The 7 Problems Faced By Couriers

1. Labour Costs

Knowing when your couriers arrive on site and leave for the day allows for more accurate labor costs. Whilst manual time sheets are a great way in estimating supposed hours, they rely on memory and honesty so they aren’t always accurate. Your team could be starting late and finishing early, or taking longer routes and longer breaks to waste time and get paid more. You could be paying your drivers for more hours than they’re actually working, without the benefit of additional deliveries.

2. Long Delays

There are a number of reasons why couriers experience long delays. This could be due to poor scheduling or terrible traffic conditions. Nonetheless, it is a problem that most, if not all, drivers face and reduces your business’ productivity. It also negatively impacts your customer’s experience as they’re being forced to wait additional hours or even days to receive their delivery.

3. Fuel Wastage

Given your drivers are constantly on the road, naturally they will use a lot of fuel. If couriers are taking longer routes, constantly idling and speeding, this will waste a significant amount of fuel. This can be an inconvenience for couriers constantly needing to refill their vehicles whilst eating up a lot of your business costs given the wasted fuel.

4. Lack Of Visibility

Not knowing where your fleet is can create a number of problems that can impact the efficiency of your deliveries. This complicates the communication between you and your team, so if a customer calls asking the location of their order, it forces you to call every driver, see where it is and how far away they are, then call the customer back and let them know, instead of just having that information on hand. This makes your business appear unprofessional and can negatively impact your customers’ experience.

5. Booking Management

Managing your bookings can be a complicated and time-consuming process, especially trying to find the most efficient routes. You want your drivers to be completing as many deliveries as possible. Without route optimisation software, you’ll be stuck for hours manually creating stops and trying to figure out what route is best. Then if a last-minute stop pops up, how and when do you add that to your manual plan? Manual planning takes a lot of time and can really decrease your business’ efficiency.

6. Unfamiliar Destinations

Getting lost when driving to unfamiliar destinations is an easy mistake that most couriers face. Unfortunately, this reduces the speed of the delivery and causes immense delays. It also causes customer frustration, increasing the possibility of public complaints and negative reviews which hurt your business. Couriers can’t afford to get lost, especially when their job is time focused.

7. Poor Customer Service

Without the ability to update customers on where their order is, they are forced to rely on a large time window that is usually anywhere between 7 am to 7 pm. This means that customers are having to waste a day, only to wait for hours with no actual clue about what time their delivery will arrive. Not only does this inconvenience customers but it also makes them less likely to use your services again.

1. Optimising Routes

Route optimization saves you hours in planning the most efficient routes. Without a smart system, it can take hours to schedule bookings, which really slows down your business’ productivity. Automated route planning can help you select a group of jobs, allocate a driver and then automate the best route possible to complete the jobs as quickly as possible. This is all done in a matter of minutes, not hours. Saving you time in the office and on the road.

2. GPS Tracking

Adding GPS tracking to your fleet increases the accountability of your team and ensures they are on the right track. You can access route replay to see a timeline of where your drivers have been. This is great if a vehicle goes missing or if there have been any errors during the delivery process. You can also improve ETA’s by knowing the exact location of your driver, allowing you to give accurate times to the customer so they can anticipate when their delivery will arrive.

3. Proof Of Delivery

Having proof of delivery through digital photos and e-signatures gives your business and customers peace of mind that their order has arrived safely. If a customer has any questions or problems surrounding the delivery, you can quickly access the information regarding the journey. This turns the possibility of a long investigation into a quick phone call as you’ll know who was accountable for that delivery and the condition it was left in because of the photo confirmation.

4. Real-Time Tracking

Real-time tracking allows you to track your drivers in real time. This is a great way to know where your fleet is at all times and monitor their whereabouts from point A to B. You can share this visibility with your customers through a link so that they too can see where the driver is and know how far away they are from arriving. It also helps in determining whether there are any delays or disruptions to the delivery.

5. Driver App

Having access to an app that maps out every stop is essential to drivers successfully completing their deliveries. Locate2u’s driver app helps reduce the chance of drivers getting lost in unfamiliar destinations, decreasing the possibility of delays and making sure that every delivery is successfully completed. Unlike other apps that can involve complicated layouts, this one is easy to use and will keep your driver on the right track.