Check out the benefits of optimizing construction materials delivery using software, like eLogii. From fuel and time savings to a boost in sales, and more.
If you were wondering what happens to your business when you optimize construction delivery with software, we got the answer.
(And also numbers! So we can illustrate the benefits you get.)
So if you were wondering what kind of jump of ROI you can see in just one month of construction delivery optimization, read on.
Here are the most glaring results of using software for construction delivery:
Rising prices of fuel consumption are hitting construction material delivery hard. When you optimize your construction delivery methods, you can save around $315 on fuel per vehicle!
Maybe you don’t find that number particularly impressive. But for a fleet of 20 vehicles, this means saving $6,300 per month.
Here’s how you achieve those numbers:
After setting up your routing software, you can move on to creating and optimizing building material delivery routes.
As one of the ways of route optimization is shortening the distance between two stops, you get to save on fuel! And time, since your drivers will be driving shorter distances.
But driving shorter distances doesn’t always translate to fuel savings. If the driver finds themself in a traffic jam, they may spend more fuel than needed.
Optimizing routes helps avoid traffic jams that cause unnecessary fuel consumption.
When specifically talking about personnel efficiency, you can generate ROI by raising the efficiency of your office team. Particularly when you automate how you plan and schedule construction deliveries.
The numbers don’t lie:
If your hourly rate for office personnel is $20, you can save $100 per vehicle each month.
That is partly due to the time your team saves with automation through routing and scheduling.
When you use route optimization software for your construction material delivery service, you save even more time.
Office personnel spend 70 minutes less on calls and texts with customers. That translates to $466.67 in savings per vehicle each month:
Keeping customers up-to-date the old fashion way is a resource-draining nightmare.
Automating customer communication saves you time and money. But it also offers customers more transparency in their orders. That is widely appreciated, so in the eyes of the customers, you are providing modern customer service.
So if using route optimization, you most likely see a spike in customer loyalty, too.
Optimizing construction delivery leads to better driver efficiency.
Let’s say your driver’s rate is $15. When you consider that drivers save 48 minutes of driving thanks to route optimization software and another 48 minutes by not communicating directly to dispatchers, you see some considerable money savings!
As you can see, the monthly savings per vehicle are up to $480!
That means a fleet of 20 vehicles will save $9,600 each month. And have more time for extra deliveries.
Optimizing construction delivery by providing more delivery options than just standard ones boosts online sales.
That happens due to a couple of reasons.
Optimization saves time in the construction delivery service industry. And the time construction industry personnel saves, gives more time to focus on generating sales.
And clients appreciate the array of delivery options. So they will be using your business more.
Overall, software like eLogii optimizes building supplies delivery to fulfill the added shipping volumes.
The simple act of using route optimization software can increase sales from 7.1% to 56.3%.
That is because you are not just optimizing routes.
You are optimizing the whole delivery process. From beginning to end.
Here’s how routing software lets you hit that sweet spot of cost-effectiveness:
Once you pick out a well-rounded routing software such as eLogii, it’s time to make the most of it.
After signing up, the next move is setting it up.
The more details you provide from the onset, the better your team will perform route planning.
If you’re unsure about this, you can book a demo with eLogii, and the team will be by your side through the setup steps.
Let’s go through the setup steps:
Since routing software is a SaaS solution (Software-as-a-Service), the setup is easy and automatized.
No need to acquire a license to use the tool. No need for manual setup.
Just use the browser you usually use when accessing the internet to access the software’s website.
Then, follow the instructions to login into your account.
Now it’s time to add extra details about your construction delivery service.
That means putting in information about your company, the services you offer, and the locations of your operations.
You can select the time zone. That way you will get precise ETAs while route planning.
You can put in the dimensions your delivery orders usually have. These specific orders of measurement help optimize how much cargo each vehicle in your fleet can carry.
And you can detail your depot locations:
As we said, the more details you give, the better your routing.
The software will have more data to add to route and ETA calculations.
Now it’s time to put your fleet information into the software. In other words, make virtual profiles for each vehicle.
First, choose the option of adding a new vehicle:
Bear in mind that you can then detail which type of vehicle it is - is it one that delivers construction materials or construction equipment?
You can also put in the maximum vehicle capacity utilization. That helps the software calculate how many deliveries one vehicle can do in a single run.
In other words, it helps with fleet availability.
That makes the dispatching job easier. Dispatchers then spend less time figuring out the payload capacity of the fleet.
They also spend less time assigning drivers to tasks.
So, you end up delivering more construction materials orders with fewer vehicles!
If you want to see results in driver efficiency, you need to provide some useful data about your fleet’s drivers.
First, add drivers the same way you add vehicle profiles:
Then, on each driver’s profile, detail which vehicle they’re using:
In this step, it’s important to keep in mind that not only are you doing the setting up. The drivers also take part here - by downloading and installing the Driver App:
The app is optimized for Android and iOS smartphones.
