Truck management system

Introduction

Trucking software: Are your clients irritated with late deliveries? Are you spending too much on fuel? And are your savings running out? Then you may have some problem with your route planning process.

Route planning is the process of finding the best (shortest and cheapest) route for your fleet. But is just not so simple. If you have a business then you might know that route planning also includes knowing:

• Customer’s location
• Time of service
• The perfect driver and asset to serve the purpose

But how can you overcome this problem? Well, you can simply use a route optimization system to do the drill.

But what is this system? Who uses this system? What are its features? What benefits can you derive from it? And is it even used in the present industry?

Well, if you need answers to these questions, then start reading this article!

Why do you need Route Planning?

You might have faced some problems for improper route planning. But there are other challenges that you can face if you do not treat the matter seriously. So, let’s get a deep insight of these issues.

Multiple pick-up and drop-off requests

We live in an era where we want our packages to be delivered anywhere, we want. Moreover, handling multiple clients can increase your workload. Managing all these tasks single-handed may lead to severe errors and problems.

Finding the right vehicle and person for the job

A carpenter can never do the job of an electrician. People having the right skills can perform effectively and in less time. Similarly, vehicles are also made for specific jobs. Reefers are made for carrying cold items, trucks for heavy items and so one. Therefore, choosing the wrong vehicle can lead to an unsuccessful operation.

Moreover, selecting the right driver who can easily communicate and complete the process is also an important and difficult task.

Managing multiple time windows

If you have multiple clients, then you must be aware that they have separate working hours. However, to keep a track of all their schedules is difficult. Moreover, keeping these in mind while planning the best route can lead to failure of delivering products on time.

Calculating the service time

The service time includes the traveling time and a fixed stop time per customer. Now these can vary from customer to customer. Moreover, this also might go as per your plan. So, it’s very difficult to determine which route and what time a driver takes to deliver the products. An average time might not be sufficient and this might lead to a time crisis.

Accounting

Keeping a track of all budget related details is extremely important. But gathering all these details can be difficult. While accounting you need to keep a track of each cost component of your company. Negligence on this part can bring your company to its knees.

Managing multi-capacity limitations

Your assets have their own capacity limitations. Volume, weight and load meter are a part of these limitations. For a single vehicle managing these limitations is easy. But when the number changes the task becomes quite tiring and difficult.

Asset tracking

For asset safety, asset tracking is extremely important. But how can you track multiple vehicles at the same time that too remotely? Calling up drivers is an impractical method. Moreover, this can generate high amount of data which can be difficult to track.

Updating new information in real-time

New information can come up anytime. But updating that information to your drivers can be difficult. Moreover, it can change your whole route plan, forcing you to create a newer and better one. Yet you would have no guarantee about delivering your products on time.

Rules and regulation maintenance

Driver should follow rules and regulations. But how do you know they are following it? This question in itself is troubling. Drivers can stop at unexpected places, extend their breaks and much more. And you won’t even know about it.

Re-optimization of routes

We often change the delivery destination at the last minute. This can be a serious problem for your logistics company. Since finding optimized route at the last minute can be quite difficult. Moreover, there is a high chance of customer dissatisfaction if you fail to deliver your goods on time.

So, how can you overcome all these problems? You can definitely manage all the above with the help of a route optimization software. If you want to know what it is, then simply continue reading.

What is Route Optimization System?

If you run a logistics company, then you are probably aware of the fact that your destination may not be at one point. Delivery points can be multiple if not the pickup points. So how can you figure out the minimum route to travel to cover all these points? And how can you know about the road conditions remotely?

Well for that you need a route optimization system. Also called a route optimization/planning software, this system allows you to find the shortest distance between two or more locations. Moreover, it also analyses real-time dicey situations and business limitations like available vehicles and drivers, traffic conditions and much more. This provides you with a route in which you can deliver your goods in minimal time.

Who can use a Route Optimization System?

And you know what this system is not just for logistics and shipment industry only. In this fast-paced world, we all need to save time and money while providing the best service to our clients. Thereby, some of the major sectors are using Route Optimization systems. They include:

• Healthcare industry
• Retail industry
• Manufacturing industry
• E-commerce industry
• Transportation industry and others

And what’s more? Since it’s a cost-effective tool, start-ups can used this too!

What are the features of a Route Optimization System?

But you don’t you want to know how this system operates? How it can help optimize your procedures? Well, then you definitely need to go through its features. Since it’s your one-stop destination to know everything about this system. So, let’s get started!

User Management

One of the first feature of this system is user management. A route optimization system allows multi-user access. This is a common feature. But it allows you to manage the data flow for respective individuals. You can grant or restrict permission for a user to view or operate certain parts of your system.

Driver/Worker Management

A route optimization system allows you to log in every detail about your workers and drivers. The system can store the following details of a driver for future reference:

• Name
• Default vehicle used
• Vehicle type and number
• Worker’s address
• Team in which he/she works in
• Work schedule and much more

Not only so, you can also check which driver is assigned to what task. Furthermore, you can also extract data about the status of the work that he/she is on. These details are available on the dashboard. All you need to do is view the tasks list. This allows you to monitor your drivers for better productivity.

