Last Mile Logistics: A Costly Affair

Last-mile logistics translates to?53%?of a product’s transportation expense. These costs can accumulate quickly for several reasons. While it is true that these last-mile delivery expenses are not avoidable, they can be reduced with the right technology and processes in place.?

Controlling Your Last Mile Logistics Costs

There are many reasons last-mile logistics are hurting your bottom line. Reasons such as failed delivery attempts, lack of real-time insights for customers, and complex routes heavily affect your costs. And in a world where companies struggle to find and retain employees and still increase revenue, it’s critical to help the employees you have be as efficient as possible.?

Eliminate Second, Third, and Fourth Delivery Attempts

Deliveries made to warehouses and fulfillment centers don’t necessarily need to worry about failed delivery attempts (although tracking can still be incredibly valuable). However, deliveries made to end consumers require differently.?

Drivers need to ensure customers are home to accept their delivery. It’s especially important in cases where the products are time or temperature-sensitive. Additionally, last-mile logistics require additional rescheduling for missed deliveries and add to your driver’s workload for the next day.?

Not to mention the cost of fuel and labor for each missed delivery quickly adds up, and delays for future deliveries are all too common.?

Give Customers Real-Time Delivery Updates

The best way to avoid missed deliveries is to?give your end customers real-time, accurate delivery times. Automatic notifications and real-time tracking maps ensure customers are home for the delivery. There’s no longer a question of when their driver will arrive within a 4-hour window. Instead, they are continually updated with an accurate ETA or given the option to notify their driver if they aren’t home. Communicating with customers eliminates unnecessary stops for your drivers.

When missed deliveries do occur, it’s essential to have a process to communicate with your customer and figure out the best time to reschedule. Sending automatic notifications immediately after a failed delivery attempt can help quickly and efficiently get the rescheduling process started.?

Optimize Your Driver’s Routes

Missed and rescheduled deliveries heavily play into the need for optimizing your driver’s routes during last-mile logistics. Routing technology helps drivers take the most efficient delivery method while also considering their next stops. Route optimization helps you manage your fleet, reduce failed deliveries, and complete more deliveries in a day.

Route optimization also keeps your product’s transportation expense low by automatically assigning the best route based on all schedule variables.

Use Real-Time Geolocating to Get Ahead

Logistics services providers face challenges around critical requirements and meeting customer demands. Partnering with a geolocation partner gives you a robust, customer-facing solution. You’ll have access to real-time tracking, sharing, visualization, and valuable data to cut costs and stay ahead.?

While keeping your last-mile logistics costs in check is important, creating an exceptional customer experience is also critical. Having a real-time location solution in place helps you make a lasting impression on your customers. Give them even more of a reason to be repeat customers.??