How Can Tech Make A Difference To Route Planning And Optimization
Route optimization plays a significant role in logistics and supply chain management. It ensures timely and cost-efficient movement of goods from one point to another. Planning delivery routes can be done in two ways- traditional and modern. Traditional route management practices rely heavily on manual efforts and need a considerable amount of time. On the contrary, modern technology that uses technologies like AI and ML eliminates manual intervention and finishes route planning and optimization within minutes.
That’s the reason small, mid-sized, and well-established businesses are investing in route optimization software. Such software digitizes the task of route planning and offers accurate outputs in no time. To understand the importance of technology in route optimization, let’s take an example-
You run a homemade dairy products business with a limited number of customers. Delivery of orders can be easily done with five to ten vehicles. Moreover, managing delivery routes is also not difficult. On the other hand, if you scale your business and expand the regions, you would definitely need more vehicles and a way to manage delivery routes. Managing them manually could be a time-consuming task.
On the other hand, if you do the same task by using delivery route software you can do this in minutes. The software considers multiple constraints like delivery location, number of stops, delivery time window, and more to design the most efficient routes. By following such routes, your drivers can ensure delivering multiple orders (all on the right time). Some of the key benefits of using a tech-enabled platform or routing software for optimizing delivery routes include-
Reduces delivery time
The software accelerates the speed of completion of the route planning task, which minimizes the overall delivery TAT. The software reduces travel time by finding out the most efficient routes using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other technologies that give real-time updates on the traffic and weather conditions, route histories, and more.
Better resource utilization
Route planning software not only makes primary trip planning easy, but it also helps with secondary trip planning. It generates delivery routes from source to the destination and then back to the source. A vehicle heading to the delivery can reach back to the source within time for further deliveries in a single day.
Increases drivers’ productivity
The software also contributes to improving drivers’ productivity. It designs routes with no or minimal traffic; moreover, it also redesigns new routes in case of unforeseen situations like accidents, road closures, and more. The driver doesn’t have to sit idle.
Increased number of deliveries per vehicle
Routes designed by the routing software include number of stops as a key factor. By following that route, one vehicle can do more deliveries which reduces fuel costs, vehicle maintenance costs, and the overall delivery costs.
While choosing route management software, it is advised to get a cloud-based to access it from anywhere at any device. Therefore, your first priority should be finding a reliable provider of SaaS-based route planning software. Choose the best to make the most of the route planning and optimization software.
