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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Before beginning with what last mile delivery is, let’s glance through some interesting statistics:
These figures depict the significance of last mile delivery for brands and customers. The last mile, also known as the last leg of logistics management, plays a pivotal role in a brand’s success. Efficient management of the final mile also contributes to meeting evolving customer expectations and coping with changing delivery trends.
Last mile delivery is the transportation of goods from the last distribution hub to the final destination, i.e., the customer’s doorstep. For brands that directly sell products to customers, last leg delivery could be transporting goods from the manufacturing unit to the customer’s doorsteps.
Last-mile delivery aims to facilitate this transportation within the shortest time and at the minimum possible cost. It helps in building a brand’s reputation and achieving customer satisfaction. This leg of logistics accounts for 53% of the total shipping costs.
Logistics management includes three processes: first mile, middle mile, and last mile. First mile includes the movement of goods from the manufacturing unit/warehouse to the next hub for further transportation. Middle Mile is the second process of logistics management. It is responsible for transportation of goods to the order fulfillment center or facility. Last mile is the last leg of logistics that includes final delivery of the goods from the previous hub to the customer’s place.
Last mile delivery is not only about picking up the parcel and delivering it to the customer’s location. It involves a lot of steps that are interconnected. Any error at one stage can impact the entire delivery process. Here are five critical steps associated with final mile delivery:
The first step is receiving the order from the customer. As soon as a customer places an order, it is digitally recorded into the centralized system. The system sends a tracking link to the customer to allow them to check the real-time status of their order.
In this step, the ordered product arrives at the transportation hub.
The third step includes scheduling the pick-up by choosing the right delivery personnel and vehicle, considering multiple parameters, including delivery location, driver skills, and delivery time window.
Packages are scanned and loaded onto the delivery vehicle in the right sequence. Delivery vehicles follow the designed routes to ensure seamless and quick deliveries.
The driver completes the delivery and collects proof of delivery from the customer. The customer also receives a message containing a link to share their delivery experience and submit feedback.
Manual management of last mile operations may lead to several hiccups that impact customer experience and brand reputation. Some of the challenges a business may face include the following:
Tracking packages in real-time is essential for both businesses and end customers. It gives them a sense of control and 100% visibility over the package. A real-time tracking facility ensures that the customers are well-informed about their order status. Even when the delivery gets delayed, the customer receives the update and the reason for the late delivery. This level of transparency builds customers’ trust and a positive brand image.
Last mile costs comprise fuel, labor, reverse logistics, and delivery equipment costs. Poor optimization of last mile operations can increase these costs and impact business profitability.
Inefficient route planning is one of the biggest contributors to the final mile delivery costs. Well-optimized routes minimize the delivery time and reduce fuel costs, improve driver’s performance, and increase the number of deliveries per day.
Failed deliveries increase the overall delivery costs. It could be due to the unavailability of customers at delivery location, wrong delivery address, or late delivery.
Customer expectations are changing; they want their orders to be delivered fast and free. Yes, a significant number of customers abandon their cart if there are additional delivery fees. Besides free and fast delivery, brands also struggle to offer instant and same-day deliveries, leading to increased operational costs.
Scalability is required to manage increasing order volume as the business grows. Inefficient last mile operations can make it challenging to ensure on-time deliveries without increasing shipping costs.
Growing trip volume to facilitate movement of goods from one place to another adversely affects the environment and increases carbon emission. Poor optimization of delivery processes can worsen the situation by leading to a 32% increase in CO2 emission by 2030. The main cause of this increased emission will be urban delivery traffic as drivers are covering more miles and leading to congested roads.
With the exponential growth of e-commerce and increasing focus on customer experience, last mile delivery management has become a top priority for logistics managers. Following a traditional last mile delivery management approach that involves manual dependency can work for startups with limited orders. But as the business grows and orders volume increases, it is a great idea to implement automation by integrating last-mile delivery software.
Businesses either manage last mile deliveries in-house or outsource it to a third-party logistics service provider. And last mile delivery solutions can help in both cases. It automates delivery operations to minimize dependency on human resources, thus, improving operational efficiency. Besides, the last mile solution has many more advantages that we mentioned in the later sections of this blog.
