Complete Guide to Dispatch & Delivery Automation: Best Practices for 2024

According to one report, the worldwide last-mile delivery business will reach more than $200 billion by 2027.

Do you want to enhance the outcome of your delivery business?

Do you want to remove all the manual dependencies from your logistics and transportation practices?

Then, you need to integrate automation into your day-to-day manual process.

But how to automate dispatch and delivery, and why is it important?

We’ll address multiple questions in this article, but first, let’s clear our basics.

What is Automatic Dispatch and Delivery?

Dispatching refers to assigning goods and vehicles for a seamless delivery based on the requirements. The traditional pen and paper dispatching and delivery approach has become inefficient with the rising demands and flaws.

An automated dispatch and delivery system can help with the automation as it automatically coordinates with the movement of people, goods, and services to ensure you get optimized delivery results.

It helps you minimize the delivery cost and remove all the human errors that can cause failed or delayed deliveries. The automated route scheduling software can help you automate the scheduling and real-time tracking of the deliveries, fleet, and goods to complete transparency.

It utilizes machine learning to crush large datasets and makes optimized decisions about the routing process, order allotment, fleet dispatching, and other vital components of dispatch and delivery operations.

Did you know 85% of businesses believe that delivery is a significant factor for excellent customer experience?

Delivering quality customer experience is becoming a significant and significant differentiator for multiple brands. Modern-day customers want the experience of getting things delivered to their doorsteps.

Expedited deliveries make them happier, and delays can be a significant disappointment.

Automation in dispatch and transportation is critical in the growth-focused delivery industry to achieve on-time deliveries. And automated dispatch and delivery software is your go-to solution to achieve your delivery targets.

But selecting automated dispatch software or route planning and optimization software is not a simple task. Out of hundreds of tools available in the industry, you need to filter out the best based on their capabilities.

What are those capabilities?

Let’s have a look.

Capabilities To Look For In Automated Dispatch and Delivery Software

You need to consider the following factors to figure out the right automation tool for your logistics and transportation process.

1. Dispatching and scheduling

An automated dispatch and delivery software should be able to match the delivery window with the fleet’s capacity and then schedule the packages to be dispatched in a streamlined manner.

The software should have the ability to automatically schedule the packages based on the customers’ previous experience or the ETAs set. It should minimize the human interference in the dispatching and scheduling to optimize the process and help you fulfill quick and safe deliveries.

If the tool can send automated messages to the customers to help with the scheduling and selecting the time window, it would add a cherry on the cake to enhance customer satisfaction.

Customers can feel important and valued if a business asks for specific time and data for their delivery.

The automated dispatch and delivery software should have the feature to alert the in-house teams about their following dispatch schedule to avoid delays in the delivery process. It should provide a holistic experience and reduce the scheduling and dispatching costs and hurdles.

2. Centralization

An automated dispatch and delivery software should enable you with centralized control of the dispatch process. You can manage a large delivery fleet within a few clicks and access a powerful dashboard of the tool. 

You should have the ability to communicate changes from a single click to your customer and in-house team. Centralized control helps you get a bird’s eye view of the delivery operations and helps to bypass any dynamic problems or troubles faced in the dispatching and delivery process.

Automation tools can help you manage and update the current and the upcoming scheduled routes to streamline your delivery flow and ensure on-time deliveries. 

It should allow secure authenticated access to limited in-house team members to control the fleets and ensure the on-ground workers are aligned with the schedule and route set by the software.

Your in-house team should have access to the limited features of the tool that can help them streamline their department of expertise. Restricted access and centralized control can help you achieve delivery outcomes in an organized and professional manner.

3. Customization

Different industries and businesses have different logistics and transportation requirements. The automation tool should adapt to the changing requirements of the business world and help every online delivery business optimize its delivery process.

For example, furniture delivery businesses have different requirements from the fast-food industry. Some businesses must ensure they are aligned with regulatory compliance, and others must manage multiple fleets simultaneously.

