Looking For A Workwave Alternative? Check Out Our Four Best Choices

Looking For A Workwave Alternative? Check Out Our Four Best Choices

If you want to give a Workwave alternative a try, you’ve come to the right place.

As a route optimisation and delivery management platform, Workwave won’t meet everybody’s needs. But what does it have in its favour? And where does it fall down?

In this blog, that’s what we’ll explore. And we’ll present four of the best Workwave alternatives for your consideration.

TLDR

• Without any kind of GPS tracking in its basic package, Workwave Route Manager has some major flaws compared to the competition - that are not compensated for with a low entry price
• eLogii is the best all-round Workwave alternative in terms of functionality, although Onfleet is a good, comparable option for smaller firms in the same space
• MaxOptra gives users options to choose only the features they need as add-ons, although the entry-level package is lacking
• Circuit’s basic offering is missing important functionality too, but it has a free-forever package for micro-businesses and is less expensive than Workwave at every touchpoint

Introducing Workwave Route Manager

Workwave produces a lot of different solutions for field service operations and fleet management.

The one we’re interested in is Workwave Route Manager. It sits in the route optimisation and delivery management software space with some added vehicle management functionality.

What’s Good About Workwave Route Manager?

#1 Time window planning

Inconvenient or vague delivery ETA is one of the biggest causes of complaint for delivery businesses. So it’s great that Workwave Route Manager makes it possible to specify desired time windows when planning out routes. Those windows can be as short as 30 minutes or as long as four hours.

#2 Supports hard-wired GPS and ELDs

Workwave’s top-tier product, 360+, allows fleet managers much more visibility and control over their vehicles by using onboard GPS rather than - as most other products do - relying on the driver’s mobile app.

Combined with an ELD for telematics (charged extra), this makes Workwave Route Manager 360+ a real competitor as an all-in-one fleet management and route planning solution.

#3 Integrates smoothly with other tools

Being able to integrate your route management solution with other software tools is a must for any efficient delivery business. Workwave makes this easy with:

• A wide variety of APIs
• A host of complementary field service products (eg PestPac, Real Green) for specific verticals
• A marketplace, collating all its own and third-party native integrations

What’s Not So Good About Workwave Route Manager?

#1 It’s expensive compared to the competition

Workwave doesn’t provide a standard rate card for its three product tiers, but it does say that:

• Pricing is per month/per vehicle
• It starts “from as low as $49 per month/per vehicle”

We can assume that $49 per month applies to the basic Route Manager package. As we’ll see when we look at each Workwave alternative, that’s a high price to pay.

And that’s before we look at what’s missing from that basic package…

#2 Driver GPS is not included as standard

This is likely to be a deal-breaker for many dispatchers. Workwave Route Manager’s entry-level package provides no real-time visibility of where vehicles or drivers are.

That has serious knock-on effects:

• No real-time adjustment to route plans
• No way to recalculate ETAs en route, so no real-time notifications for customers
• Minimal capabilities for comparing driver performance against plans

GPS is included in the 360 and 360+ packages (making all these things possible), but in 2022 its absence from any route optimisation and delivery management platform represents a massive drawback.

#3 Notifications are an add-on rather than an integral feature

Workwave doesn’t seem to treat communication as a top priority:

• Customer notifications are an add-on at the basic level (and of course, without real-time location data, they will be vague)
• Dispatchers can only chat with drivers using SMS and email, not live chat
• If a driver goes into an area with poor mobile coverage, he’s on his own. Workwave’s driver app doesn’t work offline

Workwave Alternative #1: eLogii

eLogii offers an exceptional cloud-based route optimisation and delivery management experience designed for businesses that want to scale fast.

It’s built for businesses of all sizes, in all verticals and it provides some of the most powerful functionality available today.

How Does eLogii Outperform Workwave?

#1 eLogii doesn’t omit critical features

With GPS location services through its drivers’ mobile app, eLogii can provide all the real-time functionality that Workwave holds back to its higher-paying customers.

