The rapid worldwide urbanization, unprecedented F&B online market growth and increase in customer expectations have put a strain on last-mile delivery – leading to an urgent need for higher delivery volumes in shorter times across cities. This has caused the already elusive and time-consuming operations to become even more complex and costly. How can restaurants cut costs on operations while driving value for customers as well?
1- Outsourcing Operations
Last-mile delivery is referred to as the Achilles’ tendon of ecommerce, as it has the power to sink an online business, if not seamless and cost-effective. Tackling the final leg is tricky as having to assign orders, manage fleets, attend to mistakes, etc. can lead to large overhead and distract businesses from their core activity. 3pLs can provide businesses with both dedicated and on-demand fleet – and have the expertise and resources to manage logistics during peak times, reducing the cost of delays and failed deliveries. They also streamline the entire last-mile by leveraging digital products to make the process faster and hiccup-free. The need for such technology is in fact reflected in the global logistics automation market size growth, which is expected to reach US$88.9 billion by 2026 from US$48.8 billion in 2021. (Research and Markets)
2- Auto dispatching deliveries
Manually assigning orders wastes time, requires staff, increases the margin for error and is overall a non-optimal method of resource utilization. In the age of digital transformation, time is money (especially in the final mile!) and businesses can no longer afford to lag while the market competes to offer the fastest fulfillment and best customer service possible – which is now the most significant differentiator for brands. Automated dispatching with a delivery management software reduces manual dependencies and mitigates delays and human error, ensuring speedy and accurate deliveries. This makes last-mile delivery more cost-effective and efficient.
3- Optimizing Routes with Delivery Management Software
The longer the delivery trips, the higher the cost. Delivery management software thus relies on AI and machine learning algorithms to find the best routes for drivers – taking distance, accidents on the road, traffic, vehicle type and other variables into consideration. By taking the most efficient routes, fuel consumption and vehicle maintenance cost are reduced – and drivers can take on more deliveries in less time.
4- Clubbing Orders with Delivery Management Software
If two or more orders are received around the same time and need to be delivered to locations in close proximity or share a similar route, orders can be ‘clubbed’ – or assigned to the same driver by the delivery management software. This enables drivers to take an optimized route to drop off multiple orders in one trip, saving on time, fuel consumption and vehicle maintenance costs while increasing customer satisfaction.
5 – Drivers Pooling
When activating the Drivers Pooling feature, businesses can assign a store’s deliveries to another store’s fleet team (or multiple ones) within the same cluster. This is especially useful during peak times, when certain stores are experiencing a low volumes while others are overloaded. Drivers of less busy stores can thus fulfill deliveries of busy one(s). This feature is configurable, enabling the pooling of drivers between stores or teams. Teams can be created based on employment types, vehicle types, for third-party delivery partners, aggregators etc.find out more about Drivers Pooling
This leads to an increase in driver utilization rate and ultimately decrease overhead costs.
6 – Address Verification
Through auto-dispatching and dynamic route planning, drivers are less likely to end up at the wrong address. Businesses will however still face failed deliveries as some online forms filled by customers may have incorrect or incomplete addresses, misleading drivers. Data accuracy is thus is essential. Delivery Management Software can help overcome such issues by accessing verified address data previously stored in its database across different touch points. An advanced Delivery Management Software will also involve customers by sending them a verification SMS allowing them to update their location on the map.
Lyve nGage is highly configurable and easy to use delivery management software, designed to help you streamline and optimize the final mile. Its flexibility, variety of configurations and advanced algorithm empowers business to enhance operations while cutting costs.
Click here to learn about Lyve nGage features or request a free demo to find out how nGage can help you optimize operations and increase speed of service and drivers’ utilization rate.