The automated software should allow businesses to make tweaks in the dispatch and delivery management based on the driver cost, time to delivery, vehicle volume, capacity, and other specific requirements.

The more the customization features, the better the results.

4. Alerts and notifications

An automated dispatch and delivery software helps get real-time visibility of the delivery parcel, fleets, and your employees. You can use the feature to send automated notifications to the customers about the updates in the delivery process to deliver a quality customer experience.

The same alert and notifications can inform your employees to stay on track with the delivery time window and ensure no lag in the delivery flow.

If unfortunately, some dynamic situations like unavoidable traffic or weather interruptions and vehicle breakdown happen, you should have the option to inform the customers about the changes in the delivery schedule.

It’s better to remain transparent with the customers than keep them in the dark to ensure a quality delivery experience and professionalism as a leading online delivery brand.

5. Bulk order handling

The standout feature of automation software in the dispatch and delivery process is to handle bulk orders with finesses. If the tool cannot do so, it’s not even better than Google Maps, which can deliver optimized routes up to 10 destinations.

It should streamline the bulk orders and help you deliver optimized results irrespective of the scale of the orders. It should be able to onboard new employees and the latest changes in the delivery ecosystem with finesse.
Within a few clicks, you should be able to upload multiple delivery addresses from your Excel sheet and dispatch multiple delivery routes to different drivers.

6. Automatic route planning and optimization

We saved the best for the last; automatic route planning and optimization features are the essential features your automated software should have.

The ability to deliver optimized and shortest multi-stop delivery paths analyzing elements like weather and traffic conditions, delivery priority, vehicle, and driver availability, among others, can help your business scale the delivery operations.

Automatic routing planning and optimization can help you get detailed reporting to enhance the workflow of your business and fix the loopholes and flaws in your delivery process.

But out of multiple route planning and optimization tools, only a few stand out from the rest. We have filtered the top 3 tools for you to choose and enhance your dispatch and delivery ecosystem.

3 Best Route Planning and Optimization Software You Can Choose From

1. Upper Route Planner

One of the finest route planning and optimization software is Upper Route Planner, with an average 4.4-star rating on the Apple App Store.

It offers an intuitive interface and simple to use functionalities that can help you streamline your dispatch and delivery process. Irrespective of the delivery industry and the scale of the business, the software can optimize the logistics and delivery operations.

• It can import up to 500 delivery addresses from Excel sheets within a few clicks and help you dispatch it to multiple drivers in no time.
• It can help you enhance productivity by 40% and streamline your delivery process by providing optimized delivery routes.
• It offers parameters like driver priority, breaks, time windows, traffic, and weather conditions, to deliver an optimized route map.

Pros

• An affordable route planner 
• Available with a 7 days free trial
• Smooth UX/UI
• In-depth detailed reports for optimizations
• Cost-effective and tailored delivery routes

Cons

• No voice directions available for the driver

Check out: How Upper’s Dispatch Routing Software Dispatch Routes Easily

2. MyRouteOnline

MyRouteOnline is another powerful route planner that can create tailored routes and share via GPS or mobile devices. You can export delivery addresses from excel and get detailed insights into the delivery operations to make well-informed decisions.

It offers free and paid route optimization plans to get hands-on experience before using the software.

Pros

• A powerful GPS tracking system
• User-friendly and intuitive interface
• Agile and effective delivery results
• Robust navigation system

Cons

• Reformatting is required with Excel
• No feature to edit the address

3. TourSolver

A cloud-based route planner that delivers quality results after optimizing the delivery routes. It is an end-to-end agile delivery planner with employee management, mileage tracking, dispatching, and routing features.

You get the access to optimize decisions, improve time and cost results, and enhance the mileage of your delivery vehicles. You export delivery addresses from different file formats like PDF, iCalender, or Excel.

Pros

• Feature-rich dashboard
• Easy to explore and navigate
• Great customer support

Cons

• Costly subscription
• Time-consuming process of route planning
• Only focused for large businesses

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