How to manage human delivery resources and how to record their performance?
Drivers like any other resource must be monitored on multiple parameters to keep a track of performance.
The monitoring starts during hiring by gathering personal details, previous work history, and continues to daily performance.
As drivers face the end customer, the company needs to know their performance. A driver’s performance can be recorded in different ways.
a.Previous work history.
Collected at the time of joining lets the company provides information about any legal issues, stability at the job, loyalty to a company, among other details. These are the vital details from the Human Resource perspective.
b. Adhering to the instructions given on the job.
This implies to the way the drivers act while being on the job and is conjoined to human behavior. Factors like punctuality, honesty, professionalism are some of the expectations from the drivers and are captured in the software.
c.Feedback about the interaction from the customer.
As the drivers represent the way companies treat the end customers, it is very much vital to know how they approach the customers and complete the delivery.
Once the delivery completes, the software allows the customer to tell the business about the driver which is captured as feedback.
All the above data when collected is very much vital for the management in making necessary changes to overcome challenges. Delivery
Driver Management Software provides many features including automated analysis and deduced outcomes. Below are 10 ways in which the software can help in improving driver performance.
1. Inventory tracking is used to keep tracking the number of packages a driver is carrying.
This data is used to calculate the driver’s pay-out. As most of the logistics companies pay the drivers on a per-package basis (number of packages a driver delivers per day or month), the calculation becomes easy.
Along with the regular salary, even performance bonus calculation becomes easy when incorporated in the software.
2. Monitoring driver’s live location is very important and can calculate a driver’s performance directly.
It shows the fleet manager of the distance covered, the number of successful deliveries, number and duration of stops, number of reverse pickups.
With the use of driver management software, the fleet master can monitor multiple drivers and can provide the necessary inputs to either an individual driver or the whole fleet.
3. Assisting drivers with navigation.
By collecting the data from various sources about the roads and routes, the software can be used by the fleet manager to inform the driver or any blocked roads.
This facility is very handy in the present pandemic when there are multiple sealed areas, containment zones, COVID 19 hotspots. The software can also provide an updated route to the driver in case of any last-minute changes in the route.
4.Route optimization for driver’s ease.
When the inventory is tagged to a particular driver, software sorts all the delivery addresses and plans a route which is the best fit to deliver the packages.
The software is also capable of sorting random addresses in a sequence as per the route plotted by the application.
This feature uses the map from the internet to mark the addresses and then prepare the sequence and the route. The software also ensures that the best possible route has no blocked roads as per the latest information received from the local government authorities.
5. Idle time reduction is another benefit of the software.
The software can calculate the time of travel and time of breaks.
This gets recorded and the fleet manager gets an update about this information.
Thus, the fleet manager gets a facility to know how much time a driver spends on breaks and what is the frequency of breaks. As per the parameters set, the information can be provided on a daily, weekly, or a customized period basis.
6.Auto package assignment.
While a driver gets to select the area he wants to deliver packages at, this task can also be automated and the area is allotted at random.
Based on the automated selection, the packages are allotted to the driver. Similarly, any return pickup is also scheduled and allotted to the same driver to save on fuel and time.
7.3rd party resource management.
There would be instances when the company is short of either drivers or vehicles.
In such cases, the company gets them from the 3rd party companies on loan or lease.
The software manages the requirements, package assignment and the amount to be paid to the company.
All these functionalities are available on prior inputs collected and maintained in the system.
The software is capable enough to even inform the vendor company about the requirement in advance.
8.Monitors punctuality and behavior.
Attendance of drivers and other activities at work gets recorded in the software.
This enables the company to take precautionary measures in terms of making company policies to address such issues or providing counseling to the drivers to address and solve their issues.
If a driver has a record of taking multiple or long breaks, the company can try to address the loss of time.
9.Analysis and Reporting.
Apart from all the other functions a software provides, one of the most crucial function is to analyze the captured data and report it to the management as and when needed.
The software can also be programmed to give deduced outputs. This helps the management in taking decisions and making necessary changes to ensure a positive customer experience.
10. Once the delivery completes, the customer gets the option to provide feedback about the whole experience with the delivery of the package.
It could be about the time is taken to deliver, the driver’s approach, the way the package was handled.
Conclusion:
In the logistics business, a major part is managed by the delivery management system along with the driver’s performance.
This helps the business control the logistics branch. What more would you like to know about the system?
