9 in 10 consumers want the ability to track their delivery orders in real time. For business buyers, that number is likely to be almost as high—since it’s not uncommon for people to take their expectations from their personal purchases into their professional deliveries. But what that number doesn’t reveal is the flip side of the coin: almost anyone working in the last mile logistics field wants real-time delivery tracking as well.
Delivery businesses know that they're only as strong and reliable as their drivers and fleets. From packaging products to delivering them to the end customer, there are plenty of moving parts and variables to keep in mind when managing last mile deliveries, and the more information you have at your fingertips as you do so, the better.
That’s why a real time tracking app (especially one with GPS technology) is now crucial for any logistics business. This type of technology can have any number of benefits, including improving productivity and cutting down operational costs.
In this article, we tackle how real time tracking works and how it helps businesses.
GPS technology is at the center of most transport company's tracking systems. This might be GPS tracking via a mobile app on the driver’s phone, or more precise location tracking via a telematics device installed in the truck or service unit itself. Once you have the relevant app or device installed, you can get a live data feed that enables you to visualize the location of your assets in real time, either through a telematics solution, a delivery management platform, or something similar.
Not only can the ability to see where your trucks are at any given moment can help you gain insight into what’s happening on the day of delivery—it can also help you develop a better audit trail after the delivery is completed. Perhaps this is why real-time tracking has fast become a must-have for most fleet operations.
In a moment, we’ll talk about all of the operational benefits that you can get as a delivery organization—everything from improved visibility to a decrease in manual paperwork. But first, let’s talk about a part of the real-time tracking equation that’s often overlooked: your customer.
As much as you may want to improve your delivery tracking capabilities, your customers probably want it just as badly. Specifically, they want you to take whatever internal visibility improvements you can manage and then offer them up directly to customers in the form of live delivery tracking from the comfort of their own devices.
Again, studies have shown that a huge percentage of modern delivery customers want the ability to track their delivery truck and order status in real time, and you can improve customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty by offering it to them,
Not only that, but you can decrease the volume of “where’s-my-order?” calls by a gargantuan percentage—freeing up your team’s time for more important tasks. It’s a textbook example of a win-win situation.
Real-time trackers are advantageous tools for fleet operators and managers for several reasons. Effective delivery tracking offers visibility into any delivery vehicle's locations and status at any given time opens up a whole world of increased visibility and transparency. The benefits can be enormous:
Real-time tracking systems let fleet operators and managers monitor each vehicle’s location and status in real time as the last mile unfolds. The data collected from the real time tracking app allows fleet managers to utilize their resources more efficiently. Simply put, when you know what’s going on with your fleet in real time you can more easily see which assets are being utilized efficiently and which aren’t.
Here, tracking solves the “out of sight, out of mind problem” that can make it difficult to ensure that your trucks and drivers are giving you maximum value. At the same time, you can take that tracking data and leverage it within your route optimization engine to continually update ETAs and improve efficiency in the long term. Data is destiny—and having all that reliable delivery data means that you can create more accurate and efficient delivery routes and ultimately get the most out of your fleet capacity.
When you’re delivering goods, you cannot afford any extra uncertainty. Real-time visibility over your fleet helps make the last mile more predictable for all stakeholders by powering real-time delivery tracking data, accurate ETAs, and other key details.
Like we said in the previous section, delivery data feeds into ETA accuracy (assuming you have the right route optimization engine for the job), which in turn ensures consistency in actual delivery execution. It also makes it that much easier to spot potential delivery exceptions and act on them—you can even configure exception alerts for potential late deliveries, making even the unpredictable (relatively) predictable.
The right real time tracking app captures critical information on vehicle status, location data, and driver behavior—and transmits it back to a centralized solution in a matter of seconds. This means you can get information that used to require a phone call just by opening up the software from the comfort of your own device.
When you can visualize this critical information more quickly—and then drill down to details when you need to manage an exception or a disruption—you can be more proactive about delivery management, which will in turn improve your performance.
Drivers become more accountable for their actions knowing that their fleet managers can track where they are and what they are doing at any given time. For instance, if fleet managers can get alerts when the driver leaves a geofenced area, there’s an extra layer of accountability on the driver, who knows that they may have to justify any activities that look off.
Real time tracking software automatically gathers and stores key delivery details, which allows drivers, managers, and dispatchers to ditch manual paperwork. This can help cut out manual effort, reduce errors and rework, and even cut down on billing discrepancies.
Here are a few of the specific areas where you can cut out manual paperwork:
All the data collected by your fleet management solution can be invaluable in helping your business cut down costs and increase productivity. Tracking fleets in real time helps operators and managers analyze route efficiency, measure cost differences of each route, and gain a more comprehensive understanding of their entire operation.
Data provided and analyzed by a tracking solution empowers fleet operators and managers to come up with data-driven actions and decisions aimed at improving cost efficiency.
Like we said above, customers want accurate ETAs and the ability to track their orders in real time. Real-time delivery tracking capabilities help satisfy these demands and enable customers to track the status and location of their orders at any time. This boosts customer satisfaction scores, improves customer loyalty and retention, and ultimately helps your brand as well.
Real-time tracking of fleets offers many benefits—including cutting down costs and satisfying customers. In a nutshell, implementing real-time tracking helps you to be competitive and improve profitability in a competitive business environment. There’s no good reason not to adopt it.