Using logistics automation to balance cost and customer experience

By Soham Chokshi, CEO and Co-Founder at Shipsy

In a world driven by instant gratification, many businesses have been looking to streamline their operations and execute deliveries within less than 45 minutes.

A survey conducted by Oracle revealed that 49% of customers in UAE select brands based on the delivery ETAs (estimated time of arrival) they promise. The same survey highlighted that 48% of consumers say a delayed delivery would ruin their day. Hence, to keep the promise of super-fast deliveries, on-demand delivery providers are embracing smart logistics management tools powered by advanced automation and AI.

How Automation Drives Agile Delivery Operations

Retailers, on-demand delivery providers, eCommerce brands and quick commerce players are increasingly using advanced logistics management tools to automate core logistics operations like route planning, order allocation, capacity planning, and rider management. Let’s quickly glance through these.

Route Planning and Optimization

This is one of the most critical aspects of logistics operations that directly impact not just customer experience, but costs. Modern logistics management tools automate route planning based on multiple constraints like distance, driver proximity, type of order, vehicle capacity, weight, cost and more. It also boosts rider productivity and optimizes delivery costs by automatically clubbing pickups and drops. Such tools empower businesses to save 18% in route planning and optimization, decrease last-mile costs by 14% and boost customer experience by 28%.

Capacity Planning

Automating capacity planning is another critical way to enhance delivery performance. Smart logistics management tools maximize vehicle capacity utilization by using intelligent algorithms that seamlessly integrate consignment and vehicle data. It optimizes capacity by considering constraints like delivery location, weight, volume, service type, delivery time slots, storage type and more. All these factors help businesses reduce fuel costs and increase fleet capacity. A smart logistics management platform helps increase vehicle capacity utilization by 31%.

Order Allocation

Efficient order allocation is key to the success of deliveries that are guided by stringent time SLAs, and automation helps businesses achieve this. Advanced auto-allocation engines consider a pre-configured radius from a dark store while auto-allocating tasks to drivers. It also takes into account things like the existing workload of a driver to ensure equitable distribution of jobs across delivery partners. Using an advanced logistics management platform, as much as 99.7% of allocation tasks can be automated, and high levels of delivery productivity can be easily achieved. Such platforms also increase deliveries per driver by 14%.

Rider Management

With regards to on-demand deliveries, it has been coming to light that delivery executives are increasingly using fake GPS locations while executing delivery operations. This poses a massive risk both to businesses and customers. Modern logistics management tools can automatically identify instances of fake or mock locations and immediately check out the riders responsible.  

When it comes to balancing customer experience and last-mile delivery costs, automation is the only logical way ahead. Hence, we will witness more businesses in the UAE embracing smart logistics management solutions to achieve delivery excellence.