That means all eLogii users can:

• Plan optimal route revisions in response to changed circumstances (eg traffic conditions, accidents, reprioritisation of deliveries, customers changing delivery windows, etc)

• Monitor driver behaviour relative to planned routes and track individual performance
• Provide dynamic notifications to customers about the whereabouts and ETAs of their packages
• Enable customers to track packages on a live basis
• Geofence drivers within defined territories and geostamp Proof Of Delivery (POD) locations

And notifications - automated and dynamic - are included in all of eLogii’s packages, both SMS and email.

#2 Superior POD options

While Workwave’s driver app permits the collection of signature and photo PODs, it is only at the 360 level and above that it supports barcode scanning.

That makes Workwave’s basic product of minimal use in contexts where supply chain and inventory concerns are paramount. But this feature is included in all of eLogii’s packages - along with QR code scanning, alphanumeric code scanning, and even cash-on-delivery confirmation.

PODs are geostamped and timestamped at the point of collection, making sure that your audit trail is comprehensive.

#3 A huge range of customisation options

While Workwave has different products for selected verticals, eLogii can be configured to optimise performance for virtually every type of delivery business.

Users can:

• Specify different vehicle types with bespoke characteristics (eg capacity, fuel efficiency, special factors like refrigeration, loading equipment, etc)

Define driver skills and characteristics, to allocate them to the most appropriate deliveries

• Optimise vehicle loads in line with different criteria (eg weight, volume, etc)
• Plan multi-day routes, and routes that include returns to the depot or pickup-only tasks
• Account for driver break times, out-of-vehicle times during deliveries, service times at depots, etc
• Define failed delivery workflows

How Do eLogii And Workwave Compare On Price?

Like Workwave Route Manager, eLogii doesn’t provide a fixed menu of pricing options. But it’s priced in a completely different way: based on “tasks” per month rather than vehicles.

Immediately, that’s a flexibility advantage. The 2,500 tasks per month eLogii Starter users get can be spread across any number of vehicles. With Workwave, it’s an extra $49 per month (at least) to add one.

eLogii starts at $359 (£292) per month, which puts it out of the price range of the smallest businesses. But if your company has 7 or more vehicles in its fleet, it works out cheaper than Workwave’s cheapest option - and it includes significantly superior functionality.

Workwave Alternative #2: Onfleet

Onfleet is a high-quality, all-in-one route optimisation solution for delivery businesses.

Primarily used by small companies, it has a good reputation with customers and a solid selection of features.

How Does Onfleet Outperform Workwave?

#1 Flexibility

Onfleet lets you have unlimited drivers, dispatchers, and other users for a single flat fee (like eLogii does).

This means that, in times of high demand when you need to take on freelance or casual staff, your route optimisation solution costs won’t go up (or if they do, it will be on a per extra task basis).

Onfleet also has a nice feature where it lets you outsource tasks to other Onfleet users in the area, giving you access to share their spare capacity.

#2 Basic version includes essential features

Unlike Workwave, Onfleet doesn’t prevent lower-paying users from accessing vital functionality like location tracking, customer notifications, and driver/dispatcher chat.

It does have some odd omissions of its own though: predictive ETA notifications and barcode scanning are only available to Premium users, for example.

#3 Zapier integration

While Onfleet does have an API and webhooks that are accessible to all users except those on the Starter package, the provision of a Zapier integration is a real bonus.

It means that it’s possible to integrate Onfleet with thousands of different software tools without any coding at all. With the need for developer time to integrate your stack removed, that’s a big obstacle to adoption out of the way.

How Do Onfleet And Workwave Compare On Price?

Like eLogii, Onfleet is priced on a “per task” basis.

You can ignore the Starter product - it excludes automated route optimisation, so it’s pretty much irrelevant to this comparison.

So with its Basic product priced at $349 (£285) per month, Onfleet is cheaper than Workwave for any business running 7 or more vehicles and has superior features at this level - just like eLogii.

Workwave Alternative #3: MaxOptra

MaxOptra’s proclaimed priority is to make route and delivery management simple.

