Service providers often rely on the expertise of veteran drivers to keep operations running smoothly. Many drivers who have been operating in the same area for years and decades have often built personal knowledge of how to complete their routes most efficiently. Because of this, those drivers can be hesitant to see the value of utilizing routing technology, and their company at large may not see the value of the investment.
However, even companies with the most experienced drivers can benefit from incorporating routing technologies into their daily workflow. By combining the expertise developed by veteran drivers with advanced routing solutions like Descartes GroundCloud, service providers can see both immediate and long-term advantages that help maintain efficiency, reduce costs, and boost the resiliency of their operations.
Are Veteran Drivers Running the Most Efficient Routes?
Veteran drivers have often accumulated in-depth knowledge of their work area. They know the best roads to take, how to navigate complex delivery areas, and when to avoid traffic. However, relying solely on this knowledge can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that even the most experienced driver may not realize. The reality is there are millions of ways to sequence delivery stops, and finding the absolute best route every day requires more than just intuition.
Routing technology can analyze an entire day’s worth of deliveries and identify the most efficient sequence of stops to minimize driving time, fuel usage, and traffic delays. This isn’t to replace the knowledge veteran drivers have but to enhance it, enabling them to achieve even higher levels of efficiency while giving further opportunity to grow their knowledge. With tools like GroundCloud, drivers are guided through optimized routes while still applying their valuable knowledge of road conditions and delivery nuances.
Incorporating Expertise: Subzones and Stop Ordering
One of the key benefits of using a routing solution like GroundCloud is the ability to customize the optimized routes. Every area of operation comes with its own specific needs. The ability to create Subzones and use customizable stop ordering ensures that veteran drivers can incorporate their knowledge to create truly optimized routes. Additionally, this flexibility helps to accommodate business and personal priorities to help overall operations run more smoothly.
For example, if a route needs certain high priority stops to be completed early in the day, the stop sequence can be adjusted accordingly while route optimization automates efficiency between those stops. This allows businesses to utilize the knowledge of their veteran drivers, while benefiting from a routing solution to optimize the broader scope of their routes.
Streamlining Information: No More Lost Notes
A key operational challenge is keeping track of essential information like gate codes, dock locations, and customer preferences. Traditionally, this type of information has been kept track of using paper notes, word of mouth between drivers, or just by building personal knowledge. However, this can be unreliable, especially when written notes get misplaced, are not updated, or turnover causes built up knowledge to be lost entirely.
Routing solutions like Descartes GroundCloud solve this problem by digitizing these important records and making them available to every driver. Drivers can log essential stop notes in the GroundCloud Driver App, ensuring that all critical stop information is easily accessible during subsequent deliveries. This not only benefits veteran drivers who can keep their knowledge organized but also becomes invaluable when turnover occurs, stops are transferred between routes, or when servicing new areas.
By digitizing and centralizing important stop notes, gate codes, and dock locations, companies can ensure continuity even when drivers change. The next driver to run the route will have full access to all the detailed records and knowledge accumulated from all previous deliveries to each stop. This reduces the risk of inefficiencies from knowledge gaps and helps maintain consistent service efficiency.
Preparing for Turnover: Continuity with New Drivers
Driver turnover is a fact of life in the logistics industry. Even companies with long-standing employees face the possibility of drivers leaving or retiring, which can create knowledge gaps and lead to inefficiencies. The challenge of replacing veteran drivers is particularly steep, as new hires must learn both the nuances of the route and the best practices for each stop.
Typically, this involves ride-alongs where the veteran driver will show the new driver the ins and outs of the route and each stop. This can be costly, requiring two drivers to be assigned to a route, and it is highly likely that not every stop along the route will be hit during their training period. It also demands that the new driver retain all the important stop information – a big ask for someone new to the industry or service area.
Descartes GroundCloud minimizes this disruption by providing detailed routing and record-keeping for all stops. Drivers can step into a new work area, have the most efficient route automatically created, and view all important stop information from previous drivers. This helps new hires get up to speed quickly without spending weeks or months learning the ins and outs of a route.
In the Long-Term: Reducing Costs and Enhancing Service Quality
The long-term benefits of integrating routing technology like Descartes GroundCloud into final-mile operations go beyond day-to-day efficiency. Fuel costs, vehicle wear and tear, and labor expenses are significant contributors to overhead, the ability to easily optimize routes can lead to substantial savings by reducing fuel usage and limiting unnecessary driving time, helping service providers to lower their overall operational costs.
With more efficient routing and stop instructions, service providers can manage higher stop volumes without increasing the number of drivers or vehicles needed. Veteran drivers can still apply their knowledge to enhance service quality and more easily pass on their expertise when a new driver takes over. This helps to maintain a consistent level of service across all service areas.
Utilizing RouteStats: Understanding Efficiency Beyond Driving
While routing optimization is a major step toward improving efficiency, understanding the details of performance on each route is crucial for identifying areas for further optimization. GroundCloud’s RouteStats provides businesses with detailed insights into the efficiency of individual routes, drivers, and the operation as a whole.
RouteStats makes available important driver, stop, and route data to give managers a clearer understanding of how efficiently their routes are running. This allows them to make informed decisions and plans based on the historical performance of their own operations. Even with veteran drivers, these insights can reveal inefficiencies and highlight opportunities to improve performance and reduce costs that would otherwise slip under the radar.
Conclusion: Why Incorporate a Routing Solution?
Incorporating a routing solution into your operations is increasingly becoming a necessity for service providers to remain efficient and profitable. It allows service providers to tap into the knowledge of their veteran drivers better than ever before, helping to unlock greater efficiencies and future-proof their operations.
The route customization of Descartes GroundCloud allows the expertise of seasoned drivers to shine and be proliferated across your team, while offering ways to refine and enhance overall operational efficiency. The combination of route optimization, real-time data, and seamless record-keeping ensures that service providers can maximize the efficiency of their operations now and ensure that they retain that efficiency going forward.
For service providers to thrive in both the near and long term, the integration of routing solutions into daily operations is a strategic investment that pays dividends in cost savings, consistently service improvements, and operational resilience. A final-mile operation requires human expertise, and by embracing technologies that boost the efficacy of that expertise, service providers can position themselves for success and profitability in an increasingly competitive environment.