Route Management 101

When we talk about route management, we’re not just talking about traveling from point A to point B. It’s all about making journeys go as smoothly as possible.

You’ll be able to save time, petrol, and money by using a route management application.

Table of Contents

• What Is Route Management?
• Challenges in Route Management
• Why You Should Use a Route Management App
• Conclusion

What Is Route Management?

Route management boils down to basically getting more out of your resources. Route management attempts to reduce mileage and fuel costs while increasing the efficiency and productivity of your delivery operations.

Challenges in Route Management

Routing is a complicated procedure with a lot of moving elements. It consequently provides major hurdles to even the most seasoned businesses and managers.

Route management has become considerably more difficult as a result of COVID-19. We now live in a delivery-driven environment, which makes it difficult for organizations to navigate the obstacles without prior experience.

The following are some of the most significant obstacles.

Too Many Routing Variables

Manual route planning necessitates the consideration of a large amount of data.

Vehicle capacity, delivery time windows, driver availability, and service locations are just a few of them.

The more stops your drivers are required to make, the more complicated things become.

So it’s practically hard to plan efficient routes using pen and paper or Excel sheets. It takes too long and is prone to errors, resulting in a loss of time and money.

Neither Google Maps nor Apple Maps can assist because they are not built to arrange multi-stop itineraries for several drivers.

Inflexibility

Another issue with manual route planning is that you are unable to pivot quickly in the event of an unplanned event, such as abrupt weather warnings.

You also won’t be able to notify your field reps about such changes in real time. And once you’ve informed them, they’ll have to figure out which route to take, which takes time.

Keeping Expenses Down

Fuel and driver compensation account for about 56.5% of all trucking expenses in the United States, according to a survey by the American Transportation Research Institute.

One of the most difficult aspects of route management is keeping these costs low while maintaining a reasonable profit margin.

Why You Should Use a Route Management App

There are numerous advantages to using a route management application. Route management systems could save over 13% in vehicle usage and 12% in profitability. It may also result in a 15% reduction in journey time.

Let’s take a look at some of the advantages of using route management software.

Assists in the planning of well-optimized routes

In just seconds, route management software like EasyRoutes allows you to build optimized multi-stop routes with driving directions for delivery drivers.

Assists in the production of more deliveries

Your drivers will have a balanced workload thanks to a route management system. As a result, neither your drivers nor your dispatchers will be overworked or underworked. Additionally, your drivers will receive well-optimized routes, allowing them to make more stops without overworking themselves.

Satisfies Customers

Customer alerting and notification is a feature of advanced route management software like EasyRoutes that allows you to notify your customers when their items are ready for delivery and are being delivered. As a result, your customers can self-serve the information they require, lowering the amount of support calls to your customer service department.

Makes Drivers Happy

Your drivers will no longer be annoyed by getting stopped in unexpected traffic and missing deliveries because of optimized routes. Furthermore, because they will be able to make more stops and deliveries, your revenue will increase, resulting in an increase in their pay. This makes them pleased as well.

Conclusion

You should now have a good understanding of what route management is, how to choose the best route planner, and the benefits of route management software. Clearly, employing the correct route management system improves the efficiency of your delivery or field operations.

So, if you haven’t used one yet, you should now have a clear understanding of why you should and what to look for in your next app. In your overall delivery service and fulfillment plan, using the correct route management software and technology will be vital.

We recommend EasyRoutes

EasyRoutes is a delivery route planner app for local deliveries that makes it simple to create a route. You may then take your routes and share them with drivers, or you can deliver them yourself using our mobile-friendly driver mode.

Shopify and your store’s orders are effortlessly integrated with EasyRoutes. You won’t have to waste time exporting and importing spreadsheets anymore. Simply select the orders you want to deliver, and EasyRoutes will calculate the most cost-effective delivery route.