Don’t let the name fool you: route optimisation software has plenty to offer beyond routing alone. And leveraging the software’s potential outside the last mile means more bang for your buck. Now, that’s a smart tech investment — so let’s unpack how you can access it.
When we consider route optimisation, we often focus on last-mile efficiency alone. This is a crucial advantage, of course. Ensuring your drivers and deliveries are on time, and getting to where they need to be as swiftly and smoothly as possible. Yet efficiency is far from the only benefit that route optimisation software can offer your business. Its advantages reach further both in the last mile stage and beyond it.
It’s these benefits beyond the last mile that we’ll illuminate here, from employee and customer satisfaction to safety and scalability.
How route optimisation software benefits your business overall
Whether you’re a smaller business, setting up to scale, or already a significant size, investing in the right route optimisation software offers positive effects beyond the last mile. Below, we’ve brought together six benefits we hear from our clients.
1. Save time
Evolving from using Excel or printed route lists for your drivers is an obvious time-saver. Yet there’s more to route optimisation software than that! Integrating your route optimisation tool with your broader tech landscape also saves you time on moving data.
Consider your usual admin post-routing, for example. Once routes are set, you send them to warehouses, drivers, your support team, and so on. This data-sharing after the route optimisation stage is key to success. So, it’s simply not worth the risk of errors and miscommunications. Especially since the most complex routing part is already taken care of! With route optimisation software that offers a catch-all approach, you can avoid migrating data between multiple tools. Saving you time beyond the last mile, and adding all-important clarity to your operations.
2. Increase employee satisfaction
With a route optimisation tool taking care of the basics, your people will regain time to focus on other tasks. For a smaller company, routing will be one hat of many that they can thankfully shelve! The right software will minimise the headspace they need to dedicate to routing, to turn their attention to other areas. For larger companies, the benefits differ slightly. With a well-chosen routing platform ensuring great execution, employees can focus on the details. Small they may be, but they can, of course, have a huge impact on the business. Overall, the right tool provides employees with the support they need, within your business size and context. This regained headspace can both save time and enhance fulfilment by reducing employees’ busy work. All factors can increase employee satisfaction and often, as a result, business profitability.
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3. Meet high customer expectations
Current cost-of-living pressure on consumers means prioritising customer loyalty is more essential than ever. Now, we know that the last mile is a key stage for creating a great customer experience. But route optimisation software enables this to extend beyond the last mile, too. Improving data communication and alignment between your teams, for one thing. For another, particularly in smaller businesses, freeing up time to focus on customer success. Ensuring content customers, who are ready to come back for more.
4. Scale easily
Doubling your orders may not simply double your routing complexity; it could quadruple it. Routing nuances increase exponentially, rather than linearly, as your business grows.
As a result, it’s essential to put in place the resources you’ll need to manage this. The right route optimisation tool will adapt with no need to add personnel to your routing team. With this inbuilt scalability, select route optimisation tools can benefit you beyond the last mile. For example, popular usage-based models, like ours, scale costs in line with your needs. No mammoth upfront investment is required, facilitating smaller businesses to get their routing right!
5. Improve delivery safety
Analysis shows that delivery accidents can increase under stressful time pressure. Properly optimised routing can lessen this, ensuring drivers aren’t unduly against the clock. The right routing tech will also reduce your drivers’ time on the road, naturally bringing down the chance of accidents. As a result, route optimisation software can help increase driver welfare and safety. Likewise, it can support minimising costs related to employee rehab and vehicle repair.
6. Develop your business
Efficient routing is just the start. It’s what you do with your fundamental routing data that will hone your business model. The data you’ll amass with the right route optimisation tool can enable core last-mile analytics. Used right, though, these insights can also underpin wider strategic decision-making. Understanding your margins and adjusting as needed to boost your business’s financial health, say.
Setting up forecasting, too, is particularly vital for small, ambitious businesses. What’s more, a tech platform that evolves with your business development needs is key. Fluctuating economic scenarios require pivoting and adapting. So, businesses need tech that supports accuracy and agility, not superfine accuracy alone. In the delivery context, then, multi-metric, scalable and customisable route optimisation tech is vital.
What to look for in your route optimisation software
Besides auto-updates, solve customer queries in seconds and fire-fight as needed. Ensuring quality, responsive customer experience is key to building loyalty. And retaining customers is especially crucial in the financially precarious scale-up phase. With the right delivery tech in place, you’ll be set to manage it seamlessly!
Ready to boost your business?
To explore route optimisation software’s advantages for your business, book a demo with us.
