WMS can boost last mile delivery performance

Businesses are confronted by new customer demands, driver shortages, environmental constraints, untenable costs of managing returns back into the supply chain and adverse economic conditions caused by everything from rising fuel prices to changing legislation. Transport operators will struggle to succeed with eDelivery without the utilisation of intelligent solutions that streamline last mile performance.

There is an intrinsic need to be ever-more innovative, flexible and data-driven and transport operators need to take a holistic view of all the components in their supply chain. From setting customer expectations, customer care, driver and vehicle compliance to route efficiency, warehouse management and delivery service offerings. 

End-to-end visibility

Having visibility of stock wherever it is and being able to expedite product through the warehouse, even in times of peak demand, is crucial for an efficient supply chain and to ensure there is no negative impact on the delivery promise. After all, 69% of consumers stated that a good delivery experience is a key influencer on repeat purchases. 

Improvements must start at the source to allow proficiency to be reflected easily throughout the rest of the supply chain, this is where a WMS comes in. As a flexible and scalable solution that automates in-house logistics processes, a WMS, can achieve efficient order fulfilment, warehouse visibility and optimisation. Allowing retailers to be better prepared for the much-demanded same day delivery and improve their overall warehouse performance.

As delivery options and delivery costs are a crucial factor in a consumer’s purchasing decision, it’s essential to provide a range of costed delivery options that the customer can select from. Retailers must focus on this as the main priority and by combining a WMS with advanced delivery optimisation; they can reduce their transport costs drastically, whilst improving their customer experience by offering choice and convenience at the point of sale.

Retailers need accurate and real-time visibility of stock availability, location and levels, to ensure the warehouse does not become a bottle-neck in fulfilling peak demand and home delivery. An effective WMS will provide a significant increase in the speed of shipping processing and returns handling to increase the number of packages sent per employee, benefiting the overall supply chain.

Barriers to last mile optimisation

The customer experience in delivery is a big influence on buyer behaviour. Transport operators need to ensure deliveries and return collections are perfectly aligned with the consumer’s expectations and perceived value. While every company wants a fuel-optimised route plan, it needs to be balanced to ensure routes and delivery times reflect the desired choice and convenience at a price the consumer is prepared to pay. A failure to satisfy customer expectation not only affects revenue but also customer loyalty and future sales.

However, in a time where driver shortages are at an all-time high, congestion is increasing and security concerns and vehicle bans are thrown into the mix as well, transport operators need to leverage intelligent routing software to guarantee maximum output from their fleets. Real-time visibility of delivery demand and delivery capacity enables operators to optimise deliveries in near real-time to extract the maximum delivery capacity without adding vehicles or drivers. The potential benefits in efficiency and cost savings of creating end-to-end visibility from initial pick up to the last mile are compelling with one leading UK retailer achieving an increase of delivery capacity of 35%.

Utilisation of telematics data also allows fleet operators to view jobs and vehicle locations in real-time enabling managers to add tasks and re-route vehicles in the instance of traffic, with the ability to warn the customer should the driver be running late. The addition of tachograph data means all of this can be done within legal parameters that govern drivers’ hours, ensuring fleets remain compliant while removing the danger of exceeding drivers’ hours or missing delivery slots.

This allows the number of revenue-producing stops to be increased and a decrease in the time spent in non-revenue producing activities. It will also eliminate the inclusion of unrealistic commitments within schedules, a huge benefit to the consumer as only options that can be fulfilled will be provided.

Conclusion

The last mile is frequently the most expensive part of the supply chain but getting it right is crucial when it comes to delivering impeccable customer service. If organisations invest in a WMS that can automate logistics processes and utilise advanced telematics and tachograph data to streamline key factors such as route productivity, the barriers to last mile delivery performance will be overcome.