Before deciding on courier delivery software, consider two things:
1. what they offer
2. what you need.
Only with the right software can you be more efficient, scalable, and helpful to your customers.
Let’s talk about the key features, benefits, key questions to ask courier delivery software providers, and the best software options out there for you.
Supercharge Your Business With Courier Delivery Software
These features will take your business to the next level by planning, managing, and analyzing your deliveries.
1 - Plan your deliveries
To improve your courier delivery business, you need a software that will help you plan your delivery routes. Even better than just helping you, some actually do it for you.
That means that the software will analyze where your deliveries need to go. Then, it will look at what drivers are working that day. Next, it will auto-assign deliveries to each driver so that they’ll work the most efficiently.
If new deliveries appear throughout the day, the software can update routes and re-assign them fast.
2 - Manage your deliveries
When your drivers and bikers are out making deliveries, HQ needs to know what is going on. Courier delivery management software can track your drivers for you. With this feature, you receive ETAs for each delivery. If one is delayed, you get a notification. With this information, customer support is forewarned and can inform customers what’s going on.
Your drivers can also easily reach out to you to let you know if there are any issues or message or call clients if needed. Finally, courier delivery software centralizes proof of delivery (POD). That way, all PODs are kept in one single, secure place.
3 - Analyze your deliveries
To continually improve your courier services, you need to look back at data and see what areas your last mile delivery service could do better. Choosing a delivery platform with robust analytics, so that you can set your metrics and download reports. With this feature, you can build a more data-driven business.
Scale More Efficiently With Courier Delivery Software
When you have the right courier software these are the benefits that you’ll feel in your business.
- Improve customer satisfaction
With software to take on manual, repetitive tasks, and provide more accurate time frames for important deliveries, customer satisfaction increases. Courier delivery software can make communication with customers easier. How? Customers will receive a text with a link to track their courier in real time. By tracking their deliveries, the process becomes more transparent, reducing their stress.
- Reduce costs
Efficiently planning your routes to avoid traffic, save gas, and increase the number of deliveries that couriers make you cut your operational costs, and improve your efficiency. You will be able to reallocate some of your budget to more strategic plans.
- Replace tedious manual tasks
With easy-to-understand analytics, you can identify where you can improve your business. This feature also helps you to save time by collecting data and organizing automatically. Understanding data helps you to proactively fix issues, and grow faster and better. It allows you to be better than your competitors and increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.
7 Questions to Ask Your Top Choice Courier Delivery Software Provider
These five questions will help you to understand what the software company that you’re analyzing is like. Try to think of questions that also impact your business and that will make a difference in your final decision of which software to go for.
- Can you give me a concrete example of how you improve delivery operations?
- How does your software handle real-time package tracking?
- Do you provide updates to couriers and customers? Real-time notifications increase customer satisfaction and driver efficiency.
- What platforms do you integrate with? Look for a platform/software that allows you to integrate with your current tech stack You should also check if the platform has high ratings on API documentation (if you have any).
- What security measures do you use to protect sensitive delivery data? Check if the software tool has security measures. You must be confident that your data is safe.
- What level of customer support and training do you provide when a client first joins? When you’re new to a platform, it takes a while to set up. If the company can help you with that, it will save you time and effort.
- Do you have ongoing training and support for clients? It makes a big difference if a company is willing to help you if you ever have a problem. You should check if companies’ reviews mention that they have good support.
What Software Do Couriers Use? Best Options on the Market
There are lots of courier delivery software providers on the market. We've gathered the 5 best solutions to improve couriers' work.
1 - Onfleet
Onfleet is an American software for last mile deliveries. Onfleet works across over 90 countries and has over 95% customer satisfaction.
Onfleet provides route optimization, auto-assigns orders to drivers, and has a 5-star driver app that improves deliveries and communication. The software’s predictive ETA lets customers know if their deliveries may be delayed. Pricing is a flat rate that starts at $550 based on the number of orders per month. Customers tend to pick Onfleet for its easy-to-use route optimization, and driver app, as well as its clear, scalable pricing.
“Onfleet is a modern product, it has world-class UX and an API that rivals Stripe's for completeness, up-time, ease of integration, and capability. They have serious technical chops. Too many logistics platforms are overly focused on specific verticals and back-office use cases, Onfleet has a product that is adaptable to diverse industries and, with their technical capability, it can be integrated seamlessly into complex products. Onfleet delivers.” - James W
2 - Kardinal
Kardinal is a route optimization software powered by AI. It aims to improve dispatching, deliveries, and routes using AI to provide smart recommendations. The company uses specialized algorithms to manage delivery and pickup times, courier locations, and traffic delays. There is no information available on pricing and no reviews are currently available.
3 - GetSwift
GetSwift is a courier delivery software that focuses on large companies, including KFC and Heneiken. They work in over 70 countries to improve deliveries by organizing orders, assigning them to drivers, and notifying customers. Their pricing is based on the number of orders that you receive.
“Pros: GetSwift helps us navigate all the logistics of our business.
Cons: I would love to be able to customize the questions that are sent to clients after each delivery.”
4 - Tookan
Tookan is a tool made by Jungleworks. If you’re a small business, it’s also a very affordable option. It optimizes routes, tracks deliveries in real-time, and automates dispatches. However, since pricing increases by feature, it can get expensive quickly as your business grows. Many reviews mention that Tookan is reliable and easy to use, but that billing can be an issue.
“The app is great, easy to use and modern. But uploading all the info is frustrating especially if you have pick up and drop off locations separately because they will be separated as 2 different orders”
5 - Routific
Routific specializes in route optimization based on traffic patterns, business priorities, and driver preferences. It also provides you with dispatching, live tracking, and ETAs for customers. Their pricing starts at $49 per month, and increases per driver, and for their full features (including customer notifications) prices increase to $93 per driver per month.
In Capterra reviews Routific’s ease of use is praised, and complaints center around bugs and pricing that increases exponentially as your business grows.
“Benefits: Ease of use. It's a very functional program but very easy to use and pick up on. No problems since using. Have used it almost every day during the pandemic.
Downsides: Cost to add more vehicles. Sometimes during high traffic times we could use 3 vehicles or more but it's an added feature you need to pay for.”
How Onfleet Can Transform Your Courier Business
“Onfleet has a lot of amazing features for their customers. It has Onfleet tracking, the text notifications. It makes it so easy for clients to check Onfleet notifications. The experience of receiving the parcel is improved with contactless signing. The whole experience is great.” - Andrew Beckett, Zipply, a zero-emissions courier business.
At Onfleet, we focus on improving your delivery operations with efficient, easy-to-use technology. Our solution includes intelligent routing, simplified driver onboarding, and predictive ETAs, all to simplify your manual tasks.
Chat with sales to discover how Onfleet slots into your business seamlessly!
