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Plan and Optimize Your Delivery Routes in Seconds
Jennifer Juarez
Published on:
April 20, 2021
Updated on:
August 23, 2024
Published on:
April 20, 2021
Updated on:
August 23, 2024
Are you using multiple tools to plan out daily deliveries, spending valuable time routing your fleet every day? Do your customers lack access to order updates?
What if we told you it doesn’t have to be that way?
Companies often rely on Google Maps or Waze to set up delivery routes. But the problem across these services is that they only solve point A to B, not factoring in the pertinent logistics related to deliveries. This forces many companies to supplement with whiteboards, excel sheets, or paper manifests to get the task done.
In order to accommodate a growing business, and as customers continue to expect faster deliveries, a new set of tools is imperative to your delivery planning and scaling needs.
Dispatch Connect has created a solution to this problem. Introducing the “Optimize My Route” button for quick and easy routing! This new solution determines the fastest route for all of your vehicles, eliminating tedious route planning efforts. Let’s dive into how it works.
Using this new feature is easy. Enter your orders and assign deliveries to vehicles as you normally would. Next, click on the “Optimize My Route” button and, in moments, the deliveries will arrange themselves while considering the following:
You will see the route processing as shown below. When it’s finished, the map displaying the route will update as well.
You then choose to “Accept” or “Discard” the proposed route. If you do accept the route, you’ll see a timestamp. You still have the option to drag and drop deliveries, fine-tuning as you see fit. Once your route is ready to go, you can then send it to your driver.
If there is a stop assigned to a vehicle with time window or capacity constraints, it will automatically unassign that delivery and remove it from your route. You can then add it to a different vehicle or schedule it for another day.
Keep in mind that for the orders that won’t “fit” an optimized route, you have the option to send them to Dispatch Marketplace for delivery fulfillment. Marketplace can be used for daily and overflow deliveries, seasonal peaks, and orders outside your delivery radius.
The “Plan My Route” functionality is here! This tool distributes and assigns deliveries across all your vehicles in Connect, prioritizing capacity and time windows. It also allows you to configure the expected duration of time spent at each drop-off and pickup location.
Additionally, you can toggle on your default pickup address in the “Connect Settings” tab. When turned on, your address will be auto-filled in the pickup location field when placing orders.
Both the “Optimize my Route” and “Plan my Route” additions:
Dispatch Connect allows you to gain visibility and share the status of each delivery — enabling you to connect the dots between your business, your drivers, your customers, and your bottom line. With Connect, you’ll be able to manage your deliveries, stay organized, send updates, and give your customers a better delivery experience.
Want to improve your efficiency and bottom line? Contact us to get started with Connect.
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