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
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As internet penetration and smartphone adoption increase and cross-border trading gains momentum, route planning and optimization are becoming more and more crucial. Recent stats reveal that the global route optimization software market is expected to reach USD 12,416 million by 2030, and grow at a CAGR of 11.56%. The projections are sure to be achieved given the benefits these solutions offer to businesses looking for top route planning companies (2023) to reach their customers in a quick and economical manner.
Smart route planning solutions empower logistics companies to leverage the latest technologies to generate the most efficient delivery routes to ensure superior delivery operations. And, it is best to be partners with top route planning companies in 2023 to win in this competitive market.
Businesses understand the relevance of smart route planning software but find difficulty in choosing the best software for their business needs. With multiple companies claiming their route planning software to be the best, it is difficult for eCommerce and retail companies to select the right one. One must exercise due diligence and look into factors such as delivery range, shipping costs, RTO percentage, digitized proof of delivery, cargo weight, etc. This will lead to a judicious choice.
In this blog, we will look into the advantages, features to consider, and top route planning companies in 2023.
Route planning software is a solution that enables logistics companies to plan and generate the most efficient delivery route for their logistics operations.
Route efficiency increases driver productivity, saves fuel costs, reduces delays, minimizes dangers, enhances customer satisfaction, and increases the profitability of every delivery operation. It also helps logistics companies to optimize routes in real-time to ensure better SLA adherence and on-time in-full (OTIF) compliance.
Manual route planning requires logistics managers to put in considerable time and effort. Moreover, the results generated may also have inconsistencies, and one might not have complete control over the deliveries. But these are not the only problems.
Therefore, before analyzing the top route planning companies, it is crucial to know the significant obstacles in route planning and optimization. And how smart route planning software helps jump over these hurdles.
Manual load allocation and selection of delivery vehicles, as well as drivers, can affect a business’s bottom line. Inefficiency in these leads to mismanagement of resources. Businesses end up incurring more capital investment due to operating a larger transport fleet than required.
Moreover, frustration builds up among riders having to travel longer distances.
Automated route planning software is based on algorithms that generate route plans after considering various parameters like delivery volume, size, and capacity of the vehicle, schedule of drivers, driving routes, delivery window, and more.
Inaccurate deliveries, unexplained delays, and a lax customer experience are some of the direct disadvantages of the lack of real-time delivery tracking. Business Wire states 82% of US shoppers wish for accurate real-time tracking of their orders. Unfortunately, conventional route planning fails to meet such expectations.
Real-time visibility develops a connection between freight forwarders and drivers. This enables freight managers to make informed decisions to address dynamic problems arising during the delivery process. Software solutions of top route planning companies utilize GPS settings combined with logistics databases to determine the location of a parcel at any moment in time.
Controlling overall transactional costs in logistic operations is challenging. Inappropriate load allocation, inability to generate an optimized delivery route and inaccuracy in vehicle selection pushed up the operational cost. Also, the added cost of inaccurate deliveries, as well as reverse logistics, is an extra financial burden that logistics managers have to account for.
The above-mentioned cost parameters were of direct nature. Manual route planning methods face indirect cost effects also. Rider safety, accidents, traffic congestion, loss of parcels, and cost to get new customers – all increase.
Cost-effectiveness and optimized use of resources are the significant functions assured by the best route planning companies in 2023. Intelligent route planning software will help fleet managers make every delivery operation a profitable option.
Customers are increasingly expecting fast and free deliveries, especially when shopping online, as shown by the following stats:
Failed delivery attempts, traffic and weather conditions, inadequate addresses, and lack of control over drivers’ movements – are some of the reasons that can result in delayed deliveries.
Fleet managers will find clarity by incorporating route planning software into their systems. With greater control over routing, rider movement, and geolocation features, the fleet will be able to meet the delivery window expectations efficiently.
As the name suggests, manual route planning depends on human interpretation and effort, which often leads to unintentional errors. Human dependence makes operations opaque; as a result, fleet managers fail to understand the inefficiencies of their decisions.
For instance, in manual route planning, logistics providers fail to anticipate the effects of parcel returns. Returns affect the delivery route, the rider’s time schedule, and the vehicle’s capacity.
Transparency is the key requirement to weed out shortcomings in the logistics system. Route planning software allows fleet managers to get real-time data. This further enables businesses to make informed decisions.
Optimum customer experience is the driving force that each organization wishes to achieve. Unfortunately, traditional route planning methods are incapable of meeting customer expectations. Failed delivery, lack of real-time tracking, and lack of SLA adherence lead to poor customer experience.
With intelligent route planning and optimization, the entire delivery process is transparent and accessible to customers. The software enhances CX by allowing ETA alerts, real-time package tracking, and communication with service providers.
Hence, well-optimized delivery routes contribute to reducing overall delivery costs. It minimizes fuel consumption, offers real-time operational visibility, and increases deliveries per vehicle, along with many other benefits.
