Northern Express Logistics

The Challenge

Founded in 2015, Northern Express Logistics is a transportation company specializing in domestic and cross-border dry, temperature-controlled, and hazardous freight shipping across Canada and the USA. The company provides its valuable customers with clear timelines and clear communication and provides real-time notifications to last-mile end customers for their shipments.

With the increasing demand for their services, Northern Express Logistics realized that they are spending more time on manually planning and optimizing routes that can be saved and invested in other essential operations. In addition to this, the manual route planning led to longer last-mile delivery times and increased fuel consumption that not only strained their operational costs but also contradicted their environmental values.

Another major challenge Northern Express Logistics faced was a lack of real-time visibility into their last mile delivery operations. They faced difficulties in tracking their trucks & dry vans and monitoring driver progress, which led to inefficiencies in scheduling and resource allocation. This lack of visibility also hindered their ability to respond promptly to unexpected delays or customer inquiries.

More than this, the company was also finding it difficult to get the real-time locations of their drivers, which made it difficult to stay updated about the progress of deliveries. As they are into last-mile deliveries through temperature-controlled trucks, dry vans, and less-than-truckload, it is a must to get real-time visibility of routes and locations.

The Solution

Determined to overcome their operational challenges and streamline their daily routing operations, Northern Express Logistics decided to use any advanced technology software solution that helps them manage everything on one single platform. Therefore, the admin manager of the company started researching retail and distribution route optimization software and ended up finding Upper Route Planner.

Impressed with the range of features and functionalities that they are looking for, Kam and the team decided to try Upper for their operations. After using it for a 7-day free trial, the team decided to upgrade it and implement it fully in their operations. Let’s have a quick look at the features that are highly used by them:

Route Manifest Management

Northern Express Logistics utilized Upper’s route manifest management feature in order to eradicate the manual manifest creation, saving time and reducing the potential for human errors. Using Upper’s route manifest feature, Northern Express Logistics automated the entire creation process of route manifests for each delivery route based on input parameters, such as locations and scheduling constraints.

The route manifest includes all the detailed information about the planned route, including the start and end point of the route, stops along the way, and other required instructions. By seamlessly generating and printing manifests, the company optimized loading procedures, reduced turnaround times, and ensured accurate shipment allocation.

Driver Location Updates Through Live Tracking:

Another major feature that helps Northern Express Logistics with their daily last-mile deliveries is the real-time visibility into the current location and progress of their drivers. Using this feature, the company gets huge help in monitoring delivery routes, tracking vehicle movements, and proactively responding to any deviations or delays.

It improves the overall transparency in operations and helps the dispatch manager in resource allocation for the next deliveries. In addition to this, this transparency helps in effective communication and collaboration between dispatchers, drivers, and customers, ensuring that everyone is informed and aligned throughout the delivery process.

Optimizing Routes in a Few Minutes For Planned Deliveries

One of the most useful features that revolutionized Northern Express Logistics’ route planning process is route optimization. With this advanced feature, the company plans and optimizes routes for all its daily deliveries, considering various factors like traffic patterns, delivery constraints, and vehicle capacity. As Northern Express Logistics is in the logistics and transportation business, providing last mile deliveries, the company needs to ensure that their drivers take the most efficient paths for timely deliveries.

The implementation of this feature provides a number of benefits to the company, including reducing fuel consumption and lowering maintenance expenses, leading to cost savings and improved efficiency. In addition to this, the swap routes functionality helps the dispatch manager in swapping routes between drivers to quickly adapt to unforeseen circumstances like a driver’s sudden unavailability and ensure that their delivery service remains smooth.

The Impact

After utilizing Upper Route Planner for their day-to-day last mile deliveries, Northern Express Logistics revolutionized their delivery operations. With the implementation of Upper, the company experienced a remarkable improvement in communication between dispatchers, drivers, and customers, optimization, and daily deliveries. The automation of route planning and optimization processes through Upper Route Planner resulted in a staggering 92% reduction in manual intervention.

In addition to operational efficiencies, the implementation of Upper led to a notable increase in driver productivity during transportation. By providing real-time visibility into the driver’s current location, Upper empowered Northern Express Logistics to optimize resource allocation, minimize idle time, and maximize driver efficiency.

Overall, the adoption of Upper Route Planner has been revolutionizing Northern Express Logistics’ operations. From automation in route planning & optimization to tracking drivers & increasing their productivity, the company experienced a number of benefits in last-mile delivery logistics.