It may sound overly basic but the more efficiently you can deliver products, the more successful your courier service will be.

Optimizing and conquering courier management requires a solid understanding of the basics so you can ensure the continuous improvement of all the different areas of your company, whether it be scheduling preventative maintenance, establishing dedicated roadside assistance, enhancing delivery routes, or implementing fleet maintenance software.

Implement a Fleet Preventative Maintenance Plan

An effective fleet preventative maintenance plan includes:

• A comprehensive checklist of all the activities and tasks to be performed during scheduled maintenance. (This will differ based on each vehicle’s class).
• The service interval or frequency.
• Creating a process for drivers to submit their written inspections.
• A designated facility where maintenance and repairs can take place.
• A record-keeping procedure to store data.
• A process for maintaining inventory and ordering spare parts.

Consider Fleet Maintenance Software

Fleet Management Advantages – Source: SafetyCulture.com

A courier fleet optimization and maintenance software allows couriers to deliver parcels faster without wasting resources. Moreover, it enables couriers to avoid: vehicle wear and tear, increased fuel costs, completing fewer tasks within a given time frame, inefficient driving routes, and customer dissatisfaction.

In today’s saturated courier market, optimization and maintenance software is more important than ever to stay ahead of the curve, improve customer service, and increase profitability.

Establish Dedicated Roadside Assistance

Breakdowns occur no matter how well-maintained your fleet is. To avoid your courier vehicles being stranded in the middle of the road, you need to ensure you have a dedicated roadside assistance service that will get you out of a bind in a timely and efficient manner to avoid unnecessary downtime and costly losses.

So whenever a roadside emergency happens, you’re confident in the on-demand service’s proficiency to resolve the issue and get your vehicle moving in no time. You can also consider investing in courier breakdown cover as it’s very affordable and will help provide you with peace of mind in the long run.

Moreover, these services will usually recover your vehicle to the destination of your choice without any added charges, and they also offer assistance if it won’t start or if you’re stuck and don’t have a serviceable spare tire.

Use the right vehicles for the area

Sometimes cars or bigger vehicles aren’t the most practical when there’s a lot of downtown traffic. This is often better navigated using a bicycle or an electric hand cart. Naturally, you won’t be using these for remote or rural regions. Location intelligence is essential if you want to optimize your courier service.

So consider population density and the number of delivery addresses in a given area before you choose the right mode of transportation.

Consider stops in your travel time calculations

When planning your routes, don’t just look at travel time but also consider stops. If your driver has to deliver a package to someone living on the 5th floor in a building with no elevator, then that is sure to derail delivery time.

So take these factors into account (the type of building, number of floors, distance from the road to the front door, etc) and use that data to optimize your ETAs.