Delivery congestion is fast becoming the biggest headache ever, but is there a panacea out there?
It’s no secret that online shopping is at an all-time high and although the retail industry is seeing the benefits in sales, delivery drivers are under enormous pressure to meet customers’ delivery expectations. With increasing e-commerce delivery demand the pressure is only going to get greater.
The problem with congestion
A recent study revealed that the average delivery driver spends 32 hours a year in traffic jams! The study analysed 87 cities and revealed the cost of wasting fuel, time and productivity for all drivers on the road totalled £30.8 billion in 2016, an average of £968 per driver per year.
The costs of congestion are staggering, stripping the economy of billions and impacting both businesses and consumers. With the well-documented boom in online shopping and 69% of consumers stating that they have repeated purchases due to good delivery services, more and more retailers are developing and expanding their delivery options such as same day, next day, scheduled delivery and click & collect to meet customer's expectations. As a result, organisations are finding considerable uplifts in operating costs and, as such, are now having to analyse their logistics systems to better manage customers’ demands and truly optimise their delivery services.
The Solution
The implementation of intelligent and advanced route optimisation and scheduling solutions can streamline delivery operations and improve the customer experience. These solutions provide delivery fleet operators full visibility of all jobs and driver’s locations in real-time, as well as giving them the opportunity to add a delivery or re-route to avoid congestion. Technology enabled John Lewis Partnership to provide a full delivery service under the restrictions in place during the London 2012 Olympics. This method of operation also allows full transparency to the customer via warning updates for a delayed order or notification in the event of failure to complete a delivery. As delivery services are a crucial factor in repeat custom, providing customers with full visibility not only maintains customers loyalty but controls expectations and reduces complaints.
Optimising deliveries through real-time visibility or delivery demand and delivery capacity is not only beneficial to fleet operations by reducing drivers time spent in traffic, it is also profitable to the organisation and ultimately increases customer satisfaction.
The Descartes’ route planning and delivery optimisation solutions perfectly address these issues and once implemented continually optimise demand and delivery capacity and resources to ensure drivers are taking the most efficient routes, conserve fuel and save time, while ensuring deliveries are never missed or drivers over-scheduled. The results? Drivers are able to fulfil more deliveries within tighter turnaround times. Customers are left satisfied, trust remains intact and everyone's a winner!
The answer lies in investing in the solutions that produce the right data to enable improved visibility and accuracy in route and delivery optimisation to consistently appease customer expectations. In order to address the current challenges and become a leading market player, organisations need to ensure they have the right systems in place to fully optimise their resources to meet growing demands.