How does it feel to get your order on the same day or the next day? It feels special, there is no doubt about it.
However, this wasn’t the case earlier. The introduction of technology has totally disrupted the logistics industry.
But on the other hand, it has also given birth to e-commerce.
And today, due to technology, both logistics and e-commerce share a common link.
The symbiotic relationship between logistics and e-commerce is strengthened by this link, which we call the last-mile delivery.
In this blog, we will explore the significance of last-mile delivery software, its features, and its benefits. We will also take a brief look at what the future holds for last-mile delivery.
Significance of last-mile delivery in the technology era
As mentioned earlier, last-mile delivery is the most important element of the supply chain business, and it has only grown in demand after the introduction of technology.
And this demand, in return, has given birth to fierce competition among e-commerce companies. A couple of decades ago, this was not the case; brick and mortar were the king.
Online sales did exist even then; however, the shipping usually took around six to eight weeks. But today, no one would wait for that long. People expect at least a same-day delivery, if not faster.
To cope with demand, retailers have become extremely smart about their last-mile delivery as they know it’s the key to getting ahead of the competitors.
Amazon is a perfect example of that. In the year 2018, Amazon launched “same-day delivery” or “next-day delivery” to its Prime members and took a massive chunk of 41% of the US retail market share.
Many other e-commerce giants have and are constantly trying to replicate Amazon’s success by improving their last-mile deliveries. However, it’s easier said than done. Businesses have to face a cluster of challenges to achieve it.
Challenges faced in last-mile delivery
In last-mile delivery, the chances of the situation escalating into a catastrophe are very high. Even a small error can cause chaos. Let’s see what the challenges are in last-mile delivery.
1. Limited visibility
Lack of visibility leads to confusion, delayed responses, and poor communication with customers. It often results in missed deadlines, higher complaints, and a drop in overall customer satisfaction.
2. Ensuring seamless deliveries
With the rise in next-day/same-day delivery and customers, especially millennials, also demanding flexibility and customization, it often becomes a challenge to ensure seamless delivery.
3. Lack of coordination
Many times, it happens that the customer is not present at the delivery location, or they are out of reach. Such situations cause waste of time and money. Moreover, it also exposes the package to the risks of damage and theft.
4. Route optimization
Another major challenge is the productivity of your delivery person. This is due to your delivery persons’ not being aware of optimized routes. This leads to delayed deliveries and adversely affects your customer experience.
Read More: From Missed ETAs to Lost Revenue: How to Fix Your Failed Delivery Problem
How last-mile delivery software boosts your last-mile delivery
The last-mile delivery solution is a feature-rich software that can holistically transform your business by making it more efficient than ever. Let’s have a look at the key features of last-mile delivery software.
I. Route optimization
Route optimization minimizes the average delivery time by discovering the most efficient routes. It takes several factors into account, like traffic, location, capacity, and time, to come up with the most efficient routes. Moreover, it also makes any last-minute changes or re-optimizes routes by sending a real-time update to the driver.
Read More: How Route Optimization Enhances Last Mile Delivery Operations
II. Auto-assignment and dispatch
The auto-assignment and dispatch feature helps in the efficient management of all the hot-shot assignments and on-demand orders. It assigns the most suitable driver for the right task at the right time, thus minimizing the service time and labor costs.
III. Bird’s eye view
The bird’s-eye view feature helps you to set your priorities straight. It also helps you to focus on the most important aspects with team, time, and status filtering. With this, you can search using time, text, and status-based queries to quickly find the customers, drivers, and delivery tasks.
IV. Proof of delivery
The last-mile delivery management software helps you get the assurance that the deliveries are done efficiently. The proof of delivery feature ensures the deliveries are completed safely and on time. As proof, you can use in-app signatures, photos, notes, and barcodes.
V. Real-time status update
With real-time status updates of the orders to the customers, they know exactly when it will be delivered and by whom. They are also informed in case there’s any delay. Also, the customers can even contact the delivery service agents via chat/call in case they have any issues.
