Reduce Last-Mile Delivery Costs and Keep Efficiency: 7 Tips for Business
Nowadays, the fast-paced business trends landscape consists of various delivery operations and processes, also known as last-mile delivery. How can you utilize this aspect of customer satisfaction to achieve business success? As consumer expectations continue to rise, companies face increasing pressure to deliver goods quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively. However, last-mile delivery costs remains one of the most challenging and expensive components of the supply chain, often accounting for a significant portion of total shipping costs.
Let's discover how enterprises across the globe can implement profitable strategies for logistics and trade that not only reduce last-mile delivery costs but also enhance operational efficiency. Keep with our list of 7 tips to optimize your processes and reduce final-mile delivery costs, ensuring to meet customer demands while keeping expenses in check.
How can businesses reduce last-mile delivery costs without sacrificing efficiency?
Take a look at our last mile delivery cost breakdown to discover the various ways in which you can reduce costs and maximize efficiency.
1. Optimized route planning. SeaRates has two main tools that help with this task. Route Planner - a tool that, in conjunction with SeaRates Tracking System, helps analyze existing routes provided by well-known carriers and combine them optimal to get the desired result with less transshipment. We start using advanced algorithms and AI to create the most efficient delivery routes that consider fuel consumption, traffic patterns, road conditions, and delivery time windows, reducing the costs of last mile delivery. Shipping Schedules is the tool that allows you to see the relevant valid routes by multiple real carriers with detailed data and transit time and make a proper choice.
2. Crowdsourcing data within SeaRates.com. With the help of Route Planner, thousands of independent carriers and freight forwarders provide their own exclusive route options. Aggregated in one place, these routes enable final customers to discover unexplored options that could have been unknown before. This is especially relevant during peak times.
3. Hub-and-spoke model. By consolidating shipments and using local distribution centers or micro-fulfillment centers, it's possible to shorten the distance to the end customer. In terms of optimization, a lot of businesses combine orders at central hubs and use smaller vehicles for the final leg of delivery.
4. Choose options for delivery by electric and autonomous vehicles. Robotization significantly reduces labor costs and makes logistics cheaper and more affordable. You can even consider cargo drones for smaller shipments and distances; such solutions are already on the market and coming soon on SeaRates.com and AirRates.com. Besides, observations show that this option often increases delivery speed.
5. Real-time tracking and communication. For multimodal deliveries, it's important to have up-to-date information to make proper decisions on the next shipping type selection. SeaRates Tracking System provides customers with real-time tracking and updates to reduce missed deliveries, improve satisfaction, keep customers informed, and allow them to reschedule deliveries easily.
6. Efficient packaging and stuffing. Optimized packaging allows for reducing volume and weight, saving space in delivery vehicles and reducing fuel consumption. Reusable or recyclable packaging can cut down on waste and costs. SeaRates' Load Calculator, in turn, as stuffing optimization software, helps save space even more, as does selecting a smaller vehicle or container. As a result, this can help when reducing last-mile delivery costs.
7. Data analytics. Analyzing delivery data enables every business to identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement. We offer to use predictive analytics to forecast demand and plan resources accordingly; e.g., with SeaRates' Freight Index tool, you can see the historical change of freight rates by various shipping types with different geographical granularity. Other than that, you can use a smart dashboard with full statistics and filters on your own shipping business activity in SeaRates Virtual Office, which will help you see weak spots and improve performance onwards.
To conclude
Leveraging strategies such as optimized route planning, crowdsourcing data, leveraging the hub-and-spoke model, utilizing electric and autonomous vehicles, ensuring real-time tracking and communication, implementing efficient packaging, and harnessing the power of data analytics, companies can significantly reduce last-mile delivery costs without compromising on efficiency.
Start your own path of mastering and enhancing your business' operational performance and elevating customer satisfaction. Let us know about your intention to achieve sustained business success by filling out the Request an IT Quote form to receive a smooth API and web integration of cutting-edge tools for logistics and trade.
Contact us at [email protected] to start a profitable path of improving logistics and trade through the intuitive, advanced solutions our team provides for your specific needs.
