The term ‘last mile’ refers to the journey a product undergoes from a warehouse shelf to the customer doorstep. Its practical understanding is that the last mile is a final step in the entire delivery chain process where the package reaches to the consumer. While this is a major differentiator in competitive eCommerce businesses, sometimes it gets expensive for vendors to meet customer demands. In fact, in the entire shipping process, the last mile is the one that consumes a major chunk of time and resources (financial & human).
Disrupt Logistics
Image source: www.shiptrackapp.com
Most of the users have been in a situation where the packages are ‘out for delivery’ but seems like an eternity. This is why a major issue with the last mile is inefficiency. But then it has a reason too. The final step in a shipment process has plenty of stops having low drop sizes.

Consider a rural area where the distance between the two drop-off points are far away and have only a couple of packages to drop. On the other hand, metro cities will have severe traffic congestion between two stops which makes up for the stop proximity. And then around 68% of customers expect to have their package delivered at their doorstep.

This creates havoc amongst the logistics companies to deal with such unforeseen consequences. Here’s where last-mile delivery can bring in the change and improve efficiency. Customers are looking for on-demand services and even willing to pay more for faster, one-day or same-day deliveries. Giants like Amazon, FedEx and UPS have successfully mastered the art of last-mile logistics. They have magnificently improved the delivery standards by stirring the then-existing delivery mechanisms which required a lot of manual interventions. Such companies have leveraged on the last-mile logistics and delivery solutions by catering to customer’s immediacy demands.

Scope of Logistics Software Solution

Logistics companies looking to match the customer demands have to take the route that gives back the control to them. This can happen manually or by tailoring the logistics solutions in the form of last-mile delivery software based on their requirements.

There are plenty of ready to use logistics software solution having the capacity to disrupt logistics. Most of the eCommerce vendors roping in the third-party logistics services for their last-mile delivery can do with developing software. In such a case, the logistics software solution should be able to do the following:
  • Seamless integration across multiple business processes covering all the participants
  • Providing a faster, scalable option.
  • It must deliver real-time statistics
  • Data science enabled accurate delivery time
There are plenty of startups looking for such niche supply chain solutions. This makes it difficult for delivery companies and large-scale retailers to integrate multiple tools into a single, scalable system that is also consistent once. Here comes the role of last-mile delivery solution development companies to enable high-level logistics software solutions. Such solutions are a niche as they are tailored from scratch and can scale up whenever required.


Optimizing Last-Mile Delivery to Yield Friction, Efficiency and Transparency

Considering how consumers, at the other of the spectrum, demand faster delivery, and on one end the demand for communication rises. This creates friction! Such friction is a result of constant update requirements and inquiries generated by customers that goes on throughout the process.

Investing in last-mile delivery solutions can highly disrupt the way how logistics functions at the backend. Especially with the dynamic user demands, the last-mile solution will keep the delivery personnel informed. Right communication methods are implemented throughout the process, at various steps, allowing consumers to easily communicate with shippers.

Transparency too demonstrates the high level of consumer expectations. This is specific to the consumers wanting to know the exact time of the package arrival. Moreover, consumers across the eCommerce or on-demand offerings platform are trying to gain insights into the delivery process.

Such demands will need visibility and transparency to the extent that customers can simply look at the in-app map to locate the package movement – real-time. Such a requirement will require companies to integrate real-time delivery tracking system just how it works in Uber, Lyft, etc.


Ways to implement Last-Mile Delivery Solutions to disrupt logistics


1. Equipping Drones, Robots and Self-Driving Cars

Though it may seem like a distant future, there are plenty of advancements going on to make raise the delivery standards by bringing in drones, robots and self-driving cars for delivery. Amazon is experimenting with the drones already and Tesla’s self-driving car can well put to use initially for offering solutions to last-mile delivery issues.


2. Enabling Smart Technology and Sensors

The sort of curiosity and wait that the consumers are displaying, they need to have almost every detail of their package. Like, even the most detailed information, like the temperature of refrigerated goods in transit. Such information shall demand transporters and companies to maintain the integrity of all the items they are supplying.

The blend of IoT with Blockchain technology is creating a strong base for smart sensor implementation on a large scale. This ensures accuracy in delivering goods while also providing data security.


3. Creating a Difference with Urban Warehousing

The same-day delivery demands are at an all-time high. It is pushing the industry leaders like Amazon to pick the densely populated areas for creating warehouse facilities there. This allows them to fulfil more orders by enabling faster deliveries. Fulfilling customers’ needs residing in metros get easier with the automatized delivery mechanism at a place that creates a real-time delivery alert with traffic updates.

Such a market scenario may well see a plethora of transportation companies and While Amazon led the charge on two-hour delivery, urban warehouse hubs are an opportunity many logistics providers or transportation companies should be considering.


Conclusion

A key element in determining the requirement of the last-mile delivery system is customer experience. Creating the logistics disruption will need the shipper to redefine their strategy and meet customer expectations at every touchpoint. The best possible solution is to equip the last mile delivery logistics solution to cater such incessant requirements till the order is delivered.

Author – Bio

Noman shaikh
Noman Shaikh is a Digital Marketing Head at Fixlastmile & clinical trials which is known for developing top-notch last mile delivery Software. 

He believes in sharing his strong knowledge base with leaned concentration on entrepreneurship and business.