6 Route Planning Tips for Small Delivery Businesses

If you run a delivery business, then you know how important route planning and optimization is to the success of your operations. By making the most of your routes, you'll significantly cut down transportation costs, reduce delivery time, and ensure that products reach their intended destinations on time. This means creating an efficient route plan for how deliveries are made to create a better customer experience. Understandably, route planning is not an easy task, but the following tips can help you master it.

Share Customer Details With Your Drivers

If you want to speed up deliveries and boost customer experience, share details with your drivers. Yes, a customer will have provided their address when completing a delivery order, but that isn't always enough. The customer's name and contact numbers are important too, especially when the delivery person cannot fully rely on the address given. This can help make it easier to communicate with customers about delivery details such as when the customer can expect the package. Doing this keeps your customers in the know; and they'll likely appreciate being kept updated, even if the update is about a delay.

Separate the Destinations Into Groups

Check the deliveries to see which ones are located in close proximity to each other. This way, you can group such locations, plan the route for delivery, and create a more efficient delivery system. Next, assign locations closer to each other to the same driver or drivers covering that area. That will save your business on fuel costs and driving distance. Your workers will also be able to deliver packages on time, ensuring that you have happy customers. But that's not all. Separating non-urgent deliveries from urgent ones allows you to prioritize time-sensitive deliveries and prevent delays in urgent deliveries.

Don't Ignore Technical Analysis

Your delivery process is the most important aspect of your business, and you should welcome anything that will help enhance and optimize it. Technical analysis plays a key role in enhancing your delivery process and optimizing your routes. Consider establishing a technical support system that will stay in touch with the customers and drivers at all times. You can use APIs and other route optimization tools to help increase delivery efficiency instantly and generate route delivery plans. If your business also uses a massive fleet of vehicles for delivery, many tech solutions can help you manage inventory and integrate routes in line with priority levels. When deciding on the best option for your company, ensure that your delivery business operates in line with fleet telematics best practices at all times.

Plan for Busy Delivery Periods

You know your business and understand your market, so you should be able to predict a busy delivery period and plan for it. For example, with the holiday season approaching, you should know if the number of deliveries you usually receive will increase and by how much. You also need to understand how many orders can fit into your delivery vehicle and if you might need to hire extra drivers to cover the increase in orders. Similarly, you should also be able to predict which periods experience the lowest number of deliveries so you can determine how many delivery vehicles or drivers to drop.

Don't Lose Control Over Drivers

At no point during a delivery process should you have to guess where your driver is. Maintaining absolute control over your drivers and knowing their location at all times is extremely important. Remember, your drivers are at the center of your operation, and one way to keep record of your system is to track every vehicle with a GPS-tracking device. These simple gadgets are easy to use and can help you know whether your drivers are delivering their packages on time.

Ensure Deliveries as Scheduled

Regardless of what strategies or mechanisms you employ, your ultimate goal should be to deliver each package as scheduled, as that is the primary factor of customer expectation. Each customer wants a delivery business committed to its objective. However, if you expect a package delivery to be delayed, let your customers know ahead and offer the necessary explanations. This way, you won't lose business revenue because of disgruntled and unsatisfied customers.