As the demand in the supply chain industry is increasing, the logistics and transportation industries rely more on technology to streamline the operation to prevent any shipping delays.
The process is a lot more complicated than simply sending a delivery truck to pick up the package they’d like to deliver. There are many questions you need to address, such as delivery schedule, driver/vehicle assignments & availability, routes considering traffic, and tracking process.
These are the challenges of dispatch management, but these same issues are addressed with effective dispatch management software.
What is a Dispatch Management Software?
A Dispatch Management Software is a process of organizing, assigning, and optimizing delivery schedules and routes for businesses in the delivery, maintenance, and service industries. Dispatch Management Software optimizes your routes and schedules while maximizing efficiency, and minimizing costs.
How Dispatch Management Software works
By integrating with GPS tracking and mobile apps which provide real-time updates, you can track the real-time whereabouts of your vehicles, traffics conditions, and assignments of available carriers. This, along with advanced routing algorithms, provides automated assignments for pickups, drop-offs, service calls, deliveries, etc. These applications can provide Proof of Delivery or Service completion, with photos, signatures, and driver notes.
Keeping track of the locations and statuses of drivers allows you to improve your dispatching. It also helps connect a dispatcher with drivers for faster, better communication.
The software can help schedule plan, optimize routes, providing real-time routing, monitoring driver behavior, alert notifications, and calculate total route costs which allow your company to lower turnaround times and costs.
Why does using Dispatch Management Software dramatically improves your business’s efficiency and performance?
Leveraging dispatch management software brings you huge benefits by automating every process.
Without an efficient dispatch system in your business, time is wasted manually tracking the vehicles, planning routes, and managing driver schedules. With dispatch management software, managing all these processes is automated and easy.
Key aspects of dispatch management software
Better delivery routes
Instead of planning routes manually, dispatch management helps you generate optimal travel routes more efficiently.
Based on which vehicle is closest and available, service time commitments, and route preferences, what kind of capacity the vehicle has, traffic, the application provides planned routes with information on the estimated arrival time and mileage of each stop and route. Optimal routes will result in faster delivery & service times, increased customer & driver satisfaction, and cost savings.
Reduced service costs
Effective dispatch management not only saves time by optimizing routes but also saves money. Drivers spend less time on the road, along with optimized and improved routes, which results in reduced fuel consumption and reduced operation time.
According to ABI Research, the cost savings from having a dispatch management system could be well over 12% in profitability and 13% in vehicle utilization with a 15% decrease in travel time.
Dispatch management software also provides you with impactful reporting so that you can see precisely which areas need to be improved to lower costs and increase profits.
Improve customer & driver satisfaction
Customers always want to know where their packages are and when they are expected to receive their packages.
Dispatch management software can provide both you and your customers with real-time updates on driver’s whereabouts and estimated delivery schedules. Some applications allow clients to communicate directly with the driver.
These tools increase driver satisfaction because you don’t have to worry about a delivery delay due to unexpected traffic conditions, reducing driver’s stress levels. It can also avoid any irregular schedules by optimizing routes, assignments of available drivers and vehicles.
Improve driver behavior and safety
Real-time monitoring and data enable a dispatcher to measure driver behavior and safety. Dispatch management software allows a dispatcher to track the delivery process in real-time and respond to emerging issues through phone calls or chat. Dispatch management software will notify a dispatcher and driver via notifications whenever unexpected issues happen.
