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How to optimise delivery route planning?

Published on 31 May 2023 • Reading time: 7 min read

Every carrier is looking to optimise their delivery planning, but doesn’t always know how to do it. In this article, we’ll explain it in simple terms:

• The benefits of efficient route planning
• The right route planning tools
• The data and steps you need to follow to automate and optimise your delivery route

An optimised route plan is the key to successful delivery. For hauliers and delivery drivers, efficient delivery planning is the guarantee of saving time and improving the customer experience.

What would you gain by optimising your route planning?

Your days are busy with deliveries of large parcels for a furniture company, small courier parcels or express deliveries.

Some will be handed to the customer at home, while others will be delivered to letterboxes or drop-off points. UA small percentage of these deliveries will have to be rescheduled for the next day, due to the absence of customers.

You also have to manage the absence of one of your delivery drivers at short notice. You do your best to manage these emergencies, the unexpected and sudden peaks in activity, and you don’t really have the time to think about rethinking your organisation.

Planning route to save time and optimise your resources

There’s a lot to be gained from optimising your delivery planning. You could save time, but also money. It could even help you reduce CO2 emissions, as more and more freight carriers are asking you to do.

And how is this possible?
It’s possible because, by planning your routes, you can make better use of the resources available. In practical terms, this means:

1. Optimised routes and therefore fewer miles travelled – The result: lower fuel costs, lower vehicle maintenance costs and lower CO2 emissions. By reducing the number of stops and detours, your delivery drivers are also able to deliver more parcels in the same amount of time.
2. Routes planned according to the capacity of your vehicles and the desired delivery sequencing – Result: higher vehicle occupancy rates, better-ordered parcels which are delivered more quickly.
3. Better organised routes and easier work for your delivery staff – The result: greater staff loyalty and lower turnover and mental workload. It’s also possible to calculate the most suitable delivery method, to help you choose more eco-friendly transport options.

Optimised planning to improve the customer experience

Your customers themselves will see this as a source of satisfaction.
Planning and optimising your routes will enable you to meet your delivery deadlines more efficiently and improve the quality of your customer service. By grouping deliveries according to geographic area, and taking into account the specific constraints of your customers (opening hours, delivery preferences, etc.), you will be able to:

• reduce delays,
• meet customer expectations more effectively.

The route planning optimisation on AntsRoute.

What is route planning?

That’s the question you probably asked yourself when you started reading this article. It’s important to understand the difference between simply organising or creating routes, and what’s known as route planning.

The data needed to create a route

When you organise your routes, you take into account the factors relating to the tasks assigned:

• departure and arrival addresses
• the different deliveries, pick-ups or exchanges of goods that need to be completed during the day or week.
• any requirements relating to the goods being transported: products to be stored in a cool place, urgent deliveries, deliveries that must be hand-delivered, etc.

You must also take into account your resources:

• staff and types of vehicle available (engine, capacity, etc.)
• break times, maximum working hours and the possibility of overtime or extra charges per parcel delivered, if necessary

La gestion des véhicules sur AntsRoute.

The limits of manual route planning

If you only employ one or two delivery drivers, you may be satisfied with grouping your tasks in a logical order, to reduce the number of miles you have to drive.

But if you use a navigation system such as Waze or Google Maps, you won’t get optimised route. You will have to enter all the stops on your itinerary one by one, and they will just be added one after the other, without having the possibility to optimise the order.

And what happens if your customers ask for specific delivery time slots or parcels to pick up on the way? And what if you absolutely have to find a way of reducing your costs?

Obviously, you can use Excel spreadsheets to create more or less optimised routes that take these criteria into account. But you’re likely to spend hours doing this, with results that are imperfect.

That’s where the possibilities of manual planning end.
And that’s where route planning starts.

The benefits of route planning

The route planning is no longer just about organising trips from point A to point B, but about entering a large number of parameters, which are then automatically calculated and compared in real time. It allows you to create optimised routes based on:

• your routes and stops ;
• your resources ;
• the time constraints of your customers ;
• the time constraints of your drivers ;
• the type of goods being delivered.

And this planning is made possible by the use of route optimisation software, which enables you to reduce the number of miles travelled and your CO2 emissions, while taking all your constraints into account.

Live route tracking on AntsRoute.

With just a few clicks, the software will tell you whether it’s better to visit this customer that day or the next day, and/or whether another mode of transport would be more appropriate.

The tool gives you an appropriate itinerary, which is simply the result of these complicated calculations. This is the optimised routes for your delivery drivers. It can be modified automatically in real time if a delivery is added at the last minute.

This is how AntsRoute’s software works.
And where you might have thought you were spending money, you’ll actually be saving efficiency, time, money AND peace of mind.

How can I get optimised route planning in real time?

Contrary to what some carriers think, optimisation software is neither complicated nor expensive.

Easy-to-use and affordable route planning software

At AntsRoute, route optimisation software is available from €24 per month per vehicle. The time and mileage you save will pay for itself very quickly.

At this price, you already benefit from a large number of the available functions, and you don’t need to reorganise everything.

• You can import your deliveries from Excel or Google Sheets and synchronise the application with your Google Calendar or Outlook.
• The software integrates your workers’ timetables and breaks, as well as their departure and arrival locations. It optimises routes for all your drivers and creates the route sheet, which they can export or view via the mobile application.
• You can geolocate your teams in the field and track their route history.
• You can also take advantage of online support and chat.

Further options for optimising your routes

You can go even further by subscribing to more complete offers. You’ll be able to:

• prioritise your deliveries according to deadlines,
• manage the loading capacity of your vehicles,
• send automated notifications for arrival and proofs of delivery,
• enable online appointment booking,
• get statistics about your routes,

and so much more, depending on your organisation and your needs.

The real-time processing of your route data

The most important task is to gather the information you need to optimise your routes:

• delivery addresses and customer contact details ;
• customer opening hours or times when they are available;
• delivery restrictions (e.g. restricted areas);
• specific constraints (such as requests for deliveries at the beginning or end of the day, or the type of goods being delivered);
• available resources (vehicles and their capacity, equipment required);
• your drivers’ working hours, breaks and days off.

Thanks to their algorithms, route optimisation software will calculate the most efficient routes in terms of distance, time and resources. It takes into account your specific constraints and can be set up to optimise different criteria, such as reducing costs or minimising CO2 emissions.

The optimisation of route planning simplifies the daily work of delivery drivers.

You can then provide drivers with real-time information about their route. They can include delivery instructions, last-minute changes and traffic updates, by connecting the software to an application such as Waze. For your part, you can geolocate your delivery drivers, track the progress of their routes and react quickly if necessary. If a delivery is added, delayed or postponed, you can reorganise the route accordingly.

If you have subscribed to a more advanced plan, you’ll be able to analyse statistics to identify peak times and areas of high activity, so you can better allocate your resources and delivery capacity according to the need.

You’ll also save time on administrative follow-up and improve the customer experience, thanks to automated notifications, proof of delivery and appointment scheduling.

By following these tips and using the right tools, you’ll be able to optimise your delivery route planning, improve your operational efficiency, optimise your costs and provide quality customer service.

AntsRoute software is currently offering a 50% discount for 1 month and a 7-day free trial. This could be the perfect time to take the plunge!