Due to the increasing growth of ecommerce, parcel delivery has become a crucial problem for businesses of all kinds. In-house delivery is gaining popularity among large and small businesses alike as a way to cut shipping costs and keep control over the client experience.
If done correctly, an in-house courier delivery management system can be incredibly beneficial. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a third-party courier service that cares as much as you do about your products and consumers. However, there are other factors to consider while establishing your own delivery service.
To master courier management, you’ll need a firm grasp on the fundamentals, a useful guide for finding areas for improvement, and simple software—a reliable courier management system.
What Is Courier Management?
The process of organizing last-mile delivery operations is known as courier management or online courier management system. Order deliveries are scheduled and assigned to couriers, and operations are monitored, routes are planned and optimized, cars are monitored, fuel is managed, and courier expenditure approvals are handled.
The Three Courier Management Goals
- Customers must be served with merchandise.
- Assist the couriers who are delivering the items.
- Ensure that customers have a positive shopping experience so that they will return for more.
It may appear straightforward, yet each objective has its own set of difficulties. Time is of the essence when it comes to deliveries, and things might be fragile. In the field, couriers will confront challenges such as traffic, trouble identifying addresses, and customers who aren’t at home. Your customers, on the other hand, anticipate frequent updates.
Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just starting out as a courier, there’s a lot to handle. The best approach to accomplish these goals is to divide them down into smaller jobs. This is what we’ve done for you below.
Quickly and effectively deliver products
Your delivery company’s success is dependent on bringing orders to consumers on schedule and in good condition. The larger your earning potential, the faster and more efficiently you complete deliveries. This is what speedy and efficient product delivery entails:
- Transporting things safely is essential. Courier management teams aren’t usually in charge of packaging, but they do need to ensure that commodities are safe during shipment. You may require insulated bags for food storage, padded packaging for breakable goods, or tall dividers for flower deliveries, depending on what you’re shipping.
- Meet or beat deadlines on a regular basis. More than half of online shoppers consider delivery turnaround time to be a good factor, and 89 percent of customers have abandoned a business due to bad customer service. If you want to have a high level of client satisfaction, you should optimize delivery routes, assign deliveries in priority order, and do everything you can to increase delivery speed.
- Drive as efficiently as possible. Manual calculations are more prone to human error and take longer than software-based calculations. Use courier route optimization software to calculate the most efficient routes in seconds and gain a competitive advantage.
Consider putting in place fuel-management methods as well. Maintaining delivery vehicles and teaching couriers fuel-efficient driving skills can help you save money on gas and boost overall efficiency.
Support couriers to increase work capacity.
When a customer shops online, the only brand representatives they encounter are couriers. Because couriers are undoubtedly your most important asset, it makes sense to assist them in any manner possible. Using a route optimization technology, you can empower couriers to work at their best and, as a result, drive income for your company:
- Give couriers clear, easy-to-follow routing directions. Otherwise, instead of traveling to their next location, delivery drivers will spend a lot of time sitting in their car, typing each new address into their GPS. To give drivers with turn-by-turn navigation from their choice mapping software, use courier management software to improve work capacity.
- Shifts should be communicated to couriers in advance. Give workers their schedules as far in advance as possible to reduce last-minute no-shows. You can plan up to 5 weeks ahead of time. The more notice you provide couriers, the easier it will be for them to locate coverage and the less likely they would “call in sick” on the day of their shift. For additional information, see our guide to shift work scheduling.
- Driver breaks should be well scheduled. Driver breaks aren’t a luxury; they’re a legal requirement, and failing to plan for them can result in a slew of problems. Most courier management software automate the scheduling of breaks to have the least impact on delivery routes.
- Motivate couriers by providing them with clear goals and a sense of purpose. The link between a positive business culture and employee productivity has been demonstrated in numerous publications. Set clear objectives for your staff and provide them with the assistance they need to attain them.
- If your couriers are doing poorly, the easiest method to uncover a solution and learn how you can assist them is to just ask. Couriers may be confronted with difficulties in the field that you are unaware of. Schedule one-on-one meetings with each member of your team on a regular basis to learn how you can better support their efforts and enhance overall workflow.
Provide a superior customer experience.
Every stage in the logistics supply chain and the last-mile delivery chain gets you closer to the end goal: providing a fantastic customer experience. Customers usually have a positive experience when your products arrive safely and on schedule. However, if you want to elevate that experience from decent to exceptional, you’ll need to do the following:
- Provide extremely precise delivery estimates. Customers expect updates on delivery status (by SMS or email), and the more exact you can be, the better. Choose a courier delivery management software that provides customers with real-time updates.
- Create a customer-centric backup plan. You’ll run into scenarios where you need to deliver a delivery but the consumer isn’t home, even if you give live tracking for customers. You’ll need a plan in place for circumstances when the customer comes first, such as leaving the package with a trusted neighbor or calling the customer to see what they’d like you to do.
