A Guide To Better Delivery Scheduling

Nowadays, consumer demands around deliveries are at an all-time high.

Meeting and exceeding expectations requires more than just loading up a delivery vehicle and heading out without a plan. Instead, it’s essential to schedule deliveries efficiently to keep your operations profitable.

To assist you, we’ve compiled all the crucial information on effective delivery scheduling and condensed it into this comprehensive guide.

What is Delivery Scheduling?

Delivery scheduling refers to the process that determines which order gets delivered on what routes and the sequence of delivery.

While consumers used to be able to choose a time of day of their delivery. Nowadays, companies let customers select more precise delivery times, even within two or one-hour time slots. This requires flexibility as changes can be made last minute; a well-structured delivery scheduling process helps you respond adequately.

How does it work?

Before you can start make improvements, let’s dive into the step-by-step process that precisely explains how delivery scheduling work: A delivery scheduling system can streamline the process by creating a well-organised plan for incoming shipments, allowing for adjustments in case of disruptions, and facilitating better logistics for suppliers.

▶️ Clear inventory and order visibility

The first step in delivery scheduling is having a clear overview of your incoming and outgoing orders. 

This enables you to prepare for the unexpected, while you also know the location of each order at all times which speeds up delivery times.

▶️ Route Optimisation

The next step is route planning. Route planning software calculates the distance to each delivery route and tries to find the best ones for your delivery drivers.

That means it isn’t just about finding the shortest path from point A to point B, it’s about finding the most efficient route to reduce the distance traveled between delivery drops.

▶️ Scheduling

The final step in delivery scheduling is organising delivery stops into efficient trips for each driver.

That includes assigning orders to suitable vehicles based on package size, weight, and other dimensions. In addition, you will need to allocate these trips to trustworthy delivery drivers.

Importance of good delivery schedules

Planning the best delivery routes leads to effective delivery schedules, which isn’t just useful, it’s profitable and ultimately leads to greater customer satisfaction.

That’s why optimising your entire delivery schedule must be a priority for every business as it helps you:

• Streamline the delivery process, eliminating bottlenecks and unnecessary trips

• Ensure timely scheduled deliveries to meet customer expectations and hit your targets

• Implement efficient delivery scheduling to maximise vehicle capacity

• Reduce overall transportation costs

• Improve customer satisfaction by providing accurate delivery windows and real-time updates

Challenges of scheduling deliveries

Managing your delivery service involves a lot of moving parts that can bring challenges. Here is an overview of some of the main operational challenges:

▶️ Lack of flexibility

No matter how well-organised your delivery schedule may be, every business, at some point, experiences certain issues. Order cancellations, product recalls, and last-minute orders can present a challenge for delivery managers who spend a lot of time and effort optimising routes.

▶️ Tight timeframes

One of the hardest parts of delivery scheduling is making sure each step of the delivery process is well-coordinated. Poor coordination of delivery windows automatically results in delays between processes.

▶️ Surprise delay

Not every delay is under your control. This is because there are a lot of external factors like road closures, weather, serious traffic, or roadworks that can affect delivery time and result in delays.

If you find yourself in this situation, make sure you enable your drivers to adapt quickly to changes or delays while taking the most optimal route possible.

▶️ Lack of processes

If you don’t have the right systems or processes in place, then you must be prepared for various operational issues that can delay deliveries or result in no-show deliveries. This has a major negative effect on customers and your brand’s reputation.

How to Craft an Effective Delivery schedule

Efficient delivery scheduling may have its challenges, but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to improve. Use the following guidelines to improve your delivery scheduling:

▶️ Optimise your routes

With the right route optimisation tool, you can plan, map out, and optimize delivery routes to save loads of time and cut down on unnecessary driving.

Route optimisation includes assigning the most suitable orders to the right vehicles, and planning out a delivery schedule that maximizes time. These schedules are automatically planned to ensure minimal driving between each stop.

▶️ Delivery scheduling app

An efficient delivery scheduling system empowers drivers by providing optimised routes that are accessible on the go.

A mobile-friendly app provides real-time updates to route plans, ensuring drivers always have the latest information for each delivery destination and what needs picking up and where. This streamlines delivery operations, enhancing overall efficiency and responsiveness to changes.

▶️ Track your vehicles

Delivery Scheduling takes place not only before the trip, but staying up to date with the whereabouts of your vehicles is an important part of improving it.

This will help you adjust your routes, and understand how your scheduled routes perform. Tracking your vehicles also plays a big role in improving communications.

Choosing the Best Delivery Scheduling Software

While most delivery scheduling systems can perform a lot of tasks to help you keep up with customer demands and stay customer-centric, here are some crucial features you must know before you decide to invest:

The delivery scheduling software you implement must include multi-stop route planners, because the software will take care of all the complicated processes for you.

Next, you delivery scheduling software must allow you to remain flexible. If any last-minute delays or surprises arise, the software has to be able to reschedule the route for you automatically to prevent delays.

Finally, route planning software should improve communication. If you add or remove any new stops, the route will update automatically. The system keeps the delivery driver updated, and there is no need for countless phone calls or texts.

Ready to Improve Delivery Processes?

Creating delivery schedules shouldn’t be so resource-exhaustive.

By implementing the right strategy, you’ll optimise your ability to schedule deliveries, reduce transit times, and minimise delays. This approach not only boosts customer satisfaction but also enhances the profitability of your delivery operations.

If you want to meet and exceed the high customer demands of today’s world, get in touch with our team of experts and discover how we can help you in your journey.