In short, optimizing Last Mile Delivery processes can influence a company’s ability to keep customers happy, which determines its long-term survival.
Five ways you can overcome Last Mile Delivery challenges:
- Improve Warehouse Proximity
- Communicate With Customers
- Cut Labour Costs with Auto-Dispatch
- Optimise Delivery Routes
- Provide Real-Time Delivery Tracking to Customers
Improve Customer-Warehouse Proximity: Distribute your warehouse and fulfillment centers equally to cover more ground and be closer to more customers. Almost all companies set up a warehouse in both East and West, to allow their goods to reach customer faster on opposite coasts.
Communicate With Customers : The use of route planning software not only saves time by eliminating the need to plan routes manually, but because routes are updated in real-time, it also decreases the number of drivers needed to make the deliveries each day.
By automatically considering time, location, vehicle capacity, and traffic, Software optimizes delivery routes to meet customer requirements. SMS is used to send real-time updates on traffic conditions for these routes, allowing drivers to optimize their travel time and empower themselves.
Cut Labor Costs with Auto-Dispatch : A shortest route will be provided to the driver after the delivery has been assigned by the Software.
It means, primarily, that you can’t accidentally assign the same thing to more than one driver, or over and under allocate to a single one. Limits can be set, such as limiting drivers to two tasks (even if they are closest or have the shortest route), which will eliminate them from contention.
Communicate With Customers : Maintain regular communication with customers throughout your delivery process so that they know what is happening with their package.
Customers will be able to not only track their order, but also communicate directly with the driver, track their package with SMS notifications, and be a part of a real-time feedback loop.
Once a package has been delivered, drivers can provide proof of delivery. An item is considered delivered if it has been verified by documentation like a signature of the recipient or a photograph of the package being left at the door with a date and time stamp.
As well as protecting your driver, this policy helps prevent fraudulent claims in the event packages go missing.
Provide Real-Time Delivery Tracking to Customers : Providing tracking numbers to customers is no longer an option for e-commerce companies. It’s Must.
Providing tracking information in the first place would eliminate the need to contact your customer service department to ask about every delivery. Simultaneously, your company will incur other costs that could have been avoided if you simply provided information in the first place.
3PL Warehouse Management Services 