Courier management is an area where there is always room for improvement. Revisit these goals on a regular basis, and always search for ways to make them better, faster, and more efficient.
What Are the Benefits of Using a Courier Management System?
You will not be competitive unless you have a courier delivery management system. A courier delivery management system, or CMS, is a piece of business software that streamlines the management and routing of couriers. All of the following duties are made easier with a CMS:
- Routing delivery routes and optimizing them
- Tracking and scheduling couriers
- Examining the performance of couriers
- During the delivery service, packages are tracked.
- Keeping customers up to date
Manual planning and routing take a long time to complete. It’s difficult to find the best path in a city with thousands of distinct routes. When you have to compute hundreds or thousands of stops, it’s practically hard to do well. The traveling salesman dilemma is what courier management systems were designed to address.
What makes courier management software different from warehouse management software?
WMS (warehouse management software) is software that is used to manage inventory and logistics in a warehouse or storage facility. CMS makes last-mile delivery and courier management easier. Both are used by many courier and logistics companies. For seamless communication, this software can be readily implemented.
What does a courier management system cost?
The cost depends on the software solution you select as well as the number of drivers or vehicles in your fleet. Most software provide a risk-free trial with no credit card information required, so you may test it out without risk. Find out more about our pricing model.
What is a Courier Management Software?
For delivery purposes, courier management software is employed. It is used to automate the delivery of a package from the point of collection to the point of dispatch. The elements of courier management software aid in the smooth delivery of packages.
Picking the wrong courier delivery service management solution/software for your courier business can be costly — not only because you might end up overspending on a service with features you don’t need, but also because you might end up with a courier management system that doesn’t help you meet your overall business objectives.
This is more probable than you might expect, because courier firms have a wide range of needs among the four basic categories of courier services (overnight, same day, standard, and international). These requirements are determined by a variety of criteria, including the size of your fleet, the products you deliver, and how you distribute them. Not every software solution was created with the same delivery business strategy in mind.
We’ll go over five different courier delivery management solutions and how they function to provide the most typical benefits of a good courier management system to help you pick the best courier management software for your business:
- Using techniques like route optimization and preventative vehicle maintenance checks to cut transportation costs
- Route tracking, ETA notifications, and signature capture as proof of delivery are all ways to improve customer service (POD)
- Customer accounts that contain digital waybills, invoices, and bills of lading make billing simple and precise.
Is courier management software useful for arranging shift work?
Employee scheduling is a core element in most courier management software systems. Advanced capabilities in these software assist with scheduling and planning. Courier management software allows you to plan personnel and route deliveries for up to five weeks in advance, and the programme can alert you if you need more drivers to satisfy demand during a particular shift. These software also makes it simple to organize drivers’ breaks and swiftly change plans if a vehicle encounters traffic or encounters a hitch.
5 of the Best Courier Management Software 2024
Let’s look into courier management software solutions to see what unique features they offer that might be of interest to your courier business.
- Samsara
If you run a large fleet, Samsara is a fleet management software option worth investigating. For your delivery business, Samsara provides route optimization, route monitoring, customer updates via client accounts, and a few more useful features. However, at the time of writing, Samsara does not have any invoicing or waybill functionality.
Samsara’s live vehicle position monitoring is one of its most distinctive features. There may be a gap between where your driver is and where they appear on your dispatcher’s dashboard, depending on the courier provider you choose. The time difference is usually little (a few minutes), but if you need absolute accuracy, Samsara’s real-time tracking is a huge plus.
Your dispatch crew can also set up geofencing alerts using Samsara. Dispatch can select an area (by actually painting a fence on a map) that sends an alert to Dispatch when the motorist enters or exits the area.
Samsara is also aware that there are a variety of methods to rack up bills when it comes to vehicle maintenance. In numerous ways, their courier delivery management system reduces transportation expenses.
Then there’s the issue of gasoline prices, which Samsara can help with thanks to their own fuel reporting system. It examines fuel trends in order to detect inefficiencies or unusual activities (such as hard braking, carrying heavier-than-planned loads, or constantly turning the vehicle off and on during idle routes).
Then there’s the issue of car upkeep. Pre-trip and post-trip vehicle inspections are suggested at Dispatch, and with the Samsara app, you can record your observations and report anything that requires repair (such a lit check engine light or a flickering tail light) with your fleet’s mechanics.
- OnTime 360.
OnTime 360 is courier management software that provides end-to-end solutions to assist you handle all of your courier business’s demands. OnTime 360 has extensive QuickBooks connectivity, route optimization, route monitoring, customer updates, and an invoice, waybill, and bill of lading collection system.
OnTime 360 comes with route optimization built-in, and, like the other services on this list, it’s a feature handled solely by Dispatch. (Drivers are unable to re-optimize their routes in response to unexpected barriers or traffic delays.)
