Whether its pizza delivery or a courier service, if your business is operating any sort of logistics being punctual is paramount, because customer satisfaction levels depend on it. However, it’s an aspect that many businesses don’t put enough consideration behind, mostly because it does not generate revenue.
Like all the necessities of business, logistics is an area you should not be neglected. To ensure customer satisfaction remains high, consider some of the methods to better organise deliveries and make them punctual.
Tidy Up Your Inventory
An organised storage area or warehouse is the first step in making deliveries punctual. Sort out your inventory systematically, arrange items according to popularity and keep their placement consistent. Organising your inventory neatly and developing an intuitive incoming-outgoing order and delivery checklist, will help you find the appropriate items for delivery quicker and determine what is urgent and what is lower priority.
Create an Efficient Fleet
Most logistical errors occur in the process between receiving the order and dispatching it. So, you must ensure your fleet, your drivers and vehicles, are organised in a systematic and orderly fashion. Have your drivers report which orders they are delivering and where they are headed. Keep tabs on who is available and who is currently occupied by having your drivers check-in when returning and check-out when on delivery. Other ways to improve efficiency could include assigning drivers to a certain vehicle and assigning them to a specific area.
Tracking Devices
While a clean warehouse and systematic fleet management is a great start to improving your efficiency, as well as saving your business money and hassle, knowing where your drivers are at all times is paramount to organising your deliveries. However, constantly making phone calls is both dangerous and illegal for the driver. So, you need a method to track you drivers remotely. The solution is a GPS fleet tracking device such as Black Knight.
Monitoring your drivers with GPS tracking devices is a non-intrusive and safe method of ensuring they are arriving punctually. In addition, with the route data collected by the tracker, you can plan more efficient routes and potentially save time and fuel. Plus, you can monitor any reckless or dangerous behaviour by your drivers, such as speeding.
If you are concerned about the legalities of GPS tracking in the workplace, rest assured that in Australia it is completely legal, so long as you comply with your State laws.
Consider the value of one delivery vehicle and its cargo. Losing a single one would be disastrous. GPS tracking offers the peace of mind of knowing your fleet is protected. Should the unthinkable happen and a vehicle is stolen, you can rest easy knowing it can be tracked and quickly retrieved.
Finally, a GPS fleet tracker can monitor vehicle usage and help with fleet maintenance, by logging the cumulative number of kilometres a delivery vehicle has made. This will make scheduling maintenance easier, and in the event that a delivery vehicle should unexpectedly break down, you can easily locate them and dispatch help.
Any business that involves logistics should not ignore their delivery fleet, for it is the foundation on which customer satisfaction is built on. Therefore, ensuring all your deliveries are punctual is paramount to maintaining a healthy customer relationship. Organising your warehouse and developing an efficient fleet management system are crucial to making your deliveries punctual. With the addition of GPS tracking, fleet management can assist in many functions, such as vehicle maintenance, driver management, speed management, fuel management, health and safety management and is a proven anti-theft measure. Contact Black Knight today and we can help set up a fleet account.