Improve Your Last Mile Delivery Tracking to Reduce Costs

9 in 10 consumers want the ability to track their delivery orders. It’s hard to get 90% of people to agree about anything, but when it comes to delivery preferences there is a pretty clear consensus.

We could get into all the reasons why this preference might exist in the first place—most people are more reluctant to pick up the phone these days, people are used to tracking things like food delivery orders and rideshares, etc.—but the upshot is the same either way. It’s increasingly crucial for delivery businesses across verticals to offer live delivery tracking to their customers as a matter of course. 

Framed this way, this requirement might seem like a burden. But it can actually be a huge source of time and cost savings. Why? Because when customers don’t have to call in, your team doesn’t have to spend nearly as much time on the phone fielding where’s-my-order calls.

At the same time, once you have the capabilities to give customers real-time delivery tracking, you can leverage that visibility internally as well. Your dispatchers and managers can track deliveries in real time without having to call the delivery teams, and your sales and support teams can even check on delivery statuses without having to bug your dispatchers. 

A lot of this comes down to how you equip your drivers. After all, drivers play a crucial role in last mile operations—they're the final contact of the customers in the order fulfillment process. As such, the right delivery tracking software offers many benefits in ensuring that the last mile delivery process is both efficient and productive.

Here, one of the most crucial elements to success is connectivity. When you have a connected platform that includes both planning and execution via a mobile app, you can boost efficiency and minimize disruptions. With that in mind, here's how the right technology can help improve last mile delivery tracking:

How the Right Technology Improves Last Mile Delivery Tracking

Seamless Dispatching

Manual dispatching (where dispatchers hand out hard copies of drivers' assignments) need to be a thing of the past. It's quite difficult to achieve efficiency with manual processes like these. That's why automation is one of the most important features of modern delivery management software.

Aside from route planning and optimization, your delivery management platform should offer automated dispatching via a driver mobile app. Dispatchers can ditch the paper-based assignment by sending drivers their routes through a driver mobile app, saving your company time and money and streamlining the last mile execution process significantly. 

On-Demand Order Fulfillment

Supply chain and delivery businesses are seeing higher numbers for on-demand deliveries in the last few years. Studies have consistently shown that consumers will pay for faster or more convenient delivery options, and that includes shelling out for same-day and on-demand. 

As such, businesses have to increase their delivery efficiency to satisfy customer expectations. The instant connectivity between dispatchers and drivers that a last mile solution paired with a full-featured mobile app provides can help make that possible. 

Improved Route Execution

The right mobile application gives turn-by-turn directions to drivers based on optimized routes. This then improves fuel efficiency, since drivers will be spending less time on the road. Improving driver navigation will thereby result in a lower cost of delivery and higher capacity usage.

Another key to effective route execution is to ensure that your routes are optimized to have highly precise and accurate ETAs, so that drivers aren’t always running behind and scrambling to complete their deliveries for the day. Drivers can have more confidence in the route plans provided to them, which translates to fewer missed and late deliveries. This is where a robust, AI-powered routing engine can be a huge help—it can take the guesswork out of generating accurate delivery ETAs. 

Real-Time Reporting

As drivers use a mobile app, they should be constantly noting their statuses (going to a job, finishing a job, etc.), such that real-time information like delivery updates and electronic proof of delivery can be sent back to the centralized system. This helps ensure that dispatchers and managers are always on top of the operations and powers better real-time tracking.

This can actually make a big dent in delivery costs. How? By speeding up exception management and thereby reducing a lot of the extra costs that come with disruptions and redelivery attempts. Imagine that a customer isn’t home when the driver shows up (they might insist that they were home at the time and the driver never showed, at which point you can have the driver send a photo of the delivery site, but that’s another story). If you spot this issue as soon as it happens, it’s easy to call the customer, reschedule for later that day while the truck is still in the neighborhood, and complete the delivery without having to take the order back to the warehouse and try again the next day. 

Better Communication Among Teams

Highly-connected mobile dispatch software solutions also streamline communication among teams, allowing internal delivery stakeholders to communicate effectively with drivers and technicians without calling them up on the phone. Drivers can use the chat or message functions in their mobile apps to talk to their dispatcher or the customer support team.

Plus, dispatchers can change routes without calling the drivers by simply dispatching new directions. Dispatchers should also receive notifications as soon as the driver completes a delivery assignment. This improves last mile carrier tracking and shipment visibility significantly. 

Improved Customer Experience

Customer experience is a huge component of delivery success. Honeywell notes that 98% of consumers cite delivery as being essential for brand loyalty. And, like we noted above, great delivery experiences increasingly require live delivery tracking. This can help you form a strong foundation for wraparound customer experiences that keep customers in the loop and give them confidence that the delivery is going to go right. 

Modern driver mobile apps also let drivers communicate directly with customers by sending timely delivery alerts. Timely information like this empowers you to leverage your delivery management solution to boost customer satisfaction and elevate the customer delivery experience.

For example, drivers who are heading to a delivery drop-off point can message the customer that they're on their way. This makes customers feel more valued and they help ensure that the customer is actually home to receive the delivery. It also reduces the customer’s need to call in and ask for a delivery status update.

Electronic Proof of Delivery

Proof of delivery (PoD) confirming that the order has been delivered to the customer is crucial. Rather than paper-based PoD, modern businesses need digital proof of delivery via mobile app, allowing drivers to collect electronic signatures, photos and videos, notes, and more.

The PoD collected or generated can then be made immediately visible within your larger last mile delivery solution, so fleet managers and dispatchers can easily access them as needed. This removes any delays caused by manual reporting. At the same time, it helps to decrease false liability claims.  

Businesses that leverage the right last mile delivery technology can improve communications, achieve higher productivity, lower operating costs, and improve customer experience—all by enhancing last mile tracking and visibility.