What Your Route Plan Isn’t Telling You - Plan vs. Actual

Let Fleet Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) bridge the gap between strategy and reality in last-mile delivery 

You might be happy with your next-day delivery route plan, that is until the results come in. Drivers arrive back early, or worse, late and exhausted with overtime stacking up. While customers are complaining of late deliveries or worse failed deliveries, so what’s going wrong? 

For too many logistical operations, there’s a critical blind spot between planning and execution. The plan may look efficient on paper, but without visibility into how it's actually playing out on the road, you're operating in the dark. That’s where the Plan vs. Actual gap starts to cost you, time, money, and customer trust. 

Why last-mile delivery matters more than ever for retailers 

Growth in ecommerce is slowing. In the U.K. online sales growth has dropped to just over 6% annually. Retailers can no longer afford to cover up inefficiencies with volume. Instead, customer retention, especially among under 35 years of age (35s), is where long-term value lies. 

And here’s the issue: 79% of consumers under 35s have experienced delivery issues over a three-month period. This group is not only the most dissatisfied, but also the most likely to walk away and take their business elsewhere when deliveries disappoint. 

Your routing system might be ambitious, but is it realistic? 

Many route planning solutions lack the feedback loop necessary to improve future routes. They can’t tell you if your 9-hour route consistently takes only 7 hours, or 11.  

They don’t account for service time variability, driver behaviour, or real-world delivery conditions. Worse, your telematics might show where the van went, but not why it took longer at Stop 4 or skipped Stop 7. 

This is where Fleet Analytics from Descartes comes into play. By integrating your planned route data with actual delivery outcomes, captured via your telematics platform or Descartes' mobile app, Descartes Fleet Analytics can then provide you with a comprehensive overview of execution performance. 

It doesn’t just track the miles driven or stops made; it contextualises them. Fleet Analytics reveals where and why deviations occurred, and delivers data-rich insights across service time, sequence adherence, time-window compliance, and much more. 

Coupled with AI route planning and machine learning, these insights can evolve into predictive recommendations, guiding you toward smarter and better future planning. 

Operational Impact: Beyond the dashboard 

Understanding the Plan vs. Actual performance gives you more than just tidy reports, it gives you information you can use:

• Reduce Overtime: Realistic route durations help avoid chronic over-scheduling and balancing workload between drivers.
• Improve Customer Satisfaction: Accurate ETAs reduce the risk of missed or late deliveries.
• Better fleet utilisation: Find out if it’s possible to schedule more deliveries using the same resources.
• Improve First-Attempt Success: Fewer redeliveries, fewer unsecured parcel drops, and fewer disappointed customers.
• Cut Costs: Efficient routing cuts fuel usage, streamlines driver shifts, and reduces emissions, critical for winning over eco-conscious consumers (40% of under 35s prioritise sustainable delivery options).
• Leverage Detailed Metrics: Fleet Analytics breaks down actual performance across a range of key performance indicators (KPIs) so you can target improvements where they matter most.

Future-ready delivery needs real-time insight 

Route optimisation should go beyond algorithms and embrace adaptability. It’s about syncing planning with live GPS data, customer preferences, traffic conditions, and post-delivery analytics. The retailers and logistics companies that win in this economic climate will be those who move from traditional planning to dynamic, insightful AI-driven operations. 

Your delivery routing system should do more than just draw the shortest line between two points. With Descartes Fleet Analytics, you close the loop between planning and execution. Only then can you deliver not just parcels and goods, but consistency, reliability, and trust. 

To discover where your delivery gaps are between planned and actual routes contact us for chat. 

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