How to Choose a Perfect Last Mile Delivery Solution for Your Business?

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How to Choose a Perfect Last Mile Delivery Solution for Your Business?

In recent years, the purchasing behavior of customers has changed greatly. And this is especially true when it comes to people who are buying their stuff online. 

These days, customers want not only free but also faster delivery. Nearly 53% of all customers have canceled or abandoned their purchases/carts because the delivery speed was too slow.

To grow their businesses, companies must think of a way to increase delivery speed while minimizing delivery costs. And a big part of it depends on the last-mile delivery operations. Choosing a reliable and functionality-rich last-mile delivery solution can help a business solve many of its shipment headaches.

But how exactly would it do all this? What features should a business focus on to find a good last-mile delivery platform?

Let’s find out!

What is Last Mile Delivery?

Last-mile delivery is the last step of the delivery process, where a courier or shipment is moved to the final destination. This final destination can be a consumer, or a business.

It is one of the most important steps in the delivery process, where the business dealing with the shipment needs to be very quick and super efficient. This is especially true for the retail, online food delivery, and courier industries, as people want their shipments delivered to them as quickly as possible.

Surprisingly, it’s also one of the most expensive steps of the whole delivery process.

What is a Last Mile Delivery Solution?

A Last Mile Delivery solution helps businesses automate their delivery processes via intelligent in-built workflow automation routines and orchestrate highly efficient and optimized deliveries. These solutions typically offer features such as auto-dispatch, smart tracking, optimized route planning, customer feedback, and data analytics, among others, that help make the delivery process more transparent and efficient.

Most traditional delivery solutions only show the stakeholders and the end customers that the shipment is “out for delivery.” However, that’s everything they get. They have no idea which route the delivery vehicle is following in real-time, leading to a waiting time that seems forever. In simple words, it is an extremely inefficient and non-intuitive process.

The AI-powered last-mile delivery solutions, on the other hand, allow businesses and customers to track their delivery in real-time. The customers get highly advanced capabilities, such as real-time tracking, automated alerts, and proactive communication regarding order confirmation and key milestone events. And in the case of unexpected delays due to traffic congestion, weather problems, or any other problem, customers will get an automatic notification via SMS or email.

For businesses, this solution offers a number of business-related benefits, such as optimized routes, rider allocation, intelligent load assignment, dynamic tracking, and more. This is key in efficient operations with reduced empty miles and integrated reverse logistics.

An efficient last-mile delivery software will also allow the business to help allocate drivers based on the delivery location, receive delay alerts in real-time, and automate many mundane processes related to the last-mile delivery process.

Types of Businesses That Need Last-Mile Delivery Solutions

Let’s take a look at the businesses that need last-mile delivery solutions to save time, make delivery cost-effective, and improve customer satisfaction.

Manufacturing

Manual route planning, poor visibility of the delivery route, and lack of efficient delivery updates have been the biggest hurdles for manufacturing businesses. 

The lack of route planning caused a lot of shipment delays, leading to supply chain disruptions. While the lack of real-time visibility made it a big challenge to protect the delivery fleets from theft, pilferage, and problematic OTIF meets.

An intelligent last-mile delivery solution can inspect and analyze operational data to provide actionable insights. It can help manufacturing businesses choose safe delivery routes, send potential delay alerts to the relevant individuals, and achieve end-to-end delivery control. As a result, these businesses can tackle poor OTIF adherence, theft, and pilferage.

Retail

Online retail or e-commerce is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world today. However, it also has some of the most pressing problems to solve – delivering the shipments faster to its customers cost-effectively. In this age of same-day delivery, customers want their orders to be shipped faster.

However, balancing the delivery speed and the shipping cost is in no way an easy job.

That’s why retail businesses need to use smart last-mile delivery solutions. These solutions use previous delivery data to find the best delivery route, track shipments live, and calculate many other variables to lower the shipment cost. At the same time, its smart planning and optimization routines can help businesses avoid delays, leading to faster deliveries.

This way, retail companies can not only save money, but can also provide a better customer experience, leading to steady growth of their businesses.

Quick Service Restaurants

Many of us have probably already ordered food from quick-service restaurants online and noticed the order tracking system firsthand. When it comes to food orders, even a 10-minute delay without any notice can lead to tons of complaints and negative customer reviews.

With a solid last-mile delivery solution, customers can track their orders in real-time and see where their food is located at any moment. Apart from that, if there is any delay in order preparation or during the delivery process, the customers will immediately get automatic notifications.

This ultimately leads to fewer complaints, a better customer experience, and more food orders in the future. 

Courier, Parcel, or Express Delivery Providers

Having real-time shipment visibility is extremely important for any business that is dealing with the courier, parcel, or express delivery industry. Without it, these businesses will face many issues, including delays, inflated delivery costs, and even repeated attempts.

With a smart last-mile delivery solution, courier businesses can improve fleet productivity, show accurate ETAs, provide faster deliveries, and lower delivery costs.

