How Route Optimization Helps You Handle More Orders Without More Drivers

Your budget is tight, and you want to deliver more parcels to customers on the same day, but you can’t hire two extra drivers. Route optimization is the key you’ve been looking for. 

Many companies scale by increasing their volumes and resources, especially by searching for more drivers. But what if you can’t? What if it’s not in your financial budget this term? 

Great news: route optimization is not expensive, and it’s effective. It will instantly save you money on fuel and labor in the first month of using it. 

Route optimization helps businesses to maximize efficiency so they can handle more orders without increasing their fleet. 

Customers are no longer pleased with waiting a day or two for their deliveries. If they buy something online, they want it delivered on the same day. 

More than 25% of shoppers would abandon a cart online if there were no option for same-day delivery. 80% of shoppers want same-day shipping and are demanding this service. 

Route optimization is essential for your business to grow without spending more on drivers and vans.

What Is Route Optimization? 

Route optimization helps drivers find the fastest, most efficient route, even if it’s not always the most obvious route. Without stressing about which route is the shortest, the software works it out for each driver. 

There is no limit to the number of drivers who can use the software. Each driver has its own unique path to follow for the day, indicating exactly which stop to take until the entire day’s work is completed.

The software automatically calculates the route and distributes it among the drivers to ensure that no driver is overworked. 

The system considers weather conditions, traffic patterns, the van’s capacity, and even the skills of the individual drivers. 

Why Can’t I Use Manual Planning?

If you are fine with working long hours at night and trying to figure out which route to follow the next day, you can continue to plan the drivers’ routes manually every evening. 

But for a more modernized, automated, faster approach, route optimization will save you lots of time. It’s also more accurate, as it makes no human errors. The system works with real-time data which means it’s updated every few minutes to make sure it stays correct.

Why is manual planning outdated?

• It’s time-consuming.
• It leads to inefficient routes.
• It increases costs.
• There are more consumer complaints.

How Route Optimization Helps You Handle More Orders with the Same Workforce

1. Route Optimization Reduces Delivery Time

Route optimization helps drivers complete their orders faster. But don’t stress—they are not speeding or disregarding traffic rules. They are simply using more efficient routes. 

Cutting down a few seconds of each drop-off accumulates to an hour or so at the end of the day. 

With route optimization, drivers avoid traffic delays. Instead of getting stuck behind cars at traffic lights, they can drive from A to B without any hindrance. 

2. Cut Down On Unnecessary Miles

When your drivers use smarter routing, they spend fewer miles on the road, which equates to fewer fuel expenses. 

The more a driver has to search for addresses, the more fuel is used. Some businesses have managed to slice their fuel expenses by 20% simply by using route optimization software. 

3. Route Optimization Improves Delivery Capacity 

So you thought you wouldn’t be able to grow your business’ output unless you hired more drivers. Wrong. Route optimization cuts down on time and fuel, but it also creates more space for more stops.

The best part is that the automated system distributes it evenly according to the workload, ensuring that some drivers aren’t burnt out by the end of their shift. 

4. Faster Deliveries On Time

Now that there are fewer delays while the routes are optimized, you’ll start noticing that the customers are even happier.

Automated estimated times of arrival keep your customers informed, ensuring that they are at the delivery address to avoid missed deliveries. 

Missed deliveries can result in extra work, slower delivery times and overall slows down the delivery machine. 

Route Optimization Software: Key Features

Route optimization gives small and medium businesses the ability to compete with Amazon without having the infrastructure or resources on that massive scale. 

Here are some of the features that route optimization helps to give your business a boost. 

• Real-time route planning that allows for live updates as the situation changes.
• Live GPS tracking helps to monitor drivers and update ETAs for customers to plan better.
• Multi-stop optimization helps to handle high-volume deliveries in an efficient way.
• The software can easily synchronize with order management tools to simplify things.
• It also helps to track drivers’ performance to identify improvement opportunities. 

ALSO READ: Top 6 Route Optimization Trends to Watch in 2025

Case Study: Pharmaceutical Saves Time With Route Optimization Software

Online pharmaceutical SuperPharmacy has been delivered to customers’ front door since 2000. SuperPharmacy invested in their own delivery network but wanted to provide a service that delivered up to customers’ expectations. 

“Before Locate2u we used to have to generate new routes if we wanted to change the order of things. With Locate2u we can just adjust the day’s deliveries on the fly, allowing us to move orders into a higher priority and it all works it out in the background pretty quickly,” says the company.

They even reduced the time spent manually planning routes. Instead of spending an hour or more every day, within 10 minutes the routes were optimized.

How To Choose The Best Route Optimization Software?

Choosing the right route optimization software for your company’s needs can be tricky. Locate2u CEO Steve Orenstein, takes you through nine different apps to show how to make this important decision. 

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