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Home Delivery Logistics Solutions

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Home Delivery

Consumers' expectations are changing as demand for home delivery continues to grow with eCommerce.

Consumers are seeking delivery choices based on convenience, speed, cost and more recently environmental impact of home delivery.

The most important step in ensuring customer loyalty in home delivery logistics is to improve the last-mile delivery process or the point at which the package is delivered to the customer's doorstep. However, last-mile delivery services have their own set of challenges.

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Here are five last mile challenges you can overcome.

Overcome Your Last Mile Challenges

Visibility

Creating visibility within your blockchain is a challenge. Selecting the right end-to-end visibility solutions will give retailers and distributors a thorough understanding of the product delivery process from purchase orders to warehouse receipts.

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Delivery costs

It is difficult to reduce costs throughout your supply chains. However, when you adopt the latest technology solutions for the fleet operation, significant cost reductions can be made in last-mile delivery by increasing delivery density and reducing the miles per delivery.

Reduce Costs

Outdated technology

The latest hardware and software technology and advances for last-mile delivery vehicles can offer real benefits for the driver on the job and the entire operation. For instance, a smart, networked GPS might assist drivers in locating the optimal routes in real-time and avoiding unexpected traffic jams.

Optimise Fleet

Low efficiency

Consumers are the ones in charge. As internet rivalry rises, many firms can only compete on price. Delivery options at the point of sale must offer a wide range of options so consumers can select the service they want at a price they are prepared to pay. Using Descartes delivery scheduling software, companies can provide costed delivery options based on existing commitments, delivery capacity, and new orders in seconds. Price incentives can be used to encourage consumers to pick a “green” slot, increasing delivery density, reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

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Route planning

Businesses that rely on home delivery need to increase productivity and reduce delivery costs to stay competitive. By offering costed delivery options at the point of sale, customers can chose what's convenient for them and retailers can charge accordingly for deliveries. Some consumers will pay extra for the convenience of having something delivered where and when they want.

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Home Delivery

Improve the customers' buying & delivery experience, from booking a delivery slot through to receiving and acknowledging their delivery.

Logistics Software for Home Delivery Companies

Effective home delivery usually referred to as last mile delivery should address a number of connected challenges from driver shortages and rising fuel costs to demand from consumers.

Descartes offers a complete set of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to streamline the process, maximise operational efficiency, and enhance customer experience. This includes route optimisation and delivery scheduling, mobile applications for proof of delivery, driver notifications, and route finding.

Descartes home delivery solutions integrate with all leading ERP systems and warehouse management solutions.

Being SaaS based enables helps companies grow as the solutions are completely scalable. Companies involved in home delivery can connect to the software any time and any place they have a reliable internet connection through a unique username and password. No need to invest in special hardware or manage software upgrades.

See how existing customers have improved their capacity for home delivery by 35% without adding more drivers or vehicles.

Last mile advantages with Descartes' solutions:

The best Home Delivery software depends on your individual business goals and needs. Let’s look at some of the best solutions.

Competitive retail advantage with home deliveries

Having implemented the Routing and Scheduling solutions with continuous background optimisation leading retailers are able to gain a competitive advantage by offering short, timed delivery slots that can be chosen by the customer at the point of sale. The customer is then able to track their deliveries ‘Uber Style’ with GPS trackers in the delivery vehicles, to enhance the customer delivery experience.

Retailers can offer incentivised delivery slots to group deliveries that are in the same proximity, to create denser delivery routes, reducing distances between deliveries and cost per delivery.

66% of consumers will choose one retailer over another selling the same product due to the delivery options offered at the point of sale. (Metapack, 2015).

Read more about incentivising delivery slots
Delivery route scheduling & route density

The important factor when dealing with home deliveries is to increase the density of the deliveries on the routes to maximimise the number of deliveries that are as close together in both time and location as possible. This can only be achieved to its fullest if the scheduling system is connected to the routing systems, validating the true logistics capacity in real time. This enables the ideal delivery slot to be presented to the next customer at the point of sale based on previous, existing orders, along with other known factors such as vehicle capacity and any additional required services such as installation. Consumers can be encouraged to pick slots that help achieve delivery density with differentiated pricing for the slots available to them.
Continuous optimisation of home delivery routes

Having a routing system connected to the scheduling system, that is continuously optimising deliveries and which can move deliveries within the schedule, even between days, if dedicated time slots have not been offered, is vital for achieving the highest delivery density.

The Descartes route optimisation engine works with the latest information when calculating routes and allows for modifications even after the driver has left the depot.

Read more about Planning Delivery Routes
Mobile Apps for the driver

A driver’s hand held device can host a number of mobile applications that can assist the driver with navigation, receiving messages, delivery consignments, proof of delivery, photographic evidence showing delivery location or any damages to the goods, plus the ability to notify the office of deliveries or damages. The driver’s location can also be tracked by the office so you know where your drivers are and what their status is or so the customer can track their location and know when their delivery should be arriving. This all helps to avoid missed deliveries through recipients not being in and offers an improved customer service.

Read more about Mobile Applications.

Contact one of our experts to discuss your challenges.

Customer Successes

“The Descartes Reservations™ and Descartes Route Planner™ solutions were integral to our strategy of offering more extensive, but unified , delivery services. The advanced optimisation capabilities and architecture of the Descartes solutions were critical to bringing new delivery service options to our customers in an economically feasible way. ”

Andrew Gay - Systems Manager

Delivery mileage reduced per annum 1.5m

Savings from fuel costs & vehicle servicing £1m

Increased delivery capacity 35%

“In the past year since having the Descartes' system our jobs per route has improved by just short of 10%.”

Martin Alldritt - Planning & Optimisation Manager

Jobs per route has increased 9.9%

Average mileage between jobs reduced

Improved Customer Service

“Since implementing the Descartes Route Planner™ solution, the time taken to route deliveries has reduced from approximately four hours a day to a matter of minutes, while the number of vehicles sent out each day has reduced by roughly 15 per cent.”

Dave Middleton, Supply Chain Manager, Ontex UK

Payback of the solution achieved within Months

Route planning reduced from hours to Minutes

Vehicles dispatched reduced by 15%