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.

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 making improvements, let’s dive into the step-by-step process that precisely explains how delivery scheduling works: A delivery scheduling system can streamline the process by creating a well-organized 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 Optimization

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 organizing 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 optimizing 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 maximize 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-organized 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 optimizing 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:

▶️ Optimize your routes

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

Route optimization 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.