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Delivery Route Scheduling Software

Route Scheduling Software for Delivery Vehicles

Unlock the potential of your delivery operations with Descartes' proven delivery route scheduling solutions. 

Say goodbye to manual route planning struggles and embrace automated optimisation that saves time, boosts efficiency, and ensures on-time deliveries. With our proven technology, you can enhance customer satisfaction, reduce fuel costs, and increase fleet productivity. 

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Descartes' scheduling software will continuously analyse orders as they come in and consider the delivery resources and capacity available, as opposed to taking a batch of orders that are hoped to be delivered next day or sometime in the future.   

This ensures that vehicles and drivers are fully utilised, taking precise routes, and not being over-committed outside of their normal working hours and legal drivers’ hours limits. As a result, we are able to confidently predict delivery ETAs with automated notifications to the customer, knowing that vehicles and delivery routes are as ideal as feasible with the highest possible delivery density.

How does Descartes’ Delivery Scheduling Work?

Schedule better, generate revenue, save money - watch a brief overview of our the Delivery Scheduling module.

Features & Benefits

select reservations

Customers select reservations

Provide an enhanced delivery experience with costed delivery options at the point of sale. Increase sales of goods and value added services.

delivery slots

Dynamic slot scheduling

Increased customer satisfaction and increased sales through self-selecting delivery times and days.

optimisation engine

Continuous background optimisation

Achieve more efficient route plans for your fleet than traditional batch-based optimisation techniques and provide costed delivery options at the point of sale in seconds.

Cloud connectivity

Cloud based software

Our fleet route scheduling Software is available over the internet wherever you have a connection, providing team access to our solution,  working from any location at any time. 

Customer Sucesses

Delivery Route Scheduling FAQs

  • What are the most important elements of creating a delivery route schedule?

    All orders need to start with quality data for the order itself;

    • The delivery address
    • Operating hours, or hours in which a delivery can take place
    • Any unloading restrictions
    • Product data
      • Dimensions
      • Weight
      • Stacking rules
      • Materials carried in case they are hazardous or need special handling

     

    After the details of the product and customer, comes the data about the vehicles available,
    such as;

    • Size and capacity of the vehicle
    • CO2 Emissions, (so entry into Clean Air Zones can be considered)

     

    Without such details delivery schedules will be inaccurate and could result in missed deliveries or over utilised vehicles, all of which will impact customer service levels and the efficiency of the fleet delivery operation. 

    Next is the Route Optimistion software that will accurately model the real-world conditions and the most efficient routes to achieve the deliveries. 

    Read More About Route Optimisation

  • What are the benefits of scheduling delivery routes for your fleet?

    The benefits of scheduling your delivery routes using routing and scheduling software are; 

    • Increased delivery density and improved utilisation of delivery vehicles and drivers, resulting in fewer miles per delivery and lower costs. 
    • Reliability of delivery routes that are achievable in the time available. 
    • Customers’ goods are delivered on time in scheduled narrow time slots. 
    • Improved performance and customer satisfaction.   
    • No over utilisation or over capacity of vehicles. 
    • Goods don’t have to be left behind resulting in disappointed customers. 
    • Underutilised delivery vehicles and drivers add unnecessary costs. 
    • Advanced warnings of high delivery volumes so additional vehicles and drivers can be secured in advance. 
    • Reducing the miles per delivery also reduces CO2 per delivery and is better for the environment.   

     

    Descartes’ delivery route scheduling software works in conjunction with the route optimisation engine and recalculates not just the schedule but also the delivery routes, every time an order is taken. 

    The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Delivery Scheduling and Routing Software can also schedule deliveries over several days, helping to ensure optimal delivery schedules and routes are created. This is proven to be amore efficient methodology than optimising a batch of orders  for the next day. 

    Being able to offer a narrow delivery window with a high degree of certainty that the delivery  can be made at the time an order is taken will influence buyer behaviour and give your company a competitive advantage. Not all customers want their delivery the next day and will often prefer them to be delivered on a day and time that suits them. Being able to offer the customer the ability to select their own delivery window from options the system has offered, based on the existing orders in the system will increase customer satisfaction. It can also help to ensure that all deliveries are costed and viable for your business. 

    Contact Us to Discuss the Benefits for Your Business

  • What cost savings can be expected with delivery route scheduling and optimisation?

    Existing customers save between 5% and 15% of fleet operations using Descartes’ delivery route scheduling software. 

    The savings are made from a number of areas, such as; 

    • Distance (e.g. miles) driven per stop is reduced 
    • Fewer miles means lower fuel costs,  
    • Fewer miles means reduced vehicle service and maintenance costs 

    Delivery route scheduling and route optimisation can also lead to benefits in other areas. 

    Fewer miles and high delivery density increases productivity i.e. more scheduled deliveries with the same number of vehicles and drivers. Additional drivers might not be required to meet increased consumer demand, which is very important with driver shortages.

    The automation of delivery routes will reduce the number of planners required or free them up to deal with exceptions. 

    The automation of delivery routes can be incorporated into a dynamic appointment scheduling solution helping to steer customers into selecting delivery slots that are better for you and better for the environment, reducing delivery costs. 

    Goods delivered on time and when expected by the customer minimises the number of calls to customer services asking about the status of the delivery.  

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