Plan, procure, execute, & track transportation for every shipment across your supply chain & logistics operations
A SaaS solution to help grow your business by achieving 100% perfect order execution at high volumes
Increase vehicle capacity utilization and customer promise adherence
Grow your business with omnichannel presence and automated pickups
Consolidate shipments for hub to hub movement across land and air
Real-time customer communications and collect accurate PODs
Orchestrate logistics operations with multiple 3rd party carriers
Achieve cost effective, scalable, sustainable, and customer centric deliveries
Orchestrate all your cross-border logistics operations with ease
Improve address accuracy, ensure first-attempt delivery success, reduce costs and boost customer experience
Gain end-to-end shipment visibility, get proactive alerts, and send customers live tracking links
Grow business in a dynamic world and manage operations across First, Middle & Last mile
Delight customers by seamlessly managing store and online orders across own fleet and 3rd party
Reduce freight costs & get end to end visibility across shipments
Directly Jump To
According to a Capgemini report, 63% of consumers choose online shopping over physical shopping. The same report highlights that 55% of consumers will switch to a brand if it provides a faster delivery service. Considering these figures, it is evident that ensuring smooth and satisfactory last mile delivery is now more important than ever. However, managing this critical leg of logistics is quite challenging. Before digging deeper into the last mile delivery problems and their solutions, let’s first understand what last mile delivery means.
Last mile is the last leg of logistics where a product is delivered to the customer’s doorstep. It, alone, is accountable for 53% of the total shipping costs. The last mile includes picking up the product from the last distribution hub and delivering it to the final location.
Setting up infrastructure, hiring resources, failed deliveries, rescheduled deliveries, and returns contribute to overall delivery costs. Moreover, evolving customer expectations, such as next-day, same-day, and instant deliveries, also demand businesses to speed up their delivery operations or use additional resources, which further adds to the overall cost.
The demand for same-day delivery and next-day delivery is increasing. Manual dispatching and routing, poor operational visibility, insufficient resources can make it challenging for the businesses to meet same-day or next-day SLA requirements.
Inefficient delivery route management is one of the biggest last mile challenges. Since route optimization requires considering multiple constraints, it cannot be done manually or by following traditional practices. Poor route planning and optimization lead to late deliveries, low driver productivity, customer dissatisfaction, increased fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and high transportation costs.
Late deliveries impact the customer experience. According to an online report, 69% of consumers said that they are less likely to shop again from a retailer if an item they purchased is not delivered within two days of the promised date. Delay in delivery directly impacts brand’s reputation, increases customer churn, and minimizes business profitability.
Incorrect or incomplete delivery address and customer unavailability results in failed deliveries, which can cost as much as $16.58. It is one of the serious last mile problems most logistics managers face.
Returns are expensive as it requires creating the entire journey (from picking up the product from customer’s doorstep to delivering it back to the warehouse/manufacturer) from scratch. Inefficient management of returns can further add up to the already-high cost.
Focus on fast deliveries and inefficient resource utilization results in an increasing number of delivery vehicles and therefore, traffic congestion and CO2 emissions. According to a report by Mckinsey, increasing traffic could lead to a 25% increase in Co2 emissions in city centers.
Unpredictable or unforeseen circumstances such as traffic congestions, inclement weather, vehicle breakdowns, etc. are the challenges that can lead to inefficient routes and long journeys. These problems cannot be solved without a contingency plan and streamlined communication.
Here is how last mile delivery software can address last mile delivery problems:
The software automatically assigns the job to the most suitable driver and chooses the right delivery vehicle based on the type and nature of goods, delivery location, delivery time, and other constraints. It minimizes manual intervention and delivery time to accelerate the entire delivery process and meet same-day or next-day delivery demands.
Last mile delivery software comes up with an automated route planning and optimization feature that considers multiple parameters to design the most optimal delivery routes. These parameters include the nature and type of goods, type of vehicle, the weight of goods, vehicle capacity, delivery time, delivery location, and the number of stops.
An advanced last mile delivery solution ensures smart order clubbing for the orders that need to be delivered within the same radius or on the same delivery route. After clubbing the order, the system immediately generates a new delivery route for order delivery.
Geocoding feature of the last mile delivery solution helps in locating delivery addresses by converting the text address into longitude and latitude.
This feature of the last mile solution keeps all stakeholders with the updated status of the order. Once a customer places an order, the system automatically sends a tracking link using which they can track the order. Besides, the last mile delivery software also sends real-time delivery alerts via SMS/WhatsApp/Email. Real-time tracking also helps in taking an immediate action in case of any unpredicted situation such as a road accident or vehicle breakdown.
An advanced last mile management system also automates returns management to ensure smooth and faster returns. As soon as a customer places a return request, the system assigns a driver for the pick-up and then creates the most efficient route to bring back the product from customer’s place to the source.
The last mile software ensures optimal utilization of resources. It utilizes a vehicle’s capacity completely to maximize the number of deliveries per vehicle. Better resource utilization also decreases fuel consumption, improves driver’s productivity, and minimizes the overall delivery costs.
The last mile software considers the nature of goods and delivery location and chooses the most suitable delivery mode. For example, for deliveries within one or two Kilometer, it selects a rider with a bicycle.
The software leverages the capabilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning to collect and process data to provide useful insights. Logistics managers can make the most of these insights to make better decisions.
An advanced last mile delivery management system also helps with rider management, including managing their payouts, assigning the job to an in-house or freelance driver, rider gamification, and more.
Having a distribution hub or warehouse in the proximity of the region from where you receive bulk orders is a great approach. It can avoid many last mile delivery challenges, including delivery delays, increased fuel consumption, and high delivery costs, while improving driver productivity and performance. Moreover, you can also offer your customers the facility to pick-up their orders directly from the hub and save time.
Technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning makes the most out of data to provide useful insights and make data-driven decisions. Implementing tech-enabled platforms can minimize manual intervention, reduce the overall operational costs, bring transparency, and render ample of other benefits.
Monitoring delivery operations and tracking each consignment in real time can prevent last mile delivery challenges like fake delivery attempts, missed delivery schedules, delayed deliveries, etc. It can also maximize delivery efficiency.
Giving your customers multiple delivery options and the facility to choose particular time slots can also avoid several last mile delivery problems. Moreover, it can contribute to building a positive brand image while improving the chances of first-attempt delivery.
Make sure your customers can communicate with you as and when they need. Furthermore, keep them informed on the status of their order. With this, you can earn your customers’ trust, which is imperative for a business’s success.
Shipsy’s last-mile delivery software has been empowering businesses to deal with last mile delivery problems while guaranteeing increased profitability and customer satisfaction. It makes sure end-to-end delivery management with minimal human interaction and complete operational visibility. Some of the proven benefits of Shipsy’s last mile delivery system includes:
Request for a demo today!
Advanced last mile delivery solutions help businesses to meet evolving customer demands, efficiently manage delivery operations, and increase delivery profitability by significantly optimizing costs.
Reducing last miles costs is possible only when you streamline the processes involved and have a system to perform different operations.
