As technology has evolved, route planning software has become an essential tool for businesses doing deliveries and collections.
Not only does the right software tool speed up the movement of goods from one point to another, route planning systems can help reduce the costs of those delivery jobs by minimising the amount of miles driven and ensuring each vehicle is loaded efficiently and accurately.
It ultimately allows for more deliveries or pickups in less time.
Businesses that continue to invest in route planning software are seeing many benefits and it is helping them gain a larger market share and deliver superior customer service.
Research by Global Market Insights has found that the route planning and route optimisation software market was valued at USD 6.1 billion in 2023 and is estimated to register a CAGR of 11.5% between 2024 and 2032.
A high percentage of this growth is being attributed to the expansion of e-commerce, which is something we can relate to at Stream where we’ve seen a growth in ecommerce and retail subscribers not only looking to fulfill orders more efficiently, but deliver improved customer service and greater flexibility at the same time.
With this in mind, you may be considering route planning software for your logistics operation. We will look at what this software is, what it can do to help with your business and the different options you can choose from.
This includes both free and paid solutions.
So, without further ado…
What is route planning software?
Route planning software specialises in finding the most efficient or optimal route between two or more stops (typically delivery or collection points), taking into account factors such as distance, traffic conditions, opening times, fleet capabilities, vehicle capacities and arrival times.
Three popular examples of route planning software that many of us are familiar with (and businesses that come to Stream to discuss more transport and logistics focused systems often start with) are Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze.
Billions of users use these apps each month. They help people plan trips and travel from point A to point B quickly.
Earlier in the year, we wrote an article specifically about planning multi-drop delivery routes in Google Maps.
Google Maps is a good free option for planning delivery and collection routes. However, it has some major drawbacks compared to specialised route planning software.
As hinted earlier, tools like Stream are designed for commercial deliveries and collections on a larger scale.
Before route planning software (and, we have to say, still do in many cases), people did this work by hand using physical maps, post-it notes, and spreadsheets.
This method created many challenges. It took a lot of time, which caused additional pressure. It also relied heavily on specific, experienced individuals (called a key-person reliance).
In some cases, that individual has known every single delivery location they’ve ever delivered to and the exact route that has been taken.
Planning delivery routes for many drops can take hours.
You need to find the shortest distances between these points. This task gets harder when you have to fit routes into specific time slots or meet the requirements of specific customers.
You also have to consider things like traffic conditions, which can change unexpectedly.
How Can Route Planning Software Help Your Business?
Route planning software can help your transport operations in a number of ways, including:
- Reduce delivery times: By ensuring your delivery and collection routes are optimised, route planning software can help you get your goods and products to customers faster. This has the knock on effect of increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Save money: By reducing delivery times, route planning software can also help you save money on fuel costs. Additionally, the software can help you reduce the number of miles your drivers drive, which can help to reduce wear and tear on your vehicles. Couple this with effective barcode scanning and tracking and proactive delivery notifications for customers you can reduce failed deliveries and improve OTIF (On Time and In Full) statistics
- Improve customer service: By providing customers with estimated delivery times, route planning software can help to improve customer service. Customers will appreciate knowing when to expect their deliveries. Stream also provides real-time delivery tracking on the day of delivery.
- Increase driver productivity: Route planning software can help to increase driver productivity by reducing the amount of time they spend executing their routes and / or helping your drivers complete more deliveries on any given run.
How to plan delivery routes effectively using specialised route planning software
Whether you use a specialised route planning tool like Stream to plan your routes or you’re currently using physical maps and spreadsheets, there are numerous key factors that have to be taken into consideration prior to planning a journey, including (but not limited to):
- The weight and dimensions of the goods
- The distance between the pickup and delivery points
- The traffic conditions
- The time windows for deliveries
- Which goods are ‘on-hand’ and available for delivery
- Total route times
- Vehicle capabilities
- Driver and vehicle availability
- Assembly requirements.
With these in mind, it’s a simple process to plan delivery routes effectively using the ‘Autoplan’ feature in Stream, requiring minimal manual input to set up.
Autoplanning drastically reduces manual route planning efforts. With sub features like ‘Planning to Fleet’ and ‘Planning to Required Time Slots,’ users can automate the creation and assignment of delivery routes, considering factors like vehicle capacity, driver availability, and required delivery times, with minimal manual input.
‘Planning to Fleet’ automatically creates routes, assigns vehicles and drivers, and populates them with unplanned orders.
‘Planning to Required Time Slots’ automatically plans orders against specific required delivery times while considering the maximum wait time for drivers.
You can import orders into the software using one of our many integrations. This works with many systems, such as Brightpearl, Unleashed, Shopify, Sage 200 and Xero.
Or you could import orders using a CSV upload (manual or automated) or opt for manually entering orders into the system.
Once imported, the orders are ready to be planned for delivery.
We have a whole section in our knowledge base about how to plan delivery and collection routes in Stream.
Want to learn more about route planning software?
Speak to one of our experts by scheduling a demo of Stream and get an in-depth overview of the many features and options for route planning in Stream and how the other features and functionality of our Transport Management System can offer your business – and perhaps, most importantly, the benefits to your customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Route planning software specialises in finding the most efficient or optimal route between two or more touchpoints (typically delivery or collection points), taking into account factors such as distance, traffic conditions, and arrival times.
In the days before route planning software, this process would be painstakingly conducted manually on physical maps, post-it notes, and spreadsheets, creating a host of challenges, including time pressures (due to it being a long-winded process) and key person reliance. Route planning software automatically finds the shortest route between multiple locations with minimal manual input for increased efficiency, reduced costs (such as fuel costs), minimised delivery times, enhanced customer satisfaction, ultimately allowing operations to deliver or collect more over a shorter time period.
