Last-mile delivery continues to be a painful issue in logistics. At the same time, it is very important and will allow you to move far ahead if you approach it correctly. Since it is expensive and has its difficulties, businesses need to adapt to these challenges to provide effective services and to consider the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which also creates issues for transportation solutions. One of the major needs in coping with the challenges of last-mobile delivery is the need to automate the operations so the whole workflow goes smoothly and the company can handle last-mile delivery to improve client experience.
Fortunately, nowadays there is a wide range of last-mile solutions that can simplify your work and cut costs. You do not have to spend a lot of resources or look for complex options, at the moment you can find services that will help you. In this article, we will consider last-mile solutions for transportation companies and how a business can benefit from implementing them.
What Is Last Mile Delivery?
Last-mile delivery is an important part of the whole process of delivery. It is the last point in the whole process that is essential for different companies as it affects customer satisfaction in many ways.
Often, clients have high expectations of what last-mile delivery should look like, so companies need to adapt to these expectations in the realities of increasing competition.
Last-mile delivery usually means delivering an order to a customer's doorstep or retail store. This is the most expensive step of all stages of the shipping process. That's why cutting costs while maintaining efficiency is essential for companies to stay competitive. This is where automation and proper organization come to your rescue. Last-mile delivery is also highly time-consuming, and since customers are often interested in fast delivery, you, as a company, need to take this into account as well, effectively timing your delivery. The time it takes to deliver is a significant part of the customer experience and influences the buyer's decision to buy a product. Often, buyers refuse to buy goods due to time-consuming delivery.
What Is the Last-Mile Problem?
One of the most painful challenges of the whole field last-mile delivery refers to its inefficiency. First of all, it can be seen in the fact that delivery is slow and in its process, there are difficulties that some companies cannot cope with.
In rural areas, there are usually even more problems than in the city, since delivery points are located at a very large distance from each other and the whole process thus takes even longer. In the city, the problem with the speed of delivery is complicated by traffic jams.
Since very often customers tend to want free and fast delivery, another difficult challenge arises for logistics companies. In modern realities, making delivery free of charge, and at the same time not spending a lot of time on it, is a task that is aggravated by delays in transportation and expenses that the company itself must endure.
When we talk about customized solutions for Last Mile delivery, it is important to understand the risks that your system has and what factors will be prioritized for optimal business. Here's what our partner, ANT-Logistics, a Ukrainian developer of a ready-made cloud-based route planning optimization solution, says about it:
In our company, we often focus on the fact that we are a cloud service. In everyday life, it helps to save on the purchase of equipment, but during the war, we saw really undoubted advantages of this very clearly, when companies did not have the opportunity to centrally transfer to another city all the equipment necessary for work, including servers hosting boxed solutions.
Also, it is important not only to find a cool solution for optimizing last-mile delivery, but also to clearly set your priorities. When choosing a service, evaluate whether it has settings that take into account certain important factors, for example, the calculation of the route may be faster, but the route will be built off-road, which may increase the costs of depreciation and general repair of the car fleet. But if the fleet is rented and you pay for hours of use, this is not an important indicator.
Next, one of the most important factors of the system is the cost of human resources for its maintenance. Our service takes into account 80 parameters when calculating and constructing a route. A logist's work is reduced from 3-5 hours per day to 10-30 minutes. We can calculate qualitatively for 2500+ delivery points within 30 minutes.
Optimizing logistics costs, including the last mile, is about risk management, and risks are always about dynamics, they are not constant - once eliminated and that's it. Graphical dashboards for cost analysis, delivery time, mileage, etc. allow you to always keep your finger on the pulse and quickly change the approach to planning, while not rebuilding the last mile logistics process itself.
What Are the Costs of Last Mile Delivery?
The general tendency of customers to expect free shipping from transportation companies and the unwillingness to agree to pay a delivery fee is taking its toll on the market, as even with the need to charge shipping companies have to remain competitive. At the same time, spending on last-mile delivery can reach half of the total cost of delivery, which is what makes it so expensive.
To cope with such non-trivial problems in terms of spending and efficiency, companies have to adapt heavily. One of the tools that can help to cope is the use of last-mile solutions.
Interested in Last Mile Delivery?
Since last-mile delivery is both a difficult and an essential step, transportation companies do their best to both improve the efficiency of their services to grow in a highly competitive environment and meet customer expectations that are changing dramatically with the growing number of options with free delivery.
