[su_dropcap style=”flat”]D[/su_dropcap]O YOU OWN a delivery company? If so, you will no doubt be looking at ways you can improve its efficiency. Let’s face it: your business relies on time-sensitive deadlines. If you meet them, you get paid. If you don’t, your reputation will suffer. And that could even put you out of business!
As you can appreciate, it’s crucial that your delivery firm is as efficient as possible. The following tips and ideas will help you to run a tighter ship. Here is what you need to know:
Offer your customers an online booking service
The problem with telephone bookings is they increase the likelihood of mistakes. Online bookings are a much better alternative. Customers can use them at any time they wish. Plus, they – not you – are liable for any address errors.
There are other advantages to setting up an online booking service. First of all, you can integrate it with your firm’s internal IT systems. Second, it makes it easier to organise collections and deliveries. And, third, they save everyone a lot of time!
Fit GPS tracking in your delivery vehicles
Customers often demand to know when they can expect to receive their consignments. And courier companies want to know where their delivery drivers are on their routes.
To solve both those problems, it makes sense to fit GPS tracking to your fleet of delivery vehicles. Both you and your customers will know exactly where the drivers are and their expected ETAs.
There are many solutions you can review. Here’s a popular one for GPS tracking: http://www.liveviewgps.com. Another advantage of GPS tracking is you can determine how to make routing efficient. For instance, you can plan routes to avoid traffic jams and road closures.
Use a fleet of modern vehicles
One of the main bugbears for any delivery company is when their vehicles break down on the road! To overcome that issue, it makes sense to upgrade your fleet.
To keep costs down, you should consider leasing your fleet of trucks and other vehicles. That way, after two or three years, you can upgrade them to new models. Plus, there aren’t any huge upfront costs. The result? A more reliable fleet and a healthier cash flow!
Automate your distribution centers
Does your delivery company cover a large region or country? If so, you’ll no doubt have some distribution centers. Doing everything “by hand” can take time and increases the scope for errors.
Instead, why not automate some of your processes. For instance, you could have conveyors with automatic barcode scanners. Some systems could even sort consignments by size. That makes it easier to calculate the volume of space taken up in each vehicle.
Outsource work in remote areas
It doesn’t make business sense to open a hub in an area with few people and businesses. But, what if you wish to cover such areas? What you could do is outsource endpoint delivery to local providers.
By doing so, you can still provide an end-to-end service to your customers.
