Are Delivery Driver Route Planners Useful for my Business?
Delivery driver route planners are helping fleets provide better service.
Customer service, of course, is one of the most important objectives for delivery businesses and their customers. This often makes the difference between a returning customer and an angry customer.
Here’s a quick experiment. Google search a delivery business. For any delivery business, there are usually two types of online reviews. One type of review would be a happy customer who said that they received quick and great service. Another type of review, sometimes laced with profanity, would be an angry customer complaining about delivery times.
For any business, happy customers is what keeps the lights on. As a result, some fleets are wondering about route planning programs.
Businesses that Benefit from Delivery Driver Route Planners
Businesses that make several stops a day are a good candidate for this program. In order to create happy customers, route planners are responsible for creating efficient routes.
Route creating can get quite complicated. Some of the biggest challenges to route creation includes:
Customer stops. Delivery drivers often make several stops throughout the day. As the number of stops increase, so does the complexity of creating routes. What is the best way and best order to make stops?
Service time. Also, when drivers get to a stop, are they providing quality service? Although drivers should quickly get to their next stop, they need to satisfy customers at their current stop. For this reason, some businesses set a maximum route revenue limit to ensure clients are given enough attention.
Traffic. Traffic delays are annoying for regular people. Imagine how annoying it can get for businesses! Delays can ruin even the best of business schedules. It often leaves route planners wondering – what is the best way to avoid traffic?
Weather. Similarly to traffic delays, bad weather causes slow downs. Weather can change quickly. Both route planners and drivers should be responsible for getting updates and adapting to conditions.
Fleet Route Planning Software
Delivery driver route planners help solve a lot of the challenges. This tool calculates the best driver routes and avoids traffic and weather changes. Here’s how the system works.
The first step is preparing a route. Businesses would enter different customers and stops. Before finalizing a route, some businesses set up rules. Common rules include time spent at each stop and maximum revenue per route.
The second step is creating a route. A GPS delivery route planner does the math and creates the best way for drivers to go. This saves time from manually calculating routes.
The third step is ensuring routes go smoothly. Sometimes, traffic or weather conditions interfere with planned routes. In other cases, a new customer needs to be added on-the-fly. One of the advantages of route planning software is being able to re-route drivers to avoid traffic and weather delays.
Route Monitoring
The other big part of route planning is reviewing if drivers followed instructions. Unfortunately, some fleets noticed that a few drivers chose their own route instead of following the assigned route. Some drivers claim that their way is better, while other drivers are stealing time from the business.
A good way to audit routes is to compare actual routes versus planned routes. This is usually done by overlapping tracking data with the route instructions. Are the routes taken the same as the routes planned? If not, managers can use the reports to confront drivers.
Results of Route Planning
Route planning software is popular because they provide businesses with 3 key benefits:
Happier customers. By taking the best routes, customers are receiving service quicker. This leads to positive reviews and returning business.
Easier to plan. Instead of manually creating routes, route planning software does the calculations for managers. This saves route planners up to 90% of time when creating routes.
Bigger profits. Planning efficient routes increase the amount of time drivers have on the road. This allows businesses to make more stops throughout the day and earn more money.
Want more information the benefits of delivery driver route planners? Complete this calculator to create a custom ROI report.
