The fact that you’re searching for last mile automation means that you’re already ahead of a big fraction of the competition. It means that you know that the antiquated manual processes are potentially holding you big in your last mile logistics, and that you can speed up your processes, improve your delivery performance, and boost customer satisfaction by implementing software that’s designed to automate as many workflows as possible.
Of course, searching for software solutions on Google is the easy part—the hard part comes when you need to actually evaluate those solutions and decide which ones are worth demoing.
Luckily, you’re not on your own. We’ve compiled a guide to last mile automation software for any prospective buyers who need to get oriented on what possibilities are out there.
Below, you’ll find a rundown of exactly what your last mile automation software should automate, a list of “green flags” to look for when selecting a solution, as well as an overview of some of the potential options for last mile automation software to consider.
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In the era of increasing AI dominance—not just in our technology but in our conversations about technology—it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that anything and everything can be taken over by machines. While the days of autonomous supply chains are probably on the horizon, we’re not there yet. That means it’s crucial to be intentional about which processes you automate and which processes you loop a human into.
There are a few things that can be automated quickly and easily with most modern logistics technology:
With the advent of more reliable LLMs, you can also automate a large part of the process of two-way messaging with customers. By implementing an AI-powered agent within your chatting functionality, you can have AI automatically and instantaneously answer questions like “when is my order scheduled for?” and “which items are in my order?”
Doing this can save your team huge amounts of time and effort—most customer questions are simple and repetitive so even a rudimentary chat agent can field a huge percentage of them right off the bat. Your teams will still spend time answering the queries that the agent escalates to them, but they’ll have freed up a huge amount of time that they can spend on tasks that are more valuable.
This has limitations—an AI agent is never going to be able to handle the full range of customer needs without human intervention—but is crucial to look into if you’re in the market for last mile automation.
Another burgeoning area for automation in the last mile is in developing stop-level briefings for drivers. Providing information about parking, access, and other location-based factors can help drivers finish their stops more quickly, easily, and confidently. But it’s not really practical to dig that information up by hand for every stop on a route and provide it to the drivers.
This is another area where AI can be leveraged effectively. AI-powered capabilities embedded in a delivery driver mobile app can automatically generate voice notes providing location-based intelligence as part of the driver’s regular workflow. The result is that drivers are able to be more productive.
More AI-powered advances in supply chain and last mile automation are out on the immediate horizon, so it’s crucial to select a provider that’s taking advantage of AI in a smart, measured, and efficient way.
Choosing last mile automation software comes down to finding the right fit between the vendors capabilities (plus their roadmap and their customer engagement style) and your needs as a delivery organization. That said, there are a handful of signs that a vendor is worth strongly considering:
DispatchTrack helps 2,500 customers around the globe to promise, deliver, and delight their customers across more than 1,000,000 deliveries per day. They offer a single platform for the entire last mile journey, including route optimization, customer experience management, delivery tracking, and driver management. DispatchTrack’s platform offers innovative AI-based capabilities to improve route efficiency, speed up customer support, and improve driver productivity. They’re a great option for building material suppliers, food distributors, 3PLs, and retailers of big and bulky items that require scheduled deliveries.
“RoadWarrior is a route planner used by thousands of professional drivers and teams to plan their routes with multiple stops.” For individual routes, they boast an ability to save significant amounts of time compared to routes generated by Google Maps—and now that they’ve added a “teams” application to the mix it has more potential use cases for streamlining operations. They’re a simple and affordable application that offers a great last mile automation option for small businesses or individual drivers.
“LogiNext's software as a service (SaaS) product caters for various sectors including Courier, Express and Parcel, Quick Service Restaurant chains, Retail & eCommerce, and Transportation. The company has achieved a global presence, working with numerous organisations across over 50 nations.” Their routing solution boasts a solid 52 ratings on Peer Insights, with an average of 4.2 stars—making it a strong contender in that arena. They’re a good fit for businesses that are focused on last mile automation parcel and courier use cases.
Descartes’ “Logistics Technology Platform digitally combines the world’s most expansive logistics network with the industry’s broadest array of supply chain and logistics management applications and most comprehensive global trade intelligence services.“ Their portfolio is quite wide—so much so that it can actually be difficult to find their last mile capabilities on their website. But the upshot is that they offer route planning and optimization, route execution, safety/compliance/telematics, and customer experience capabilities. They can present a useful option for businesses that want multiple modules to handle different
Our goal is to make sure you find last mile automation software that works for your business and helps you reduce costs and improve efficiency. Selecting the right solution is always a challenge, and you shouldn’t have to feel like you’re on your own.
Our advisors would love to walk you through the ways that you can automate last mile tasks to reduce the time and effort it takes to manage your delivery operations. Drop us a line today and we’ll reach out to you to schedule a consultation.