by Customers are more likely to return and spread the word about your business if they receive a satisfactory delivery experience. A delivery management software can help you achieve this by offering real-time tracking and dispatching features.
With a DMS, you can also automate routes and build efficient plans to minimize waste time. This reduces the risk of a customer receiving a wrong product or facing long delays.
Automated Scheduling
Automated scheduling software is a great way to reduce human error when arranging your team’s schedule. The technology works by assessing employee availability and overtime limits, along with their skill sets and other parameters.
It then allocates shifts and times accordingly. The result is a much more accurate schedule than one that was made manually.
This is especially beneficial for field service firms. It helps avoid errors like double-booking a mobile worker, assigning a technician with the wrong skill set to a job, or not allowing enough travel time for a technician to arrive on time.
It also keeps your business compliant with all employment laws. It houses employee requests for changes, shifts and days off in a single database, so you can approve or deny them with a simple click of a button.
Real-Time Tracking
Using real-time tracking features is an excellent way to improve your business’s efficiency and ensure that clients receive their orders on time. This allows you to avoid potential disruptions, maximize delivery performance, decrease carrier detention fees and strengthen your business relationships.
With a powerful DMS, your drivers can access all their delivery information from the mobile app, including customer data and specific instructions. They can also capture proof of delivery electronically with signatures and photos.
Another important feature of a strong DMS is route optimization, which lets your drivers get on the road faster by deciding the best routes for each order. This is based on the availability, proximity and traffic conditions of each location.
Moreover, your drivers can connect to their dispatchers with the help of real-time driver tracking. This is a great way to prevent unanticipated delays due to vehicle breakdowns and weather. It also allows you to re-assign deliveries to drivers whose arrival is closer to the delivery location.
Route Optimization
Dispatchers need to ensure that their delivery agents reach the correct locations at the right time to complete deliveries. This is a challenge since there are a lot of factors to consider like changing traffic patterns, regulations and exceeded number of deliveries.
This is why it is essential to have a route optimization feature in the delivery management software. This feature enables you to map out routes for your drivers, based on various factors such as traffic and vehicle capacity.
For example, if you are planning a multi-stop delivery, you need to make sure that each stop is well-planned so that the driver can deliver in time and avoid any mishaps.
This is why route optimization plays an important role in ensuring a smooth, timely, and efficient delivery process. It also helps to reduce fuel costs and increases productivity, so that you can get more orders done with fewer vehicles.
Fleet Tracking
Fleet tracking is a key feature of Delivery Management Software that provides visibility into driver and vehicle statuses at all times. This helps dispatchers orchestrate deliveries more efficiently, improve customer service and communicate with customers in real time.
Fleet tracking features should include a centralized dashboard for dispatchers and fleet managers to monitor delivery progress, as well as driver scheduling and vehicle capacity. The solution should also include robust reporting tools.
In addition, fleet managers should be able to track fuel costs and monitor driver performance (an important element of driver compensation). GPS tracking devices can be active or passive, meaning they collect data and send alerts in real-time, or store it for analysis at intervals.
A GPS tracker is installed on a vehicle, and connects to a network of satellites to determine the vehicle’s location. This data is then sent to a server and stored for use later.