Freight Forwarders

Freight forwarding businesses often carry a lot of products using one cargo vehicle over a long distance. As a result, without real-time tracking and quick problem-resolution ability, the relevant stakeholders might face severe schedule mismatches and even cargo detention in one of the ports.

With a last-mile delivery solution, however, businesses can easily prevent these troubles and act fast to solve any problem that might arise during the delivery process.

8 Key Features to Look for When Choosing a Last Mile Delivery Solution

Last-mile delivery solutions can help retailers, manufacturers, and courier companies reinforce their logistics and delivery operations to guarantee on-time delivery in a cost-effective manner. Let’s take a look at some key features every business should consider before choosing last-mile delivery software.

Seamless Integration With Your Existing ERP/OMS

Regardless of how amazing a platform is, if it cannot integrate with existing ERP or OMS systems to gain access to the necessary business and delivery data, it will fail to accomplish anything worthwhile. 

The last-mile delivery solutions use historical delivery data to analyze the patterns. This, coupled with smart dynamic recommendations, allows the software to perform driver allocation and route planning and present insightful KPI metrics.

So, before choosing a last-mile delivery platform, companies must ensure that it seamlessly integrates with their current ERP/OMS systems.

Zone-Based Driver Allocation

Some drivers just know a zone of delivery better than others. It can happen either because they live in that particular area or because they have delivered in a particular zone for many years.

The last-mile delivery software will analyze each driver’s delivery history, the zones they have traveled the most, and many other factors in allocating shipments to the drivers based on relevant factors. 

This way, driver allocation becomes hassle-free for the companies, and it allows the shipments to reach their destination in the most efficient way possible.

Field Ops App to Manage Field Operations 

Comprehensive last-mile delivery platforms should provide field ops apps for drivers that have a completely configurable app flow. This way, all kinds of driver activities, like their delivery route, break time, and inconsistencies, will be transmitted to the delivery and logistics managers.

It will help them take proper actions in time to ensure smoother deliveries while minimizing the cost.

Real-Time Tracking

Real-time tracking allows both the companies and the customers to find out the exact location of their shipment at any moment. The last-mile delivery solutions powered by ML algorithms use GPS, field-ops apps, and many other features to accurately pinpoint a shipment’s location.

So, if a driver accidentally takes a wrong route or takes prolonged breaks, the companies can take immediate action to ensure timely delivery.

Instant Delivery Alerts Via Whatsapp/SMS/Email

If there’s one thing that makes every customer and business anxious, then it’s the lack of proper notifications and alerts regarding shipments. The last-mile delivery solutions can send instant alerts via WhatsApp, SMS, or email to both the customers and companies regarding any changes or delivery times of the shipments.

With this, companies can solve delivery complications quickly, and customers will be better informed about their shipments.

Online Payment and Card Payment Option for COD Shipments

Cash on delivery (COD) is one of the most popular payment methods. But it doesn’t mean that all customers are the same. In fact, many of them prefer to pay for their shipments online or via card once the package reaches the destination.

Many last-mile delivery solutions offer COD shipments online payment and card payment options. So, if any last-mile solution doesn’t offer this feature, it’s better to look for other software.

Unified Dashboard To Manage Hub Operations 

A top last-mile delivery platform should allow businesses to operate and monitor their delivery and logistics operations from a single unified dashboard. Hub managers often use these solutions to check last-mile delivery performances as well as deal with real-time alerts and emergencies.

Driver Performance Analytics and Incentive Management

As we have mentioned earlier, hub managers can view and analyze multiple performance metrics and KPIs from a single platform using the last-mile delivery management platforms. 

The software can analyze a driver’s performance data automatically. Similarly, it can use these metrics to recommend drivers that should receive incentives and their amounts. This way, finding and retaining the best-performing drivers would be easier, which will effectively increase a business’s delivery efficiency.

How Much Does Last Mile Delivery Solution Cost?

The cost of last-mile delivery solutions can greatly vary from one service provider to another. Even then, the actual cost will always depend on a company’s shipment volume and the type of features the business wants. If an organization wants a few customized features to suit its business needs, the cost of the software will increase.

A few last-mile delivery service providers like Shipsy also offer scalable software solutions. It means that a business can add new features only when it needs them, and the cost will increase according to the newly added features.

Ensure Customer Satisfaction and Operational Efficiency With Shipsy’s Last Mile Delivery Solution 

Shipsy provides AI-powered last-mile delivery solutions that can help a business offer accurate and timely deliveries with real-time updates. The software will seamlessly integrate with existing ERP/OMS solutions and allows the companies to manage all last-mile delivery operations from a single unified dashboard.

With Shipsy’s smart solution, businesses can provide field ops applications for the drivers, analyze driver performance, perform automated driver allocations, and send real-time updates to their customers.

Shipsy’s future-ready last-mile delivery management platform has allowed its clients to:

  • Decrease last-mile delivery costs by 14%
  • Increase delivery NPS by 26%
  • Reduce customer complaints by 28%

Ready to explore how Shipsy can help your company deal with last-mile delivery challenges, save money, and grow faster? Request a customized demo with our experts today!

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