Team Management

Teams are categorizing your drivers and assets to fulfill certain operations. From the drivers list you can easily select and assign drivers in a team for a certain operation.

Hub Management

Hubs are physical location of a pick-up or destination point. It’s difficult to manage locations, especially when you don’t know where the place is. However, with the help of geocoding you can transform blurry addresses into exact geographical locations.

You can also view and manage hubs. You can create a list of your hubs by simply importing a CSV file. Moreover, you can change their priority status as per urgency. You can also tag a task beside each hub (as a note) for better reminder.

Task Management

Even if you have multiple deliveries to make you need not worry about it. Since a route optimization system stores and analyses every order detail that enters it. Order details are traced from your email or messages. Then it is complied into a list for better viewing and inspection.

Moreover, you can enter your order details manually as well. All you need to do is import a CSV file. Or you can also enter your task details in the “Task” page itself.

Route Planning and Management

Managing and creating optimized routes is probably the easiest feature of this system. All you need to do is enter your locations on the bar or pinpoint them on the map and enter the optimize button. And as soon as you do that, the system will provide you with the best route possible.

Real-Time Location Tracking

A route optimization system is GPS-enabled. Hence, you can check the location of each asset on the “Tracking” page on the dashboard. Moreover, the location is updated with each turn your asset takes. Hence, we can say that it occurs in real-time.

Data analytics

Since this is a data analytics-based software, this system can easily review massive amount of data automatically. Moreover, a route optimization system can easily inspect data (both historical and present) to provide you with valuable insights like:

• Knowledge, skills and expertise of drivers
• Delivery preferences
• Preferred time slots of customers and much more

These can help you to take decision in real-time and problem solving.

User friendly

Despite all the complex network that a route optimization system handles, it is one of the easiest software to use. Moreover, you can use this software on your mobile or computer.

What are the benefits of a Route Optimization System?

And this system also has its own benefits. Jump into this section to know about all of them.

• Invest less but get a greater return on it (Greater ROI)
• Reduces human-errors
• Provides you a clear insight of your overall work operations
• Saves fuel cost and manage your budget effectively
• Reduces traveling time for each journey
• Helps workers to complete their work on time
• Saves re-delivery costs and storage with first attempt deliveries
• Manages multiple pickups and drop-off points at the same time
• Get instant alerts on route divergence and uneventful happenings
• Replace your operator with a route optimization system to save labor costs
• Lesser distance means lower carbon emission and pollution
• Helps to provide effective last-mile deliveries for enhanced customer satisfaction

Use cases of a Route Optimization System

Now route planning software is used widely across the globe. Let’s check how some of the most famous companies have used and benefited from it!

OTL Logistics

OTL is a Malaysian based logistics company. It has over 250 branches all across the globe and operates more than 300 vehicles. The company faced two major challenges using an inefficient fleet management system. Let’s discuss them.

Challenges:

• Service repetition of routes
• Unclear vehicle tracking

After using a route optimization system, the company was able to solve these problems. Moreover, they also benefited massively. Let’s take a look at the solutions.

Solutions:

• Optimized routes
• Fuel cost savings by 15%
• Reduction in the number of trucks since few trucks were enough for multiple destinations

Crate & Barrel

Founded in 1962, Crate & Barrel is an American based home-decor and furniture company. Presently, the store has over 160 stores, 7,000 associates and over 80 delivery trucks. The major distribution centres of this company lie in New Jersey, San Francisco and Chicago. Moreover, it covers over 300,000 yearly.

But the company faced major delivery issues. The reason behind this was their fleet management system. Listed below are the issues they faced.

Challenges:

• Improper vehicle and driver utilization
• Inefficient vehicle tracking system
• Failure to track data properly
• Improper data and process updates
• Poor customer experience

So, they reached out for a route optimization solution. And the solutions they got were simply mesmerizing.

Solutions:

• Enhanced vehicle tracking
• Real-time insight into delivery statistics
• Delivery time reduced by half
• Real-time delivery tracking
• Improved customer satisfaction

The Foodery

Based in Boston, The Foodery is a home delivery service. They deliver nourishing food to people. Moreover, their target audience consists of mainly working individuals who do not get the time to prepare food. Foodery was using a manual fleet management system. This created a lot of challenges for them. Let’s check them out.

Challenges:

• Finding experienced drivers who were well-versed with the routes
• Delivering food on time

However, as soon as they replaced their traditional software with a route optimization system, they figured out some amazing benefits.

Solutions:

• Optimized routes
• Up to 28% of delivery cost savings
• Reduction of delivery time by half
• On-time delivery

Conclusion

Thereby, we can conclude that even though you have a fleet management system, optimizing your routes is essential for better performance. And what’s better than using a system which saves both your time and money?

Route Optimization System has been largely used in different sectors all over the world. Moreover, you have got a clear insight into its features and benefits. So we can simply say that we need this machine to survive and prosper in this competitive world.

Want to implement a route optimization system at your company?