It makes communication between the in-house team and the drivers much easier.
Drivers simply get notifications on their phones if something about their task changes.
They can also collect reports and data from the field via the app.
When adding delivery orders, keep in mind that most routing software treats pick-ups (visiting a depot location or collecting a returning order from a customer) and drop-offs (delivering an order to the final location) as standalone tasks.
The software takes into account these tasks when generating delivery routes.
For better calculations, you need to put in tasks details such as:
Other things you may need to add to the dashboard are:
Here is a fun fact - 51% of companies that provide delivery services are dabbling in automation technology.
Manually handling deliveries should be a thing of the past.
To optimize construction delivery, you should turn to delivery management software.
Software that automates nearly every step of the delivery process and translates them to tasks that are fulfilled with more ease.
eLogii goes even a step further. All thanks to API integration that makes it possible to plug the tool into any other tool.
That way API integration helps construction delivery optimization even when eLogii can’t do so directly.
eLogii allows APIs to integrate with various systems, such as:
So when starting, it would be useful to make a list of software your delivery is using, so you can integrate them later.
The API integration itself is a very technical step. After downloading the API documentation from the eLogii website, you will need to provide an API key.
That key is quickly generated on your account:
Routing software like eLogii then lets you centralize how you manage delivery operations. So if you were using an OMS and you integrate it with eLogii, you will automatically receive order requests to your routing software. Straight from the OMS.
After you optimize your delivery operations, it’s time to optimize your routes.
What makes for an optimal route?
The answer isn’t always “the shortest route”, as we’ve indicated above.
There are other parameters to take into account.
That is where the software comes into play, as eLogii incorporates these other parameters.
Additional information to consider is traffic congestion and weather conditions.
That way you will make sure that your drivers will spend less time stuck in traffic, sitting idly and wasting fuel.
And less time spent stuck in traffic = final destination reached faster.
Quicker deliveries mean more fulfilled deliveries.
All of this is automated by your software, and calculated in just a few seconds to minutes!
Thanks to high-level route optimization.
There are multiple ways of route optimization:
Here’s how you do it:
You will be able to handle a bunch of construction materials delivery orders at the same time, and bundle up pick-ups and drop-offs for maximum efficiency. That is because the software is programmed to go for maximum route density for each route.
Here’s how it looks in action:
As you can see, the software group stops near one another.
Effective scheduling is often the backbone of successful deliveries.
From the time spent on roads to the time spent on pick-ups and drop-offs - lots of elements need to be considered during scheduling construction materials deliveries.
With route planning software, your dispatchers can easily keep in mind all of this, as well as mandatory breaks for drivers.
Software like eLogii reduces bottlenecks at pick-up and drop-off locations. It even lets dispatchers set the time of the said pickups and dropoffs.
At the same time, dispatchers with better visibility over the fleet will more effectively do their jobs.
Software for construction deliveries can tell them:
Live tracking via software lets dispatchers track the fleet in real-time.
That gives them more information to come up with more optimized routes and schedules.
That also means they spend less time on direct calls with drivers, saving both time and money.
All they need to do is access the “Monitoring” tab on the software’s dashboard:
Tracking is also made easier via custom notifications, aka reminders which the system sends via email or SMS.
The notifications can be sent out to drivers and customers.
Drivers will view the notifications on the eLogii app.
Customers will be able to track the status of their delivery. You can even add a tracking link in the notification.
The link leads to the eLogii dashboard that shows details like ETAs and the current location of the order.
This form of optimization reduces the time you spend in direct communication with customers.
All of the steps above somewhat help out with quality control.
Because using software that leaves a digital trace helps keep employees in check and a digital record of the business.
Another feature that can boost your operations is collecting electronic Proofs of Delivery (POD).
You generate these PODs easily through the software.
First, you pick out what kind of information you want to collect - eLogii gives you the option of six digital PODs to set up.
From scanning QR codes to collecting digital signatures.
Dispatchers keep track of quality control by checking via the dashboard if drivers collected the required PODs after their deliveries.
No need to go through printed materials and files. eLogii displays it all digitally.
When businesses combine digital PODs with driver tracking and listening to customers, they find their operations thriving and their construction deliveries more optimized.
No matter the size of your fleet, automated route optimization helps you bring down the overall monthly expenses of your fleet.
Let’s say you have a medium fleet of 20 vehicles that operate 20 days per month. Most construction companies have such fleets.
You can save $1,126.67 per vehicle per month.
As our ROI calculator tells you, that leads to $22,533.40 in total monthly savings! All thanks to one route optimization platform that raises construction materials delivery efficiency.
Optimize your dedicated fleet for cost savings and efficiency. Discover strategies and benefits with eLogii's advanced route optimization software.
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