Truck Routing Software: Stop Wasting Time in the Last Mile

Faster — cheaper — more satisfying. Consumers continually demand more from businesses that rely on last-mile delivery. What was excellent last year is acceptable today, and what was acceptable last year is now unacceptable. Using conventional methods, it's very difficult for delivery organizations to ratchet up efficiency to meet new demands without increasing costs. 

The Challenges of Last Mile Logistics

One of the factors that pushes delivery logistics costs up is that companies don't have the right delivery infrastructure: Drivers spend more time on the road than necessary because their routes are not planned efficiently. And that poor route planning is usually the result of old or sub-par technology.

Poor planning doesn't just waste time either. There are also fuel costs. Drivers are often assigned multiple drop-offs for low-value parcels, while  customers are hard to pin down and may miss deliveries if they’re not right on time and drivers have to re-attempt deliveries which wastes more time and fuel.

How Truck Routing Software Helps

Planning dozens or hundreds of routes manually is simply not feasible if you want to be efficient. There are long hours of work, and even when done right, conventionally planned routes are too complex for planners to accurately estimate ETAs.

To plot efficient route plans that save time and fuel, you need route planning software that applies the power of AI to optimize your fleet capacity and route sequence. 

Route optimization minimizes total driving time for routes with multiple stops. It finds the most optimal routes by considering different variables like vehicle land capacity, delivery time windows, driver schedule, traffic congestion, driver location, road accidents, and distance from one stop to another.

Finding optimal routes manually is a cumbersome task even for small fleets. A company that has a couple of trucks with 10 delivery stops each will still be evaluating thousands of possible routes. Truck routing software calculates the best routes in just a few clicks, allowing fleets to maximize drivers' shifts and ultimately reduce operating costs.

Overcoming Challenges with the Right Truck Routing Software

Truck route optimization software helps improve your fleet's overall efficiency, cut down operating costs, save time, and increase revenue. Here's how the right software empowers fleets to overcome last mile delivery challenges:

Reduce Delivery Time

Sophisticated  delivery routing and dispatch software uses advanced algorithms to find optimal routes, which can then save fleets anywhere from 20 to 40 percent drive time and 10 percent fuel usage. An advanced solution also allows route planners to manually adjust routes or input business constraints, such as customer delivery windows. Ideally, your software would also allow dispatchers to re-optimize routes in real-time when an unexpected event such as a last-minute order change happens.

Providing drivers with the best routes improves their productivity, so fewer crews and vehicles are needed to complete delivery assignments.. Companies struggling to overcome the driver shortage find they can operate with smaller fleets, saving both labor and capital costs.

Visualize Routes

Drivers often have a hard time deciphering routes when they rely on text-only directions or paper or physical maps. Truck routing software translates the routes into visual maps with turn by turn directions, allowing drivers and their dispatchers to view at glance the exact stops. It also lets dispatchers see which drivers are en route to specific delivery drop-off points.

<<Learn more about route optimization in our complete guide >>

Avoid Bottlenecks via Auto-Dispatch

Planning drivers assignments manually, and printing and handing out driver assignments one by one is time-consuming and inefficient. Luckily, you can ditch all these conventional methods with the right routing software, thanks to auto-dispatch.

This feature automates  dispatching, telling drivers which sequence of stops they should hit on a given route. Once the software has assigned a driver to a task, it then provides the driver with the shortest route to get to the assigned destination. This helps reduce manual effort by dispatchers and ensures seamless connectivity with drivers. 

Improve Communication with Customers

Customers want to feel more empowered by having information at their fingertips. They demand to be kept in the loop with what's happening with their orders. 

That’s why you need software that provides customers with regular updates. Aside from satisfying customer's demand of being informed in real-time, it also helps ensure that customers are available to receive their orders when the truck arrives. Features like auto-text/emails advising customers when drivers start their routes, live ETA updates and one-stop-away notices dramatically reduce delivery failures. This also eliminates incoming where-is-my-order (WISMO) calls, which are a huge drain on resources.

While these things are beyond the abilities of simple routing software – and far beyond what you can achieve with Google maps — they're essential to delivering the service your customers demand at a cost you can afford. Capable truck routing software ties together all of these pieces — order entry, routing, dispatching, communications and even proof-of-delivery — into a seamless, streamlined process that will make your daily executions smoother and more efficient. And you'll stop wasting time in the last mile.