Optimizing last mile delivery processes can make businesses save a significant amount of costs while ensuring complete customer satisfaction and a positive brand image. And implementing last mile delivery software can help them achieve this goal. Let’s understand how last mile delivery software can help:
Managing operations like AWB generation, label printing, and more consume a considerable amount of time and requires a dedicated team. Depending on human resources for executing these tasks may invite errors and inconsistencies, especially when the order volume increases. Last mile delivery solution automates the dispatch and shipping process, thereby minimizing the need for a huge workforce, which reduces operational costs.
Well-planned delivery routes make on-time deliveries possible and improve delivery productivity and driver’s performance. Designing the delivery routes manually is possible only when you have one or two orders. However, as a business scales and you want a driver to do as many deliveries as possible, he must follow the right delivery route.
Here is when the last mile delivery solution comes into play. The software digitizes the route optimization process by considering factors such as driver skills, delivery location, route history, delivery time window, customer’s preferences, and real-time traffic and weather conditions. With routes designed by the last mile delivery solution, a driver can do the maximum number of deliveries in the shortest time. The software designs routes for both the forward and backward trip or the return trip.
The last mile software offers real-time tracking to both businesses and end-customers. It automatically sends a tracking link as soon as the customer places an order. With this link, customers can check where exactly the package is and if it is delayed, what the reason is and what the new delivery ETA is.
Real-time tracking brings transparency and ensures complete visibility on the package by sending instant alerts via SMS/Whatsapp/Email. By sending your customers the package status updates, the software reduces the number of inbound calls to your customer service team.
RTO stands for return to origin.It refers to items being returned to hubs even before they make it to the hands of the customer. RTO is initiated when the parcel is no longer deliverable due to unavailability of the customer, incorrect information (wrong address/phone number) of the customer, failure in delivery re-attempts, fake deliveries, or if the customer denies to accept it. Whatever the reason is, RTO takes a toll on the overall delivery costs as customer’s money gets refunded but the shipping charges levied on a business doesn’t. Built using top technologies like artificial intelligence, the last mile delivery solution reduces RTO by fake attempt validation and through NDR (non-delivery reasons) analytics.
Last mile delivery systems are built using top-notch technologies such as AI, ML, and IoT. These technologies help to get valuable insights using which a business can improve its delivery processes and measure KPIs like drivers’ performance and missed/failed deliveries. Better decision-making and continuous improvement in delivery management work wonders for a business.
Last mile delivery solutions ensure environmental-friendly deliveries by ensuring each vehicle’s capacity is utilized completely. With this, more deliveries can be done using the less number of vehicles. The software also comes up with an automated route optimization feature to design optimized delivery routes, which further reduces fuel consumption and idling time. Last mile software selecting the best delivery vehicle based on the delivery location, delivery time window, and other factors also contributes to greener last mile delivery. For example, if the order has to be delivered within one or two kilometers, the software will ensure its delivery by bicycle. Similarly, while choosing vehicles, the software prioritizes electric vehicles over others.
Besides the aforementioned, there are many other benefits of having a last mile delivery solution. Whether you are an eCommerce store, retailer, or third-party logistics provider, last mile delivery software is a great choice. Since there are many last mile delivery software providers in the market, the question is how to pick the best one. Don’t worry; we will help you with this as well.
Every business has its unique set of requirements; the last mile software your competitors are using might not meet your business needs. Therefore, choose the one that can be customized. Yes, a customized SaaS-based last mile delivery system will give you the freedom to select the features and functionalities you want. Apart from customization, look for the following features:
All these above-mentioned features are there in Shipsy’s last mile delivery software. It ensures:
To know how Shipsy’s last mile delivery solution has been helping brands to overcome last mile challenges, improve operational efficiencies, and achieve customer satisfaction, schedule a demo today.
Reducing last miles costs is possible only when you streamline the processes involved and have a system to perform different operations.
According to the recent study conducted by Accenture, approximately 66% of the millennial shoppers want e-commerce companies to offer the option for one-hour delivery in metro...
