8 Steps To Cut Delivery Costs With A Multi Stop Route Planner

As the demand for last mile delivery doesn’t seem to slow down in 2024, you need to make sure that your delivery or courier business makes the most of it. First, you’ll need to find a capable multiple stop route planner to help you utilize your fleet resources at their full capacity and cut delivery costs. Then, optimize your planned routes, schedule delivery, track delivery drivers, and take a few more steps to reduce delivery costs and shipping expenses to a minimum.

Follow these 8 steps on how to cut delivery costs with a multi stop route planner:

 

 

1. Choose the Best Route Planner for Your Business Needs and Budget

Choose a route planner or routing software that offers routing solutions for your unique business needs. The first thing to look at is getting the best value for your money. Look at the price and what the route planner provides for that amount of money. Ideally, you would choose a routing software with a free trial, so you can try it before you buy.

Another thing to keep an eye on when looking for a multiple stops route planner is its compatibility with the tools your courier delivery business is already using. Check for telematics integrations, eCommerce, CRM, etc.

Free trial for route planner with multiple stops for delivery drivers and couriers

 

2. Optimize Your Multi Stop Delivery Routes

To utilize your vehicle fleet and workforce at full capacity, you need to optimize your delivery routes. The Route4Me route planner for delivery drivers allows you to map an unlimited number of shipping addresses.

You can plan and optimize delivery routes and add optimization constraints and business rules such as time windows, traffic slowdown, customer availability, cubic volume, and more!

Optimization constraints and routing business rules on multi stop route planner for delivery drivers

 

3. Evenly Distribute the Workload Among Your Delivery Drivers

Route for a team and split the delivery addresses that need to be serviced into an optimal number of routes. This way, your delivery drivers will get an even number of addresses to deliver packages to, and none of them will have to work more or less than their colleagues.

Splitting a planned route among delivery drivers and assigning each route to a driver.

 

4. Avoid Left Turns and U-Turns

Left turns and U-turns are dangerous.

Left Turns are responsible for 60% of all intersection accidents. Not only will these types of turns put your delivery drivers in danger, but they will also cost you time and fuel.

UPS drivers avoid left-turns, and so should you!

Avoiding left turns and right turns when planning routes for delivery on multi stop route planner

 

5. Track Delivery Drivers

When trying to cut delivery costs, you need to know where your delivery drivers and fleet assets are at all times. Idling vehicles, unauthorized route detours, fuel card fraud, and longer-than-approved lunch breaks cost your courier service money.

Track your delivery drivers and minimize wasted time and fuel burned in vain.

Tracking multiple delivery drivers on live map with multi stop route planner for delivery

 

6. Schedule Recurring Deliveries in Advance

Plan routes in advance for your recurring orders, subscription box shipping, preventive maintenance schedules, and every other delivery or service that happens regularly. This will help you better organize your fleet resources and cut delivery costs – especially during those times of the year with a surge in last-mile delivery demand.

For example, scheduling deliveries ahead will help you get ready for the holiday season just in time for the booming retail sales. By creating a shipping or delivery schedule, you will ensure that you have all the resources necessary to fulfill your orders – and not overpromising.

Plus, you’ll also know when fleet vehicles and delivery cars are unavailable for routing due to scheduled maintenance.

Delivery schedule with recurring orders for route planning on multi stop route planner for delivery drivers

 

7. Collect, Assess, and Analyze Routing Data and Logistics KPIs

Your route planner should collect delivery metrics, routing data, or logistics KPIs and generate reports and intelligent analytics to offer you an in-depth understanding of how your courier business is doing. You need data to tell the difference between your planned business output and your actual results.

Did your delivery drivers service their assigned daily route stops? Did they stick to the planned multi stop routes? How many miles did a particular fleet vehicle traveled this month?

Your multiple stops route planner reporting and analytics capabilities should be able to answer all these questions and tell you if you managed to cut delivery costs as planned.

Visual overview of logistics KPIs, routing data, and delivery analytics on route planner dashboard

 

8. Reduce the Need for Overtime

When trying to minimize shipping expenses and cut delivery costs, this step is a given. As your payroll costs are also reflected in the last mile delivery costs your courier business must support, you need to keep overtime at a minimum – both for financial purposes and for your employees’ satisfaction.

To do that, all you have to do is plan and optimize your multi-stop routes and make sure your delivery drivers are navigating those planned routes. They need to follow the turn-by-turn driving directions provided by the Android or iOS GPS navigation route planner. If they don’t, your route planning efforts will be just a waste of time.

Sending planned routes from routing software to delivery drivers' route planner apps

Other Questions in "How To Optimize Last Mile"

Route4Me

About Route4Me

Route4Me has over 40,000 customers globally. Route4Me's Android and iPhone mobile apps have been downloaded over 2 million times since 2009. Extremely easy-to-use, Route4Me's apps create optimized routes, synchronize routes to mobile devices, enable communication with drivers and customers, offer turn-by-turn directions, delivery confirmation, and more. Behind the scenes, Route4Me's operational optimization platform combines high-performance algorithms with data science, machine learning, and big data to plan, optimize, and analyze routes of almost any size in real-time.