How to Save Time & Money with Automated Route Planning

Any business that delivers to customers should use automated route planning through an app like EasyRoutes. Delivery scheduling software can help your company save time and money, as well as make your life easier.

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Table of Contents

• What’s the Difference Between Scheduling and Routing?
• What’s the Best Way to Make a Delivery Route?
• What is the best way to optimize a delivery route?
• What are the Benefits of Automated Routing?
• Begin by Investing in a Route Planning App

What’s the Difference Between Scheduling and Routing?

Routing is not the same as scheduling, although it is similar to it. Who is getting the delivery, what they are receiving, and – most importantly – when they choose to receive it are all factors to consider when scheduling. Routing is concerned about when and how the supply will be delivered.

In other words, scheduling entails assigning a particular customer a delivery time and location. The location of the delivery and the most efficient route to get there are determined by route planning.

When there are several deliveries to be done, routing and scheduling work together. Routing the delivery vehicle in the most direct and reliable way saves the company time and money, and ensures that consumers are happy when deliveries are delivered on time, as promised.

What’s the Best Way to Make a Delivery Route?

A distribution route can be created in two ways. You may use a dedicated route planning program or an online mapping service like Google Maps or MapQuest. As you would expect, specialized route planning software is often the best option.

Using Google Maps to create a basic route is relatively simple. When you enter your starting point and destination, Google will show you a map with many potential routes, with the most direct route highlighted. After that, you can add more stops to the road, and the map will change accordingly.

The disadvantage of using Google Maps for technical routing is that it isn’t built for a company that makes many deliveries. You can only add a certain number of exits, and there’s no way to optimize the route for your drivers. It’s best for making simple instructions for things like tips and such.

A route planning app or software, such as EasyRoutes, is a safer option. You type all of your orders and any promised delivery times into the route planning app, and the app calculates and shows the most effective route for you. It takes a lot less time and effort than manually using Google Maps.

What is the best way to optimize a delivery route?

To optimize a route, arrange the stops in such a way that driving time is reduced. An optimized route allows a driver to make more deliveries during the day, save money on gas, and reduce vehicle wear and tear.

It’s difficult to optimize a path using an online map service like Google Maps. You must manually re-order the stops after you have entered all of your stops on the map before you find the path with the shortest elapsed time. That’s a significant amount of effort for any delivery service. You could end up spending more time rearranging the stops than you would have saved if you had optimized the route!

Once again, a delivery route optimization app will save you a lot of time and effort. After you’ve entered all of the necessary stops, the app rearranges them for you to save time on the road. All of this is made possible by the app’s distribution path optimization algorithm.

What are the Benefits of Automated Routing?

The distribution industry benefits greatly from automated delivery routing and route optimization software. It automates the time-consuming routing and optimization processes while also optimizing distribution paths, lowering costs and reducing driver and vehicle stress.

Here are a few examples of how automated distribution routing will help the company save time and money.

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Reduced Planning Time and Costs

Route planning by hand takes time, and time is money. Instead of making one or more employees spend hours per day manually creating distribution routes using Google Maps or MapQuest, you can have a single employee spend only a few minutes entering data into transportation routing software. The labor savings alone from integrating an automated route planner can quickly add up to thousands of dollars each year, and workers are freed up to work on other projects.

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Smaller Fleet Size

Fleet management becomes increasingly difficult as soon as more delivery vehicles hit the road simultaneously. If you use your fleet more effectively as a result of automatic distribution routing, you’ll probably need fewer vehicles. That means fewer vehicles to purchase and maintain. It is possible to save a lot of money.

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Less Hours Driven

Your drivers will spend less time driving inefficient routes if you use automated delivery routing tools to optimize your delivery routes. You will significantly reduce the amount of time your drivers spend on the road and maybe even reduce the size of your driver pool. For a medium-sized company, even a 10% reduction in driving hours will save thousands of dollars per year.

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Less Driver Attrition

Your drivers would spend less time commuting back and forth inefficiently with automatic delivery routing. Route optimization also allows the drivers to return home at the end of the day, rather than being stranded at a distribution site far away from their base. Route planning and optimization software is objective and unbiased, ensuring that routes are assigned equally and efficiently. Many of these applications may also take into account a driver’s personal preferences, such as when they want to finish their shifts. As a result of all of this, the drivers will be happier and less likely to leave for a better opportunity.

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Lower Maintenance and Fuel Costs

Your vehicles will spend less time on the road if you optimize your distribution routes. This reduces wear and tear, as well as the costs of fleet maintenance and repair. You’ll also save money on gas because you’ll be driving less miles. When you use automatic distribution routing, you can expect to save anywhere from 10% to 30% on your fleet’s operating costs.

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Reduced Customer Service Calls

When a route allows for so much time and distance between turns, it becomes difficult for drivers to complete all of their stops on time. Customers will call or email your office to inquire about the status of their deliveries. Drivers are more likely to be on schedule by using automated routing tools, which results in less angry calls from dissatisfied customers. This means your employees will spend less time answering phone calls and emails, which will save you money.

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Fewer Tickets and Fines

When drivers are given inefficient routes, they can speed or violate other traffic laws in order to save time. As drivers’ routes are optimized, they are less likely to drive recklessly, resulting in less traffic stops and penalties.

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Increased Customer Satisfaction

Your customers would be happier if you can consistently deliver on time - better yet, deliver during customers' preferred delivery window. Automated delivery preparation improves the efficiency of the entire delivery process, resulting in more on-time deliveries and less rushed deliveries from drivers attempting to make up for lost time. Aside from planning routes, tools like EasyRoutes also allow delivery drivers to upload proof of delivery to be shared with customers in real time. The more things go according to plan, the happier your clients will be with their overall customer experience.

Begin by Investing in a Route Planning App

Your company will save time and money if your distribution routes are more reliable. Investing in cost effective route planning and route optimization software, such as EasyRoutes, is the first step in streamlining routing. This app integrates seamlessly with Shopify and your orders to generate the most efficient delivery routes. It’s well worth the investment if the company makes several deliveries every day. Cut down on time spent manually planning routes in your delivery operations, and try EasyRoutes' free 14-day trial today!