However, there is a catch to OnTime 360’s route optimization services. Simple point-to-point optimization tools are offered in their basic plans, however they do not include “mapping data, routes, and time windows.” You’ll need to buy advanced route optimization credits if you want to factor in those aspects (which most courier businesses do).
OnTime 360 allows you to track your vehicles, which aids in route planning and vehicle maintenance. You can also specify settings such that a vehicle is tagged for a preventative maintenance check when it reaches a specified mileage or service interval.
Customers may also monitor the progress of their order, the assigned driver, the official drop-off time, and any proof-of-delivery receipts using this delivery tracking service. It is up to courier dispatch to decide what the customer can and cannot see.
Remember that OnTime360 requires Dispatch to turn off and on the GPS tracking. If you wish to use it, make sure it’s turned on.
The opportunity for drivers to change their availability through the mobile app is another useful tool for dispatch management teams. This way, Dispatch is notified right away if a driver’s availability changes, and they don’t have to re-optimize routes at the last minute.
Finally, of all the courier management software listed, only OnTime This allows your back office to streamline accounting by making it simple to send invoices and receive payment.
- ShipTrack
ShipTrack bills itself as a “full-featured track and trace” courier software solution, which puts it between a complete courier management system and basic dispatch software.
Customers can use ShipTrack to optimize their routes, track their progress, and receive delivery status updates, but there are no facilities for issuing invoices or collecting signed digital waybills and bills of lading.
ShipTrack’s feature that allows couriers to specify service-level agreements (SLAs) into their operations is one of our favorites. This allows couriers who use ShipTrack to report to their clients on how well ShipTrack is meeting their unique key performance indicators.
ShipTrack also enables for cash on delivery (COD) services, which may be useful if you’re a courier system that employs messengers.
- Bringoz
Bringoz is one of our list’s more unusual and complex courier management software options. It bills itself as a “modular solution” that provides shippers and carriers with a scalable delivery infrastructure to assist them optimize their logistics.
Route monitoring, route optimization, customer updates, invoicing, and waybill and bill of lading collecting are all available with Bringoz. Bringoz also manages warehouses and inventories.
Bringoz allows you to link your courier service to online, offline, and in-store platforms. Orders are then processed and allocated a base, resulting in the most efficient routes and driver availability.
Retail, freight, healthcare, auto parts, restaurants, and food supply chains are among the industries for which Bringoz works.
- Delivery Mark
When they noticed that a lot of courier management software was overlooking fleets of six or less drivers, Mark decided to go into the courier business. It’s unique in that both delivery teams and shippers use the same platform.
To be clear, Delivery Mark is used by both delivery companies and businesses who require their products delivered.
If you’re a firm, you log in, create a load that needs to be delivered, and then either open it up for bidding among delivery drivers and couriers or call a delivery company you’ve worked with before using Delivery Mark.
You log in as a delivery team and bid on loads. You assign a load to your drivers, perform the deliveries, and collect the customer’s signature as POD as you’ve won it.
Note that Delivery Mark does not provide route optimization or any of the other more popular courier management functions. If you’re thinking about using Delivery Mark, you should also think about employing a route optimization service to help your drivers deliver faster while saving money on gas and labor.
BEST FREE COURIER MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Examine these top-rated tools to get the best solution for your company. Capterra users offer these tools a thumbs up based on ratings and quantity of reviews.
- Detrack is a comprehensive courier management programme that enables you to track your vehicles live on a map and collect real-time electronic proof of delivery (E-POD) using simply our iOS / Android app, and it’s free for your first driver forever. Our apps have been translated into 26 languages and are used to accomplish millions of deliveries every day throughout the world.
- More than 23,000 e-commerce enterprises use Sendcloud to save time, effort, and money on their most important process: shipping.
- eHub is a shipping API that helps you save money on shipping while also providing a level of support that no one else can match.
- To save time on the road, route planning and dispatching software for teams and solitary users is available. Schedules, Excel imports, and reporting are all supported by RoadWarrior.
- Packlink PRO is an eCommerce and marketplace shipment management application.
- Deliforce – The most comprehensive platform for streamlining your complex delivery operations and tracking your field personnel, delivery boys, and technicians in real time.
- EasyPost provides a Shipping API that helps online companies address difficult shipping issues. Create a free account and begin shipping right away!
- At every stage of e-commerce complexity, Shippo delivers by design. Start shipping for free with Shippo.
- Route4Me has finally solved the routing conundrum! Route4Me is a simple-to-use route planner for your business.
- Zippykind offers a delivery management solution that allows businesses to optimize routes, track drivers, and verify deliveries with customer signatures, among other things.
Conclusion
Finding the best courier management software for your company is essential to taking your delivery operations to the next level. You can improve your procedures and take use of features like route optimization and cloud management to keep your invoices and waybills by using courier software. The trick is to match your requirements to the software’s capabilities.
