How to find the best courier management solution for your delivery needs

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Choosing the wrong courier management software for your courier business can be costly, not just because you could end up drastically overspending on a service full of features you don’t need. Still, you could also end up with a courier management system that doesn’t help you achieve your overall business goals.

This is more likely than you might think because within the four main types of courier services (overnight, same day, standard, and international), there is a wide variety of courier companies’ needs. These needs depend on several factors, such as your fleet’s size, what you’re delivering, and how you’re delivering it. Not every software solution was built for the same type of delivery business model.

To help you find the best courier management software for your business, we’re going to talk about different features and how they work towards providing the most common benefits of a good courier management system:

• Reducing transportation costs with tools such as route optimization and preventative vehicle maintenance checks
  
• Increasing customer service with route monitoring, estimated-time-of-arrival (ETA) notifications, and signature capture as proof of delivery (POD)
  
• Making invoicing easy and accurate with customer accounts that store digital waybills, invoices, and lading bills.

At Zeo Route Planner, we provide delivery management software with critical last-mile delivery functions, such as route optimization, route monitoring, and delivery confirmation.

Here’s a bit more about what we can do to help your delivery team, followed by an explanation of what full-fledged courier management software brings to the table. 

Route planning and optimization

With Zeo Route Planner’s route planning services, you can take delivery windows and time-sensitive shipments into account by adding priority stops. And soon, our app will be considering vehicle capacity to ensure that all your drivers are carrying the optimal load for the car or truck they’re driving.

Plus, if you want everyone to use the same software, it’s helpful to have something drivers actually enjoy using. Zeo Route Planner has three features that make it a favorite among drivers.

1. The Zeo Route Planner app uses Google’s own street address auto-complete software. Generally, dispatchers upload the day’s stops via a CSV or Excel file. (Zeo Route Planner also allows you to import addresses using QR code scan and image capture/OCR). But if drivers need to add an address directly, it’s as fast as typing it straight into Google Maps. They can save address nicknames, too.

2. Drivers can re-optimize their routes based on real-time developments. Instead of having the driver reach out to the dispatcher for an updated route, Zeo Route Planner lets drivers re-optimize quickly from the app. This feature helps keep your delivery schedule on track so customers don’t experience long delays.

3. Zeo Route Planner’s route optimization services work with a driver’s preferred navigation app (whether it’s Google Maps, Waze, or another navigation service) on both iOS and Android devices.

Route monitoring

Zeo Route Planner route monitoring keeps dispatchers informed of where each driver is within the route’s context. That’s important because many driver tracking services only provide the GPS location of a vehicle.

With the Zeo Route Planner app, the dispatcher doesn’t just see that the driver is at 18th Avenue and Grant Street, but they also see the stops the driver has completed and where the driver is going next. And that makes the work of dispatching significantly easier.

Keeping customers informed

To increase customer satisfaction, Zeo Route Planner lets you set up customer notifications (as either an SMS message or an email) that will go out. Hence, customers know when to expect their package. 

This is a great way to make sure customers are present to receive their delivery (if needed), so your drivers don’t have to re-route and make a second delivery attempt later in the day.

Proof of Delivery

Generally when a driver delivers an item, they leave the package and report one of the following:

• Delivered to the recipient 
• Delivered to a third party
• Left in a mailbox
• Left in a safe place

If you need someone to sign for the delivery, the Zeo Route Planner collects it easily on the mobile app. If you don’t need a signature, drivers can snap a photo of the package and upload it into the app.

This photographic record is good to have if a customer claims their order was never delivered or can’t find it.

If Zeo Route Planner sounds like the right tool for you then, download and try the Zeo Route Planner for free.

Integration with navigation services

In the courier management service, the drivers need to use the navigation service they find easy to use. You need to choose that service to provide you integration to top navigation services that your driver can use without any hindrance.

With the Zeo Route Planner, you will get the integration with top navigation services, which you and your drivers can choose according to their preferences. We provide integration with Google Maps, Waze Maps, Yandex Maps, Sygic Maps, TomTom Go, Here We Go, Apple Maps. (Note: Apple Maps are only available in our iOS app)

Final words

Finding the right courier management software for your business is a critical step in taking your delivery operations to the next level of growth. Using courier software, you can streamline your processes and benefit from features such as route optimization and cloud management to store your invoices and waybills. 

The trick is matching up what you need with what the software is offering. We have clearly highlighted all the essential features of courier management software, and we hope you choose the right courier software for you and your team.

If you’re specifically focused on last-mile delivery functionality and won’t benefit from a complex platform like Samsara and Bringoz, we hope you consider a free trial of Zeo Route Planner. 15,000 drivers are currently using it to complete 5 million deliveries a month.

Try it now

Our motive is to make life easier and comfortable for small and medium businesses. So now you are only one step away to import your excel and start away.

Download the Zeo Route Planner from Play Store

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zeoauto.zeocircuit

Download the Zeo Route Planner from App Store

https://apps.apple.com/in/app/zeo-route-planner/id1525068524