Efficiently and safely delivering goods has already been a daily juggle for transportation companies. But the Covid-induced e-commerce explosion has intensified delivery demands, challenging companies to both fulfill orders quickly and provide accurate ETAs on package deliveries. Adding additional pressure is customers are increasingly wanting their goods delivered in the most environmentally friendly way.
In short, the transportation industry has become about more than just streamlining operations to control costs. Now, companies are identifying efficiencies that will both enable them to meet customer demands, maintain customer satisfaction and boost sustainability by reducing fuel use and cutting carbon emissions.
Yodel, one of the UK’s leading parcel carriers, is one company that has reaped the rewards of embedding sustainability into its operations––both in cost savings and in customer satisfaction.
Yodel delivers millions of parcels each week from more than 50 sites nationwide. It serves multiple industry verticals, including fashion, leisure, health and beauty, home and garden, electrical, gifts, publishing and entertainment.
Given its experience in serving a vast array of markets, Yodel’s record growth and demand for its services was increasing pressure on Yodel’s fleet. Customers were expecting orders to be fulfilled quickly, and many had specific timeframes for when they’re available to receive deliveries, so they needed accurate ETAs. Wanting to maintain the same standard of service it had built its success with, Yodel sought out tools that would help it reduce the time spent in depots by drivers and improve productivity, all while maintaining great customer service.
As a company committed to innovation, Yodel partnered with Trimble Maps to integrate new routing technology into Yodel’s proprietary driver application.
With the goal to provide critical information directly to drivers via iPhone or Android devices, Trimble Maps’ technical teams collaborated with Yodel to ensure their application objectives were successfully deployed. Now, when parcels are assigned and loaded into each Yodel driver’s app according to their region and start time, the software instantly generates an optimized stop order, accounting for predefined priority destinations, expected delivery time per stop, historical travel times etc. to create an accurate ETA for each stop along the way. Trimble Maps’ routing solution allows drivers to quickly identify if a route is over or underloaded, so routes can be load balanced prior to finalizing. Once the driver approves and finalizes the route, the technology generates an accurate ETA for each stop, which allows Yodel to communicate a two-hour delivery window to customers receiving a parcel through Yodel’s Xpect service.
“Technology that enables drivers to optimize stops in seconds helps Yodel’s full-time and lifestyle drivers improve productivity while improving customer service,” said Chris Quin, EMEA VP at Trimble Maps. “Putting advanced technology in drivers’ hands to automate route sequencing and ETAs helps drivers focus on exceeding customer expectations.”
Integrating Trimble Maps technology into the Yodel Driver app has given drivers an average of 20 extra minutes each day through better route optimization, increasing driver productivity, saving fuel, and reducing carbon emissions. At the same time, the technology has allowed Yodel to communicate accurate delivery time windows to Xpect service customers 98.77 percent of the time, improving customer satisfaction.
Through Trimble Maps’ technology, Yodel is meeting rising demand efficiently while maintaining its focus on customer service. This helps the company stay a step ahead of competitors in an industry where success is increasingly being defined by the quality of the customer experience and their light delivery footprint.