We like it because its add-on options enable users to pick and mix the features that they need rather than paying for everything, whether it’s needed or not.

How Does MaxOptra Outperform Workwave?

#1 Add-ons

Although it doesn’t give pricing information for them, MaxOptra has several add-ons that can be added to standard packages. These include:

• Multi-day route optimisation
• Barcode scanning for POD and supply chain operations
• Truck routing
• Adjusting ETAs with real-time traffic data and alerting customers to changes

This can be seen in one of two ways. On the one hand, some of the Workwave alternatives we’ve looked at include these as standard and don’t charge extra for them (eg they’re all included with eLogii). On the other hand, MaxOptra is providing flexibility for businesses that may have some of these functions covered by other software or that have simpler needs.

This pick-and-mix approach is the main reason we’ve included MaxOptra on this list, as some businesses may prefer this to an all-in-one approach.

#2 Ease of use

MaxOptra has a simple, drag-and-drop interface, which lets route planners experiment with delivery orders by interacting directly with maps. Contrast this with Workwave’s interface, which many reviews cite as clunky.

How Do MaxOptra And Workwave Compare On Price?

At the top of its pricing page, MaxOptra says that it’s “designed for” businesses with fleets of 5 or more vehicles.

MaxOptra’s basic Optimiser and Track and Trace packages are each priced at £35 ($42) per vehicle per month, making them cheaper than Workwave on a like-for-like basis.

But be warned:

• MaxOptra ties you in for a year, while Workwave offers a rolling monthly commitment
• Optimiser’s functionality is marginally worse than Workwave’s entry-level product - it includes route optimisation, but all the delivery management features are on the Track and Trace package!

MaxOptra’s Complete package - at £50 ($61) per vehicle per month - has features comparable to eLogii and Onfleet. If you have very specific requirements (eg long haul freight), MaxOptra’s add-ons may tempt you to choose this option.

Workwave Alternative #4: Circuit

Circuit is a last-mile delivery management and route optimisation solution, which is highly competitive on price in the “per vehicle per month” space.

Although it lacks some crucial features at the entry-level, it gives Workwave a run for its money.

How Does Circuit Outperform Workwave?

#1 All Circuit packages include live route tracking

The missing elements in Circuit’s Dispatch package are:

• POD collection (and indeed, it doesn’t support barcodes at any level)
• Customer notifications

Big omissions, but the inclusion of live location data via GPS does permit a whole lot of customer service enhancements that Workwave’s basic package neglects - as we outlined in the eLogii section.

And like eLogii, Circuit lets drivers use Waze as their mapping app - giving access to crowdsourced real-time traffic information.

#2 There’s a free version!

While Circuit gets expensive fast (the Premium package costs $100 per vehicle per month), it does have a free option that will work for solo drivers running short routes.

Circuit Route Planner is free and lets users automate and optimise routes of up to ten stops. If you need more than that, it’s $20 per month. However, Circuit’s free version is not suitable for multi-driver businesses, as it doesn’t include dispatcher functionality.

Circuit also offers a 7-day free trial of its team edition.

How Do Circuit And Workwave Compare On Price?

Starting at $40 per driver per month for its entry-level Dispatch product, Circuit is not only cheaper than Workwave on a like-for-like basis - it also has better features.

On this basis, it’s a great straight swap-out for Workwave users who want to improve service and save money.

The Bottom Line

Workwave Route Manager is really only a competitor in the route optimisation and delivery management space in its 360 and 360+ versions, due to the features missing from the basic package.

Even then, it is likely to be very expensive. If you also need basic fleet management capabilities and don’t want to pay for a separate solution, it may be a good option for you.

For most delivery businesses, a Workwave alternative will be more suitable:

• eLogii - the best overall solution, except for the smallest businesses
• Onfleet - for small and medium-sized businesses, especially with flexible workforces
• MaxOptra - for a pick-and-mix solution, where you only pay for what you need
• Circuit - a great free package for micro-businesses