Delivery Scheduling Software

Many retailers set delivery capacity and time slots using historical averages. Customers are presented with pre-defined time windows that don’t reflect real-time constraints such as load size, weight, travel distance, service duration, or driver capabilities. 

This method overlooks how much delivery service times vary. Dropping off a few lightweight items is faster than a two-person delivery with installation, or a high-volume drop-off. 

Because of this, planners can’t tell if promised time windows are realistic until routes are finalized in batch planning, typically just a day or two before delivery. 

This workflow (setting slots, booking deliveries, then planning routes) tends to create one of two outcomes: 

• Overly ambitious scheduling: Demand exceeds actual capacity, forcing retailers to reschedule deliveries or outsource them to third-party logistics providers, which cuts into margins and damages customer confidence. 
• Overly cautious scheduling: Capacity is underused, leading to inefficient routes and higher cost per stop, along with missed opportunities to fulfil additional orders. 

In a batch-planning model, delivery commitments are made with no guarantee of cost-effectiveness or feasibility. This approach arodes profitability and puts on-time delivery at risk. 

With smart delivery scheduling, you can control delivery costs while giving customers the choice they expect. 

When a customer is booking a delivery, the solution displays slots that are achievable and profitable. 

In the background, delivery slots are scored based on time window feasibility and cost-effectiveness, based on factors like capacity, delivery type, estimated service time, customer address, and volume.  

Schedules are optimized continuously, so businesses can extend order cutoff times and allow for same- or next-day delivery options.  

Delivery scheduling based on continuous optimization offers a range of benefits to distributors and retailers: 

• Increase profitability: Incentivise customers to select profitable time slots. Offer same-day, next-day and premium delivery options. Serve more customers with the same resources. 

• Improved customer satisfaction: Extend order cutoff times and offer slots that suit customers’ schedules. Then deliver on time, as promised. 

• Improved delivery density and vehicle utilization: Guide customers towards slots when drivers are already in their area. 

• Increased productivity: Book more delivery appointments and serve more customers with the same resources. 

• Contribute to environmental objectives: Highlight delivery slots that reduce emissions. 

Route planning is about designing delivery routes: 

• Assigning stops to routes/drivers 
• Sequencing stops 
• Calculating the most efficient path from A to B to C 

Delivery scheduling decides: 

• What time each stop takes place 

• How stops line up with customer time windows 

The ideal solution will tie these processes together, considering factors like capacity, addresses and service times to align scheduled time windows with optimized routes. 

Smart scheduling is ideal for businesses where customers expect to choose a precise time window for delivery. The solution is especially beneficial for businesses with variable service times, where fixed slot reservations are not appropriate: 

• Retailers of big, bulky goods 

• Two-man and white glove delivery 

• B2B wholesale distribution 

Dynamic appointment scheduling software lets customers select a delivery slot that works for them at the point of sale (POS). 

They might choose a slot based on their preferences for speed, convenience, cost-effectiveness, eco-friendliness. Understanding customer delivery “personas” or  preferences—which can also vary by what products are delivered—helps businesses create different delivery experiences for customers to choose from based on their preferences. 

The solution displays slots based on true capacity to ensure that you can meet delivery promises without adding vehicles. 

Batch scheduling with fixed slot reservations leads to over-optimistic or over-conservative delivery schedules. Either you can’t meet delivery promises, or vehicles are underutilized.  

Dynamic scheduling allows you to control costs while offering realistic slots that improve delivery density and on-time delivery.