Therefore, with a clear understanding of the benefits that top route planning companies can deliver to overcome the challenges of manual route planning, let us look into a few of such top companies.
OptimoRoute is one of the leading route-planning software. Its smooth usability makes it one of the contenders for the top Route Planning Software Companies 2023 list, as well as a favorite for small businesses to global logistics players. It offers many useful features, thus providing a unique experience to users.
FarEye offers a cloud-based route planning solution. Among other things, this provides real-time tracking and visibility features to keep an eye on the functioning of the fleet operations. The pricing structure of the product is user based, which suits the needs of small businesses.
Tookan is the route planning solution developed by JungleWorks. This tool helps businesses to streamline their delivery operations and facilitate better communication between managers and riders. Tookan offers easy integration with various third-party apps.
Locus’s route planning solution is designed for midsize and large businesses across various industries. Originally this was developed as a women’s safety application in 2015. Today it is one of the leading logistics optimization platforms.
Features
Shipsy is an AI-powered end-to-end logistics planning, management, and delivery orchestration platform that offers a diverse range of solutions for different industries. Its intelligent automatic route planning and optimization solution delivers dynamic routing and optimization features and helps businesses seamlessly manage fleets for efficient deliveries. The user-friendly interface with advanced functionalities helps make last-mile operations efficient and provides complete visibility to all customers.
Our AI-powered logistics management platform helps ensure timely deliveries for optimizing capacity utilization. Businesses can streamline the management of leased or self-owned vehicles via smart data analytics and enjoy smooth integration across multiple systems.
Shipsy is transforming the logistics ecosystems to provide outstanding service across industries and offers a diverse range of benefits.
The prominent feature of Shipsy’s route planning software are:
Whether a freight forwarder or 3PL logistics providers, it is better to consider the following points before selecting the route planning software for business. A best-performing route planning should offer the following features:
IT-based solutions are the backbone of every business to run business activities seamlessly. But, frequent changes to IT solutions crank up the cost. This is due to the repeated purchase of software licenses and the cost of retraining the in-house staff.
Therefore, fleet managers should consider such automated route planning solutions
that can synchronize with the existing solutions. This allows minimum disruption and lowers the learning curve for employees.
In a competitive market, every business needs to track, measure, and visualize several logistics-related KPIs. This helps the concerned fleet manager capture and analyze logistics metrics throughout the organization with role-based dashboards.
Also, the C-suite within the organization can have 360-degree data awareness regarding business performance. Therefore, while selecting an ideal route planning software for your business, always look for one with unified dashboards. And an interactive interface helps incorporate KPIs, identify measures, and organize metrics and data sources through visuals.
Third-party logistics (3PL) operators process thousands of customers’ orders daily. These 3PL operators provide several types of competencies like receiving or picking up parcels, packaging, shipping, and delivery.
Therefore, when selecting a route planning software, focus on its ability to integrate with other 3PL solutions seamlessly. With smart route planning software, data from various touch points, synchronized driver information, and real-time information transfer to stakeholders becomes easier.
Route optimization software should provide the ability to track and manage entire operations in real-time via a single platform. Operational visibility backed by AI/ML algorithms helps identify potential roadblocks, accurate ETAs, and real-time data on drivers’ performance. As a result, rider activity is kept in check, and fleet managers get prior intimation about potential delivery delays.
Dynamic routing is another feature that is preferred by logistics service providers. Several times the orders/preferences of the customers’ deliveries need to change while the rider is out to deliver.
Therefore, the selected route planning software should be smart and flexible to generate new routes for the rider. Smart route planning software has the in-built capability to handle on-demand as well as scheduled orders optimally.
Customers love to be informed about their package delivery ETA. While many route planning solutions share real-time tracking details with the customer, intelligent systems like Shipsy’s, allow push notifications and communication via multiple platforms with the customers. Real-time communication allows customers the flexibility to plan their time according to the delivery schedule.
“‘One size fits all’ does not fit anyone at all.” Businesses differ in size, needs, and approaches. So, whenever selecting an ideal route planning software in 2023, go for software providers that allow module-based architecture. This helps enterprises to easily adapt the software as well as the entire platform according to evolving business needs.
For instance, Shipsy’s route planning software offers about ten capabilities, but your business requires only two features. You can select the required capabilities at the present moment. In the future, as your business prospers, you can ask for other capabilities later.
Shipsy’s AI-powered route planning and optimization solution ensures smart route planning to reduce transportation costs, minimize carbon footprints, increase business profitability, improve driver productivity, and enhance customer experience. This allows businesses to make optimum utilization of their resources, assets, and time by automating every process in the route planning phase.
The future-ready SaaS-based software empowers businesses to gain the following advantages:
For more information, take a look at the route planning and optimization platform. Reach out to our experts for a custom demo today.
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Automatic route planning and smart optimization is rapidly becoming a business must-have to ensure timely deliveries at scale and ensure cost savings, SLA-adherence and sustainable operations.