Read More: Real-time Driver Updates: For Better Last-mile Delivery & Fewer Complaints
VI. Real-time visibility
The importance of real-time tracking in last-mile delivery is quite significant, as it increases fleet visibility. You can see,
- Where your vehicles are
- Number of idle vehicles
The real-time tracking of fleet offers you better control over your vehicles. Moreover, it also helps minimize theft and spoilage.
VII. Audit key metrics
With a robust logistics management solution, you can visualize important metrics such as success rates, service times, on-time rates, distance traveled, feedback scores, and many more. In addition, you can also segment or filter the data by day, week, drivers, team, or even by an hour.
VIII. Reports & analytics
With analytics and reporting, you take insight-driven business decisions. It also provides you with crucial data in a graphical or chart form. This easy-to-understand data helps you in indicating how well or how poorly you’re performing. Moreover, it also suggests ways to overcome it.
Benefits of last-mile delivery solutions for businesses
We saw all the major features of the last-mile delivery software; now let’s see how your business can benefit from it.
1. Flexibility in delivery
Modern-day customers, especially the young generation, appreciate it if your services are flexible and customizable. They live a busy & fast life and are mostly on the run. That is why they might not be comfortable receiving the shipment at a particular time.
But with last-mile delivery software, you can allow your customers to change the time and location of delivery at the last-minute, and you can also provide a quick delivery option to them. This makes it flexible and also enhances customer satisfaction.
2. Boosts scalability and productivity
The last-mile delivery software boosts productivity by eliminating any unnecessary idling or unplanned diversions. It also provides efficient routes for the drivers to execute the deliveries in the minimum time possible.
Last-mile delivery solution also makes it possible to quickly onboard any 3rd party executive if any of the in-house capacity gets exhausted. It also assists managers in optimizing the total number of deliveries in a day by efficiently planning routes.
3. Increases profitability
Last-mile delivery software,
- boosts fleet productivity
- optimizes routes
- scales your business
- enhances customer satisfaction & loyalty
- minimizes fleet management expenses
- increases customer retention
This is how last-mile delivery software reduces operational costs and increases the profitability of your business.
4. Streamline shipping & delivery operations
The last-mile delivery solution automates the repetitive tasks, thus saving time, money, and energy.
Moreover, it streamlines all the other shipping & delivery operations, thus making your overall operations efficient, allowing you to serve a large number of people at once.
Read More: Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Last-Mile Delivery Software
Future trends of last-mile delivery
The last-mile delivery is crucial for both e-commerce and logistics companies. And that’s the reason why they would be keen to know what the future has in store for them. So, let’s have a look at some last-mile delivery future trends.
i. Use of sensors
In the near future, we might see logistics companies using sensors to track the temperature of sensitive items.
This will allow frozen foods, pharmaceutical companies, and spirit manufacturers to know the temperature, along with the humidity level, at each stage of the delivery.
In addition, the fulfillment centers can also use weather forecast data, which will allow them to plan and add any additional packing material to counter the temperature variation factor.
ii. Delivery by drones, self-driving cars, and robots
Delivery by drones, self-driving cars, and robots might seem like a science fiction fantasy. However, soon it can be a reality, as such projects are already in motion.
Many companies are already working on developing their autonomous vehicles and drones that can make last-mile delivery revolutionary.
Adopting such practices can cut the labor cost in half. Robotic delivery also increases productivity as it can go on 24/7.
iii. City warehousing
City warehousing is one of the growing trends among logistics companies.
These companies are leveraging the urban warehouse space to make the last-mile delivery faster and simpler.
So, in the future, you might see many companies acquiring warehouse spaces in cities.
Conclusion
Last-mile delivery will always remain the most significant component of logistics. And we saw how last-mile delivery impacts customer satisfaction. So, any logistics company that wants to survive must strengthen its last-mile delivery.
Getting a robust last-mile delivery solution can surely boost your last-mile delivery and, hence, increase profits. However, adopting the latest trends along with a last-mile delivery solution of top-notch quality can take your company to the next level.
Transform your last-mile delivery with FixLastMile