If you are serious about last-mile delivery and feel the need to improve your performance in this field, a last-mile solution will be your perfect match. Digital solutions with advanced functionality that are available on the market are able to cut costs and simplify your tasks significantly.
Technology Solutions to Improve Last Mile Logistics
Technology solutions are essential for last-mile logistics operations as they provide businesses with the ability to automate and organize work properly. In circumstances that force you to cut costs and improve your productivity at the same time, automation is the key. Such solutions facilitate end-to-end visibility of all of the delivery processes, as well as help centralize logistics data. Improve your performance and provide excellent customer experience with intelligent delivery management software.
Our Last Mile Delivery Solutions
We create last-mile delivery software, which aims to significantly increase the operations of companies, through a smart approach and digitalization. Instead of wasting time, effort, and money on achieving your business goals and taking into account the needs of your customers to provide a quality customer experience, your business can now greatly benefit from its regular operations using smart, reliable, and versatile software.
At a time when the speed of operations is valued as much as their efficiency, and companies are finding more and more ways to refine various details in their services, the software is your reliable assistant. Imagine the accuracy and power you can achieve with a digital solution with a handy set of flexible features.
The field of last-mile delivery is rapidly expanding, so there is a need for companies to cope with this complex and costly challenge so that neither brand reputation nor finances suffer. You can easily accomplish this task by using robust software and trusting your complex processes to the software.
Supply Chain Solutions
With the help of modern software solutions, you will be able to improve the efficiency of various aspects of the supply chain, and it will help your business to stabilize its position in the market and achieve new, more tangible results.
Robust and advanced technological solutions will help you successfully overcome even the most challenging circumstances.
You will not have to spend a lot of time and effort on improving your performance. You can get much better results just by letting technology help you, and we will make sure the solution will help you achieve higher efficiency and better financial performance.
Warehousing
For modern logistics companies, warehousing is both a complex and strategically important field. There are always plenty of needs and operations in the warehouse that need to be carefully planned, optimized and automated. With our solutions, it can be achieved easily and without extra effort.
We provide warehousing services that can significantly help your company's operations. For modern transport companies, the proper organization of a warehouse is one of the most important aspects, and the complexity of technologies and demands in this field is growing every day. With our digital solutions, your warehouse operations will run smoothly and you will no longer have to worry about the quality of your work.
Transport
Transport services are one of the integral parts of the transportation industry. The quality of services is of the utmost importance. You can make your work easier and help yourself with technology, and we are here to offer a great solution – modern, advanced and powerful solutions to improve transport services. With powerful software, which uses AI technology, you will be able to work efficiently, and you will not have to worry about additional nuances.
Co-packing
Our co-packing solutions are great for expanding your product range and reaching new markets. So you can significantly improve your performance. Use our flexible and sustainable co-packing solutions, increase your market share, and achieve whole new levels of efficiency.
Omnichannel
With the ever-increasing mixture of online and offline formats in today's business and the increasing popularity and importance of eCommerce, there is a need to develop appropriate technologies. With our omnichannel solutions, you can boost your online sales and be much more efficient in your field.
Supply Chain Optimization
That is why we provide flexible and robust solutions for supply chain optimization. They will allow you to meet new challenges and increase your efficiency. Use our solutions to improve your company’s performance and financial results. Thus, you will be able to strengthen the position of your business in the market and show yourself well in the growing competition by optimizing your supply chain.
Urban Logistics
A robust solution for urban logistics is a must. With the help of our software, you will be able to gain a substantial competitive advantage and achieve unprecedented efficiency while saving your resources for higher-priority purposes. Improve your brand experience and make your business more competitive by improving urban logistics services.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that last-mile delivery has recently been complicated by a large number of different requests and natural limitations, your company will definitely be able to cope with this challenge if you carefully prepare and have an efficient and affordable delivery strategy to achieve customer satisfaction.
At the moment, there are many ways to make delivery better, and technology is one of those assistants. If you want to improve the efficiency of your processes, let a powerful solution take over and keep your customers happy.
The technological advancement of the transportation industry is advancing day by day, and technology is infiltrating every aspect of logistics. Now both the need for technology and the capabilities of these tools are growing. Therefore, you must take this aspect into account and technology will be your reliable assistant.