What Makes Last Mile Logistics Tracking So Critical?

There’s the old adage that you can’t optimize what you can’t measure, but in logistics you need to take it a step further: you can’t manage what you can’t track.

In both cases, we’re fundamentally talking about visibility—and while logistics operators will universally acknowledge its importance, it’s often difficult to nail down the specifics of what visibility really looks like and what it means to your operations and your customers. This has the potential to be a real issue, since visibility is increasingly one of the most foundational elements of a great customer experience. 

Buyer preferences have evolved significantly with the rise of more online ordering options, greater competition, and volatile prices across a host of different industry verticals. Last mile delivery is the most expensive phase of supply chain management. And it's getting to be more complex than ever as customers demand more from businesses. Finding a way to meet consumer expectations is imperative.

Fortunately, technological tools are also getting more advanced, helping companies overcome the complexities of daily last mile delivery operations.

In this post, we’ll look at the important things your company should know about last mile carrier tracking and how it helps both your customers and your internal teams. 

Last Mile Logistics Tracking for Customers

Consumers are more empowered these days. They can find the cheapest goods, research and read reviews, and compare shipping costs before buying online. Thus, businesses should ensure that they offer exceptional delivery services to acquire new customers and retain loyal ones.

Providing excellent delivery services is not easy. Consumers, after all, want to be able to track the driver along the delivery route. They want to receive accurate ETA information. And they want a means of communicating with the driver directly, plus the ability to rate delivery services.

To meet these demands, you need to offer last mile logistics tracking software that offers real-time alerts, includes a direct way of communicating with the driver, and provides a real-time tracking app for mobile phones so customers can see driver location.

Key Components of Real-Time Tracking for Last Mile Deliveries

The only way businesses can meet customer demands is to ensure efficient last mile delivery operations. Having complete, real-time visibility into fleet activity goes a long way in navigating the complexities of last mile deliveries

The right software for tracking last mile carrier deliveries must have the following functionalities:

Real-time last mile logistics tracking

Your deliveries need to be traceable so customers can see where their orders are on the delivery date. Delivery businesses need to offer the ability to track orders as soon as drivers have loaded them into the delivery vehicles. It's the only way to provide consumers with realistic ETAs and automatic alerts should there be delays in the delivery.

Customer engagement 

Of course, live tracking isn’t the be-all end-all of providing a great experience to customers. A tracking portal can go a long way towards boosting customer satisfaction, but your software should also offer you two-way communication capabilities and the ability to send alerts and notifications to customers with the push of a button. This is how you turn visibility into actual confidence from your customers. 

Digital proof of delivery

Collecting proof of delivery is essential in resolving customer disputes on deliveries and ensuring effective documentation. Drivers can capture proof of delivery via a mobile app in the form of barcode scans, photos, signatures, and notes. Digital proof of delivery can save your team huge amounts of time and money that would otherwise be spent trying to manage paper-based proof of delivery slips (which are both less robust and more prone to vanishing). 

Robust data gathering

It's hard to identify pain points in delivery operations without data. Your software must then offer key metrics such as feedback ratings, delivery success rates, planned versus actual deliveries, and total cost-to-serve, to name just a few. The ability to track and trace deliveries and analyze them by time period, driver, or team can help management determine which areas need improvement and which delivery personnel need more coaching.

Exception management

It’s not just about gathering information—it’s about making that information actionable for your teams. That’s why a dedicated exception management dashboard is a critical piece of the last mile logistics tracking puzzle. Your software should offer your live tracking information in context so that you can see at a glance which deliveries are going off without a hitch and which deliveries require dedicated attention. Here, alert-driven visibility can be a powerful framework for ensuring that your team is able to jump on exception quickly and seamlessly to keep your last mile deliveries on track.  

Delivery execution

One of the keys to effective exception management is making sure that late, missed, and failed deliveries are, in fact, the exception. If your trucks are routinely running late throughout the day, then no amount of visibility can smooth things out for your customers—it’s just going to be chaotic.

That’s why the best logistics tracking software also gives you the tools to consistently execute on your delivery plans. This means incorporating intelligent route planning and optimization, streamlined dispatching, and robust driver management tools to ensure that the vast majority of deliveries are on track every day. 

How Is AI Impacting Logistics Tracking?

When it comes to nearly any logistics technology (nearly any technology writ large, really) at the moment, the elephant in the room is AI: Should you be looking for AI powered capabilities in this area? Can AI help you with logistics tracking or make it easier to achieve ROI in your technology?

And right now, AI is absolutely making a difference in this area. It can offer the ability to turn live delivery data into updated ETAs over the course of a route. And, crucially, it can give you a tool for instantly answering customer questions about order status and location.  

At the same time, it’s worth keeping in mind that there’s no substitute for the fundamentals. To get value out of AI-powered logistics technology, you need to start with a strong baseline of collecting high quality delivery data in real time. That means starting with driver status updates, GPS locations, digital proof of delivery, and a record of any interactions with the customer via two-way messaging.  

Once you’ve got that baseline level of visibility, you can start to benefit from AI-powered enhancements. 

Conclusion: Last Mile Logistics Tracking Is Essential

Customers—whether they’re end consumer or business buyers—benefit tremendously from last mile logistics tracking. It means they can plan their schedules according to deliveries and have the peace of mind that their orders are being fulfilled on time.

But it's not just customers who benefit from final mile carrier tracking. Businesses get to identify problems with their delivery operations and correct them as needed. This way, they can keep attracting and retaining customers while keeping delivery costs low. Last mile logistics tracking helps both consumers and businesses get the most out of the entire delivery process. 

The trick is finding the right software solution to support you in your quest for improved visibility.