Challenges of Last Mile Delivery

How You Can Optimise Your Last Mile Deliveries

The last mile is often the most hectic phase of the delivery process. Impatient customers want to receive their orders almost instantly and are looking for companies that can provide them with expedited delivery.

To stand out from the competition, it’s crucial to find innovative ways to optimise your delivery process and overcome the challenges of the last mile. Let’s take a look at a few ways you can tweak your last mile delivery system for greater efficiency.

• Challenge - Poor route planning

You need to consider many factors when planning a delivery route: driver schedules, traffic, and roadblocks. An efficient logistics system takes all these variables into account to build an optimal route, saving fuel and time. On-the-fly route decisions often lead to inefficiency and frustration, so it’s best to map out your routes before delivery day. 

• Challenge - Lack of communication

Customers like to check where their orders are and how long it will take to receive them. A last mile delivery system should include features like live tracking for your customers to see where their orders are in real-time.

It’s also important for customers to be able to communicate with a driver or the last mile logistics company. For example, customers can leave messages like “Don’t ring the doorbell” when ordering or provide feedback to the driver through automated text messaging. Features like these increase customer satisfaction, help customers feel like their concerns are heard and add a human touch to the delivery system.

• Challenge - Lack of transparency

All too often, businesses are plagued with problems of missing orders or phantom deliveries. Last mile delivery is often a black hole – it is difficult to track what exactly happened if a customer does not receive an order when the delivery partner claims to have delivered it. It’s important for companies to keep verifiable records like ‘proof of delivery,’ which requires a driver to get a signature and scan a barcode before leaving the delivery location. Using an efficient last mile logistics company can bring transparency to your delivery system by helping you track and store these records, resulting in a smooth experience for both customers and delivery partners.

• Challenge - Delays due to external factors

With customers expecting timely deliveries and same-day service, you need to minimise delays and have a contingency plan for any problematic situation that arises. By streamlining communication within the last mile logistics team, drivers can inform dispatch operators of any unforeseen delays so that customers can be informed as soon as possible.

• Challenge - Outdated technology

For modern businesses, using the same old delivery tracking and feedback mechanisms isn’t good enough. While these systems do end up generating valuable data about the delivery process, it is usually incredibly coarse and needs to be thoroughly analysed in order to produce any actionable insight. 

Modern, AI driven last mile systems employ intelligent algorithms to automate the process. These systems closely monitor deliveries to collect data and use it to create optimum routes and fleet sizes to meet customer demand. They are also capable of predicting customer demands during different times of the day/year and reallocating delivery fleets accordingly.

Build your own customised last mile delivery service with Drive Yello. You can combine different Drive Yello products to suit the needs of your business. Post shifts on the marketplace, find professional drivers, book on-demand delivery, and track all your deliveries to optimise your last-mile logistics and keep customers happy.

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