Onfleet Alternatives: Which Last Mile Software Will Help You Grow?

Onfleet has been described as “Uber for delivery,” but when you’re managing complex last mile delivery operations, is that really what you want?

In many cases, the answer is “no” or at least “maybe not.” Every business is different, and your last mile delivery needs may differ from the business next door’s—there’s no one-size-fits-all solution that will meet everyone’s needs perfectly. 

Whether you’re an Onfleet user wondering what else is out there, or are in the market for new software and wonder what other options exist, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve gathered up the top Onfleet alternatives, and we’ll give you the rundown on each of them—as well as a deep dive into how delivery management software impacts your business and how you can make sure you’re choosing one that will fit your needs. 

Index:

• Onfleet: Pros and Cons
• What Are the Top Onfleet Alternatives?
  • Tookan
  • Verizon Connect
  • Project 44
  • Samsara
  • Motive
  • DispatchTrack
• How to Choose the Right Software for Your Last Mile
• Why Choose DispatchTrack as an Onfleet Alternative?
• Conclusion

Onfleet: Pros and Cons

There’s plenty of good reasons to look into Onfleet alternatives. First and foremost is that it’s just a best practice to do your due diligence when it comes to something like choosing the right delivery management software. 

But Onfleet, like any other software options, has its distinctive pros and cons. 

Onfleet pros:

• Customers appreciate the “Uber-like” delivery experience, which involves real-time tracking from a sleek interface on the customer’s phone. 
• Onfleet was founded in 2012, so they have a long track record in the last mile delivery software space. 
• The simple user interface makes it easy for dispatchers to get started with the system. 
• The SaaS platform offers task-based pricing, which gives flexibility to smaller companies that might not be ready to lay out a large capital investment. 

Onfleet cons:

• Some users complain that the platform has difficult handling volume—and that it slows down to a crawl once you’ve tried to route too many vehicles. 
• Others have complained about the accuracy of the routing engine’s ETAs. 
• Task-based pricing isn’t necessarily as well suited to larger companies that are trying to operate at scale without surprise line items cropping up. 
• Reviews on G2 mentioned limited reporting and limited functionality in general.

If you do a deep dive into the software’s reviews on sites like GT and Capterra, you’ll find a wide range of opinions, but one overarching theme you may encounter is that the software just isn’t designed for the kinds of complexity that many delivery organizations deal with on a daily and weekly basis.  

So what alternatives do you have if you’re wondering how best to deal with more complex routing and delivery management use cases or simply trying to find something that can handle the scale of your business?

What Are the Top Onfleet Alternatives?

Tookan:

Tookan is the delivery management offering from Junglework (“a no-code hyperlocal commerce and delivery stack to set up and manage on-demand businesses”). Their delivery management software provides an advanced agent tracking system to manage and optimize all your deliveries. Like Onfleet, a lot of their marquee customers are in the food delivery space. 

Verizon Connect:

Verizon connect is probably one of the first things that came up if you searched Onfleet alternatives. It’s billed as a fleet management solution, but the platform has a wide breadth of functionality that includes a lot of the things that Onfleet offers, e.g. route optimization and delivery driver location tracking. Unlike Onfleet and some Onfleet alternatives, they’re not a dedicated last mile delivery software company.

Project 44:

Project 44 describes itself as the “only High-Velocity Supply Chain Platform.” Their platform offers a wide range of capabilities, many of which pertain to pre-shipment workflows like port intelligence, sailing schedules, and other touch points further up the supply chain. Their last mile capabilities are centered around visibility and analytics, with a focus on exception management. The breadth of functionality here extends way beyond the last mile—which can be extremely useful for businesses managing more complex supply chains—but it should be noted that anyone considering this solution as an Onfleet alternative would likely need to invest in a separate last mile routing solution as well. 

Samsara:

Samsara is another huge, heavy-duty solution that focuses on fleet management across the board. Their bread and butter is telematics and fleet safety, but their platform extends to cover much more than that. As an Onfleet alternative, they position themselves mostly as a truck tracking solution. While they do offer route optimization capabilities, they don’t tout their capabilities as an end-to-end last mile management program of the sort that many Onfleet users rely on. 

Motive:

Per their website: “No matter the size of your business, the Motive Integrated Operations Platform delivers the value of fleet management with data intelligence, extensibility, security and scale.” Like many of the options above, it’s not a solution that’s heavily focused on last mile logistics—though it does integrate seamlessly with some last mile platforms to provide improved visibility and tracking across the board. 

