What Makes Route Planning Important To A Grocery Delivery Business?

The demand for all delivery services, including e-commerce, courier, grocery, food, and more, came up substantially within a short period. The COVID-19 pandemic shattered almost every industry, but delivery businesses managed to stand tall. The World Health Organization states that the effect of the coronavirus is going to stay for a long time. Due to this fact, home delivery services are going to prosper immensely. Customers want quick and precise deliveries. These demands accelerated the pace at which delivery business companies are embracing route planning systems.

The grocery delivery market is ready to grow because researchers found that it’s going to reach $100 billion by 2022. It shouldn’t come to you as a surprise to know that Amazon is currently leading the online grocery business. The company’s delivery service is nothing less than a logistical marvel. Representatives of Amazon even assure that same-day delivery to Amazon Prime members will be available at no extra fee or minimum order criteria. The customers of both Amazon Prime and non-prime are comparing other delivery services against this customer experience standard. They expect delivery within the hour.

However, becoming successful in a grocery delivery business depends primarily on two factors – time and efficiency. When it comes to paying the grocery app development cost, you need to make sure that your third-party app development partners integrate a proper route planning system into your delivery software. After all, as an online grocery dealer, your job is to deliver fresh items at the right time to the right customer.

Then again, unpredictable factors, such as last-minute customer requests, traffic congestion, and specific delivery time constraints, can severely affect your route planning efforts. The owners of small and medium-sized grocery business companies spend hours every morning in an attempt to chalk out delivery routes using traditional techniques. Others utilize unsuitable tools like Google Maps, only to notice that they have to adjust the paths throughout the day.

The grocery app development cost isn’t the only business expense that you need to worry about. Running an online grocery store has always been costly and time-consuming. Naturally, improving your store’s efficiency and reducing costs should your priorities. It’s precisely where route planning or delivery optimization comes in. An advanced delivery optimization software program designed by an on-demand grocery app development company can help you enhance your operational efficiency via quicker route planning, swifter deliveries, and driver monitoring. If you implement last-mile delivery optimization software solutions designed by a reputable on-demand grocery app development company, then your business will reap the benefits of improved efficiency and increased profits. You will also contribute to environmental preservation by reducing your carbon footprint.

(1) Creating efficient routes: You may create an app like Shipt, Beelivery, BigBasket, Grofers, or something similar, but without route optimization, your drivers won’t be able to pick the best path to deliver the products to customers. As a result, grocery delivery will be late, and it will upset customers. Finally, it will eventually mean a loss of both reputation and revenue. For appropriate planning of the fastest route for delivering groceries, you have to consider factors, including road conditions, traffic, weather, specific delivery windows, etc. If you try to balance these aspects for multiple vehicles and hundreds of different routes, then it will confuse you. Route optimization software solutions, on the other hand, can create accurate and properly-optimized routes within seconds, no matter how many stops your driver has to make.

(2) Real-time route modification: The requirements of your customers can change at any moment. They may request a different delivery time or ask you to deliver groceries to a different address. As soon as a customer changes his/her address, it affects the entire route. If you try to chart a course manually, then it will take hours, if not more. Even if you manage to modify the route at the final moment, how will you communicate the changes to your driver? Of course, you can always call your driver, but distracting someone while drive can lead to dangerous situations. Last-mile delivery solutions can fix both these issues. It will take just a few seconds to modify the route and eliminate all the juggling and jostling between several addresses. Also, the changes in the path will appear on the mobile app of the driver. It means that you don’t have to distract your employee at all.

(3) Driver monitoring: The only problem with delivery personnel is that they may slack off if you leave them unsupervised. They may indulge in non-productive activities on the road by stopping for coffee when their schedule doesn’t include a break. Others often indulge in running personal errands when they are on duty. Some may also engage in unsafe driving habits, such as tailgating, harsh braking, or speeding. How will you monitor your drivers’ activities if you can’t see them? For that purpose, you’ll need a route planning software solution. Such programs have GPS tracking capabilities that allow you to track every driver’s on-road activities in real-time.

Reducing fuel expenses

Finally, by using a route planner system, you can save fuel usage, which, in turn, reduces your business expenses. If you provide drivers with the shortest and fastest routes, you manage to decrease driving time and fuel consumption. So, if you wish to create an app like Shipt, Beelivery, BigBasket, Grofers, or something similar, then it would be incomplete without a route planning software solution. Make sure that you ask your third-party software and app development partners to design it for you. After all, road map planning is one of the most crucial success metrics of a grocery delivery business.