If you have a business that is constantly sending their employees out into the field, then you are probably well aware of just how much the costs can add up. You will need to cover all kinds of expensive travel costs. You will need to foot the bill for gas and maintaining all company vehicles, not the mention the cost of the employee’s time as they travel from one stop to the next.
Do you have an effective scheduling and routing process in place? If not, you just see your business costs soar. This hurts your bottom line, so what to do? Consider routing scheduling software.
Routing and Scheduling Defined
Routing can be defined as finding an efficient way to visit a set of scheduled stops. Scheduling is a method of organizing these steps in the efficient order, all the while allowing for factors such as the availability of customers, weather patterns, and traffic concerns.
Why Should You Consider Routing Software in Regards to Routing and Scheduling?
Routing services is a tremendous asset for such companies as courier services, telecom companies, and other types of businesses that require employee travel. This software has the potential to lower transportation expenditures, improve customer productivity, and help your company make more money in the process.
Are you the type that has to see things for yourself? Are you wondering just how Route4Me is able to increase your profit margins? Whether you desire to significantly decrease the time-consuming process of doing route planning on your own, increase the amount of stops your drivers are able to make, or help your customers continue to be as satisfied as possible with your program because they know your drivers will always be punctual, just remember that Route4Me can help you achieve these goals!
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Indeed, if there is one thing that most business owners understand about route planning, it would be that they know it’s a tremendously complicated process. You not only have to figure out the best directions to give your field employees, but you also have to keep the roads, traffic, construction, and weather in mind as well.
Can you do this by hand? You can, but it will definitely take much longer than by using this software. Indeed, if your business is taking a lot of stops, it could literally take hours. Moreover, planning routes on your own makes you more prone to mistakes. You sure wouldn’t want to send one of your valuable employees right into a traffic jam, would you? You wouldn’t want to schedule a visit with a customer when they said they wouldn’t be available, would you?
Additionally, this doesn’t account for the fact that there might be times where a customer might tell you to go to a different address at the last minute. Naturally, if you change one stop it will throw a wrench into the machinery for all of the other stops as well. This is where planning your routes out manually has some severe limitations.
In a nutshell, this is why route optimization software could be a huge asset to your business. One of our trip planners can help you plan out your route in literally seconds, not even a minute in some cases. You literally can set your parameters and your business can be off to the races. Changing your route is a breeze and will often only take 60 seconds or less.
Route planning software will make all of your routes more accurate and more efficient, and it will improve employee morale because it will give them everything they need in order to do their job effectively and be able to go to all of their stops in a timely and appropriate manner.
Tracking Your Team
Of course, don’t just use any route optimization software. There are some systems that do a better job than others. For example, one question to ask yourself is this: does the routing software I am going to invest in have a GPS tracking system? If not, don’t even give it the time of day.
For one thing, it can be a huge challenge to determine just where your employees might be in real-time. Simply put, how do you know if they are really working or just goofing off? How do you know if they stick to their routes and keep to their schedule?
Two words: GPS tracking. This component will show you the exact location of your employees and the exact speed they are going at. This is one way you can confirm they are staying on schedule and maintaining their routes efficiently.