DispatchTrack:

Of the alternatives to Onfleet’s software that come up most frequently, DispatchTrack is the closest to Onfleet in the sense of focusing on the last mile delivery journey from end to end. DispatchTrack offers route optimization, real-time delivery tracking, driver management, digital proof of delivery, and a connected customer experience that helps reduce not-at-homes and boost customer satisfaction. DispatchTrack integrates with telematics systems, ERPs, and other critical software solutions to offer an agile, connected, and intelligent approach to last mile delivery. It’s a SaaS platform architected to scale, meaning that its fast, accurate routing engine can handle as many routes and trucks as you can throw at it. 

How to Choose the Right Software for Your Last Mile

If you’re on this page, you already know how important the choice of software solution can be when it comes to improving your last mile deliveries. You need something that will grow with you as your company evolves, and you need a solution that can handle your needs without making life harder for your team.

So what exactly should you be considering when you’re choosing last mile delivery management software?

Does the solution support your use case?

From the customer’s perspective, the delivery experience from a pizza delivery and a shipment of roofing shingles might not look that different—you get a notification about your schedule, you track the delivery in real-time on the day of, and you expect a phone call or an alert if something goes wrong. 

But the businesses doing the actual deliveries know that what’s happening beneath the surface for different types of deliveries can be very different. A food distributor is going to need to be able to plan and edit recurring routes without a huge amount of manual effort—while a building supplies distributor will need to enable rapid route optimization for same-day and next day orders. 

In general, anything big and bulky—whether that’s a pallet of energy drinks or a queen-sized mattress—is going to involve more complex routing and scheduling requirements than many solutions offer by default. Seek out something that can handle complex use cases, from skill-based routing to equipment matching and beyond. 

Does it cover the entire last mile?

The last mile is only one part of your larger logistics and fulfillment chain, but it’s often the most expensive part, largely because of the complexity involved in generating workable delivery routes and communicating with a large number of end customers. That’s why having a single source of truth—in the form of a single cohesive application—for last mile logistics is crucial.

To cover the entire last mile, your Onfleet alternative should offer:

• Route optimization
• Dispatching
• Customer communications/customer engagement 
• Driver management via mobile app
• Real-time delivery tracking
• Digital proof of delivery
• Robust reporting and analytics
• Seamless integration with other supply chain applications

More than that, it should ensure connectivity between these disparate elements. Why? Because in point of fact these processes are closely connected and influence one another, and it’s crucial for your technology process to reflect that fact. 

Can it grow with your business?

We’ve mentioned the ability to scale a few times in this rundown already, but let’s put a finer point on it: Even if you’re only running a few trucks now, you don’t want to be hemmed in by the limitations of your technology in the future. And if you’re running more than a few trucks, you’re already in a position where you have to think about the technical capabilities of your software solution. 

So, yes, it’s important to look for something that doesn’t slow down after a few dozen trucks. But it’s also crucial to find last mile software that will evolve at the same speed that the last mile delivery market does. That means a commitment to innovation and a steady cadence of new features. 

Customer engagement and customer experience are two of the areas where the rapid evolution of last mile expectations is most obvious. Even a few years ago, the ability to track delivery trucks in real time wasn’t standard across delivery types—but modern customers across the board increasingly expect it. 

More than that, they expect to be able to reach out to your team without picking up the phone to make a call. Technology vendors who aren’t staying up to date on these trends are potentially not giving their customers the tools they need to succeed in the modern last mile. 

Will it produce results?

Track record is huge when it comes to choosing a technology vendor. Your chosen last mile software should be able to show how they’ve helped businesses like yours in the past—not just when it comes to speeding up processes and saving money, but when it comes to getting your team up and running quickly. 

The ability to provide a smooth software rollout says a lot about a vendor—as does the ability to ensure effective integration with other solutions in your technology stack. Make sure you’re selecting last mile technology that you can implement with confidence. 

Why Choose DispatchTrack as an Onfleet Alternative?

Unlike the competition, DispatchTrack offers innovative, AI-powered, SaaS-based last mile delivery software that's purpose-built for faster, more cost-effective last mile delivery management.

"In the critical areas of route optimization and delivery execution, DispatchTrack is our application of choice." Seth de Vlugt, Ryder