Unoptimized Routes
Route planning is complicated. There’s more to it than just figuring out which roads your drivers must take to reach your customers. You also need to account for traffic, weather, construction, customer availability, and other factors.
There’s so much involved that the routes you come up with by yourself probably won’t be 100% efficient.
But there’s no reason to do this by yourself.
A route optimizer guarantees that every route you give your drivers is the most efficient route possible.
You won’t need to use as much gas to visit all your customers. You’ll be able to cut your expenses and increase your profit margin.
5. Being Tied to On-Premises Software
A map route planner that has to be installed on your own equipment isn’t ideal.
If there’s ever a serious issue, like a fire, flood, or power outage, you won’t have access to your data. And if you ever need to scale up, you’ll be required to invest in more expensive equipment.
Cloud-based route planning software that you access remotely is a better option for your business.
No matter what happens to your office, you can always access your data.
Also, scaling up is easier and more affordable – you can do so with just the touch of a button. There’s no need to buy new equipment.
Related: 7 Reasons You Should Adopt SaaS Vehicle Route Planning Software
6. Using Paper Slips for Proof of Delivery
Collecting confirmations with pen and paper can be problematic.
Paper slips are easy to lose.
What will you do if a customer disputes that a delivery was made, your driver says they did make the delivery, and then it turns out that you’ve lost the confirmation slip?
In that situation, you can either trust your driver and alienate the customer or trust the customer and alienate your driver. There is no good option.
This problem is solved using a route planner equipped with eSignature software, which allows customers to sign for deliveries directly on their driver’s mobile device.
That makes it just about impossible to lose confirmations. Whenever there’s a dispute, you’ll know what actually happened.
So, do you have any questions about what delivery scheduling software can do for you?
Are you still wondering how a delivery route planner app can solve the vehicle route problem and traveling salesman problem? Let us know in the comments section below.
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