When it comes to food delivery, time is of the essence. Customers expect food delivered fresh enough to enjoy or ingredients delivered timely enough to be cooked for customers of their own. In some cases, late food isn’t any more useful than no food.
Logistics solutions, crucially for fleet managers within the food industry, save not only money, but time too. Combining hardware in the form of sensors attached to vehicles with an extensive software platform, logistics solutions simplify the complex enterprise that is fleet management.
Logistics solutions allow your fleet to run more efficiently than you could have previously imagined. This efficiency is felt by everyone in the chain of operation: Customers get better service, drivers get better direction and fleet management, freed up from menial administrative tasks, are better able to use their time on problem solving.
All of this isn’t even factoring in the financial efficiencies logistics solutions can usher into a business. Streamlining the entire operation with such technology has been shown to offer both sharp rises in productivity at with the same or less operating costs.
How do logistics solutions achieve all this?
- Logistics software places all the drivers in your fleet on a map that’s updated in real time. This means management no longer has to make calls or send emails if they want a location or status update. Similarly, a customer portal allows the customer to see where their driver is, as well as their ETA.
- Route-optimisation technology updates the driver if any quicker routes come up, and reacts to dynamic changes such as traffic, roadwork or hotspots. Should the driver accept a suggested route, both the customer and manager are updated with a new ETA. Such route-optimisation means more deliveries can be made with less vehicles.
- Management are able to plan and change subsequent jobs, minimising vehicle downtime while improving flexibility among the many moving parts of a fleet. This also means drivers only ever need to focus on the task at hand.
- Sensors placed inside the vehicle alert the driver and management of any automotive risks, including vehicle parts that may be in need of inspection or servicing.
A key aspect of fleet management is safety and avoiding incidents. Not only do logistics solutions notify drivers of potential vehicular faults, offsetting the risk of costly breakdowns, such solutions also provide driver feedback. It alerts drivers if they are driving inefficiently – as in the case of habitual, unnecessary acceleration or gear shifts – or driving dangerously.
Not only does this minimise training time and costs, it also, along with proof of delivery data, provides management with an objective benchmarks for driver performance.
As beneficial as they can be, the same logistics solution won’t be appropriate for all fleets. A key part of integrating such sophisticated technology is seeking out providers who offer software packages customised to the needs of your business.
The right solution will lead to a lightened workload for management, greater fuel efficiency and streamlined communications. More importantly, the right solution will help expand your business by making sure food is delivered exactly where and when your customers want it.
