5 Features Your Automated Dispatch and Logistics Software Should Offer

In a recent DispatchTrack webinar, Bryce Shively of IDI Distributors explained to our viewers that he had a personal vendetta against paperwork. And who can blame him? It takes up space, it costs money, and there’s every chance that once you’ve printed out a physical proof of delivery slip or route manifest, it’ll be lost somewhere and never seen again. That’s a big part of the reason that the era of manual dispatching is coming to a close.

Another big part of the reason is that software for automating these processes is finally readily available to delivery businesses across the spectrum.

An automated dispatching system helps you reduce your reliance on manual processes that come with traditional dispatching and logistics management methods. It can also reduce human errors, minimize delays, and cut down the time spent on constant repetition of manual tasks. As such, automation is a key factor in ensuring accurate and timely last mile deliveries and providing a great customer delivery experience.

Product and price were once the primary brand differentiators in most markets, but these days consumers and business buyers alike place a higher value on customer experience. This means that if you can't provide an excellent delivery experience, you're likely to see higher customer churn. 

Case in point: DispatchTrack's own research shows that 6 in 10 consumers are unlikely to
purchase from a retailer again when a previous order misses the scheduled delivery window, while poor customer communication has major brand implications: half of consumers blame negative delivery experiences on bad communication.

Given all that, it’s no surprise that most transportation and logistics industry leaders are choosing to prioritize improving their customer delivery experience. More and more businesses are turning to technological tools to automate processes and improve their delivery operations—which means that finding the right automated dispatching system is increasingly a top priority. 

How Automated Dispatching Impacts Dispatch and Logistics

Let’s state the obvious for a second: Dispatching is the process of assigning drivers and vehicles to particular routes and deliveries. The traditional way of dispatching involves using pen, paper, or spreadsheets and handing out printed assignments to drivers. But increasing competition and customer expectations are pushing companies to optimize their delivery processes while cutting down overall operating costs. Automating the dispatch process—along with route planning and other last mile workflows—through the help of a technological solution is really a key to survival in today's marketplace.

So how does dispatch system software help? Simply put, these solutions help companies thrive by automatically coordinating the movement of people, goods, and services. With machine learning, modern solutions can sift through massive data sets in a matter of minutes to provide users with optimized driver and vehicle assignments, sequences, and routes. This means doing more than automatically assigning the best resources for the job—it also requires finding the most cost-effective routes by considering various factors affecting delivery times like delivery constraints, real-time traffic and weather conditions, time window requests, and so on.

Aside from optimizing dispatching and route optimization, some dispatch solutions also help businesses continuously improve performance.

Modern solutions offer robust visibility and KPI-tracking capabilities, providing companies with deep insights on various aspects of delivery operations such as driver performance, planned stops vs actual, fuel efficiency, driver hours, return orders, etc. These insights help businesses plan more strategically and improve operations over time. 

5 Essential Capabilities to Look for in Automated Dispatching Software

The right automated dispatching system offers numerous benefits—from eliminating manual tasks and processes to enabling you to provide a shorter delivery turnaround time, increase driver productivity, and gain real-time visibility into delivery operations. All of this can combine to put your business on the path to great customer delivery service.

To make that happen, you need to be sure you’re equipped with the right capabilities. Here are some of the must-have features and capabilities to look for in an automated dispatching solution:

Automated capacity management

Dispatching and scheduling work in tandem in successful logistics management, since your fleet's capacity has to match up with delivery volumes in a way that meets your constraints. The right dispatch automation software might help by sending automated updates to customers to enable them to schedule their preferred delivery windows (which can help you save time calling customers to ask for their preferred delivery times), all while dynamically offering options that square with your capacity requirements.

The software might then choose the best delivery windows according to past delivery data for the customers who opt not to schedule their delivery schedule. It could also offer capacity matching and equipment matching to make sure you're getting the most out of your fleet and workforce. 

Automated route planning and optimization

Automated route planning and optimization is crucial for fulfilling more deliveries on each run. This helps you reduce costs by maximizing stops for a given set of factors, i.e. customer preference, delivery timing, driver skill level, and more—something that would be nearly impossible for a human planner to do unaided. 

Your logistics technology should support you in speeding up route planning by offering a streamlined interface that makes it easy to generate routes that meet your needs. The more time you spend poring over instruction manuals to figure out how to build a route correctly, the earlier your order cutoff will have to be. At the same time, your technology should also be able to leverage AI and machine learning to speed up the routing process even further and improve the accuracy of your ETAs. 

Centralized dispatching

If you're running sizable fleets in multiple geographies, you may need to dispatch centrally so they can manage both internal and external fleets more efficiently.

The right dispatching solution ensures the integration of complete visibility of all route assignments and drivers, including external ones. This enables you to manage active and upcoming routes via a unified dashboard. 

Generally speaking there are two factors you need to consider when it comes to finding a software that will meet this need: one is integration, which we’ll discuss below—but the other is scalability. If you’re routing and dispatching centrally for large numbers of trucks and orders, you need a cloud-based solution that can route thousands of stops in a matter of minutes, otherwise you’ll be subject to slowdowns and disruptions. 

Automated notifications and alerts

Unexpected traffic jams, sudden vehicle breakdowns, weather interruptions, and the like can happen any time, which is why dispatchers and fleet managers must be quick in taking the necessary actions. Here, it’s helpful to have dispatch and logistics software that offers automated exception workflows where all affected delivery stakeholders including the customer can be notified of the possible delays caused by unforeseen events.

All of this will help to round out an overarching customer delivery experience that’s designed around connectivity. You want customers to feel that they have visibility into their deliveries and that they can get the delivery info that they need whenever they need it. Real-time delivery tracking and two-way communications are both crucial here. 

Seamless Integration

To get all the benefits we've been describing, you need dispatch and logistics software that can be integrated with your current software to streamline operations and for better visibility and control over various business functions. More than that, larger businesses need software that empowers easy integration with third party contractors and fleets. For this requirement, you’ll really want to see proof of successful integration use cases in the past. 

In the end, you need to choose a solution that allows you to integrate multiple functionalities so you can increase your productivity, improve operations, and lower delivery costs while ensuring high customer satisfaction. The right automated dispatching system can go a long way towards making that happen. 

Want More Cost Optimization Tips? Read The Last Mile Cost Reduction Playbook: