Trucking Dispatch Software – A Gateway to Logistical Efficiency

Trucking is counted as one of the most dominant freight modes. If we go with the American Trucking Associations (ATA), trucks are nearly responsible for moving 72.2% of the nation’s freight by weight.

Needless to say, it is a vast and complex system that demands high accuracy to handle numerous operations. As a matter of fact, one can not rely on manpower alone to manage this difficult process. It will not only cost more but can also add errors.

So what is the solution?

Well, trucking dispatch software is the ultimate answer to logistics transportation challenges.

Want to know how?

Just go through this blog to get details on what trucking dispatch software is all about and how having your own custom trucking dispatch app can not only help you control business operations easily but can also aid in getting high ROI.

Getting Into the Nitty-Gritty of Trucking Dispatch Software

Trucking dispatch software is a simple and automated technological solution for trucking companies to reduce their business operations costs by a huge margin. As management software it allows trucking companies to manage and track their assets and inventory without putting in any hard effort.

Apart from this, whether it’s about optimizing delivery routes, scheduling & assigning tasks, or reducing risk factors associated with freight and logistics, the trucking dispatch application handles all.

In other words, trucking dispatch software is specifically designed to decrease manual involvement, synchronize data, optimize processes, and reduce human errors by operating on an automated basis.

Why Develop a Trucking Dispatch Software?

Well, there are a lot of benefits to developing trucking dispatch software. To understand this in detail let’s go through the challenges of a trucking business and see how this software can help you overcome these challenges.

Challenge 1: Gap Among Stakeholders

Whether it’s order tracking, same-day deliveries, regular updates through push notifications, and so on, all these play a major role in the trucking business. But if at any stage this is missing due to a communication gap between dispatchers and third-party logistics (3PL), it becomes a major challenge.

This makes it difficult to optimize delivery routes, track delivery trucks, and assess client satisfaction levels for the services being offered. It also blocks transparency that directly affects the brand’s reputation.

Solution

A dispatcher dashboard connects the dispatching software of the shipper with the 3PL system. Whether it’s stakeholders or customers, the smart trucking dispatch software connects all of them on the same interface. This solves the problem of tracking the dispatching & scheduling operations. Apart from this, mobile push notifications keep everyone updated with the latest information.

Challenge 2: Issues With Selecting Efficient Routes

Dispatching becomes an issue when it comes to rerouting and route optimization. This generally happens when customers provide a delivery address that is a part of the multi-drop operations. Thus the dispatchers have to spend extra time and effort laying out the route maps. This becomes a headache, especially during busy working hours when the volume of orders is large. As a result, it becomes a major challenge to deliver products on time.

Solution

A dispatcher dashboard loaded with advanced technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) can make the task easier through route optimization. The trucking dispatch software is also capable of multi-drop task assignments apart from scheduling deliveries. It not only helps dispatchers solve the issue of complex routes but also aids drivers to save fuel and time by directing them to the shortest possible routes with less traffic.

Challenge 3: Missing Timely Deliveries

Needless to say, delivering items to customers is a race against the clock. The logistics industry is all about speeding up operations to deliver items on time regardless of the delivery location. A survey on delivery reveals that 57% of the users leave the platform if they failed to get their deliveries on time.

Timely deliveries become even more difficult when these are same-day deliveries. Sorting, labeling, processing, assigning shipments, and all, is a hectic process that demands high efficiency in addition to speed. Any minor error can end up delivering the wrong product or a product with exceeded time limit. As a result, it can irritate customers to quit the platform for better services.

Solution

Trucking dispatch software ensures timely deliveries. It dynamically assigns duties to available drivers so that they can stay on road for pick up and dropping items. Modern dispatching tools like dynamic routing and multi-drop route planning assist dispatchers to work even under restrictions thus making sure that same-day deliveries are carried successfully throughout the world.

Challenge 4: More Workforce Requirements to Minimize Errors

When it comes to completing tedious and repetitive tasks there is a need for active humans that can do the job efficiently without committing errors. Now if we consider small businesses they don’t have the time and manpower to analyze and optimize each driver’s delivery route. As a result, most of the multi-drop deliveries are left to the discretion of the driver. Apart from this, job allocation consumes a lot of time.

Solution

Automation is the ultimate solution as it allows the automatic completion of tedious and repetitive tasks without any error. Whether it’s route optimizations, automated invoicing, digital proof of deliveries, assigning appropriate jobs to drivers along with the required information, and so on, intelligent trucking dispatch software provides all.

Also Read: Top 5 Fleet Management Technologies to Accelerate Business

Top 10 Key Features of a Trucking Dispatch Software

By now you must be clear about the need for trucking dispatch software. So let’s have a look at some key features that are essential to have in a custom trucking management software.

1.Real-Time Monitoring

Your employees must be easily able to monitor and track freight movements right from the beginning to the end. The software must also monitor the conditions under which the products are being transported to prevent any damage.

2.Scheduling

The scheduling and dispatching feature ensures quick organization of shipment pick-up and drop-off by offering complete visibility of available trucks along with their load capacities.

3.Push Notifications

Notifications are essential to know instantly conditions inside the truck, whether drivers are idling or speeding, changes in the ETA of the driver, or any other alerts if any.

4.Route Optimization

This feature enables the automatic building of optimal routes based on real-time information like weather, traffic conditions, and delivery time.

5.In-depth Analytics

Visualization of transportation and identification of trends is essential to make data-driven strategic decisions. In-depth analytics will present you with valuable data on the interactive dashboard.

6.Fuel Management

Fuel can be managed by reducing engine idling, optimization of delivery routes, performing preventative maintenance on a regular basis, and so on. The fuel management feature helps with all these elements to reduce overall driving costs.

7.Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory compliance is one of the essential features. Adhering to the safety standards can prevent you from being trapped in machinery defects and significant fines apart from a lot of headaches in the future.

8.Digital Documentation

Your trucking dispatch software must be able to arrange, store and share electronic documentation. It must integrate data from various sources so that all stakeholders have access to the updated details.

9.Mobile App Version

You must have a mobile app version of the trucking dispatch software. This will allow your team to manage tasks on the go and remain updated all the time.

10.Integration With 3rd Party Tools

The trucking dispatch software must have the ability to integrate with any 3rd party tools. It must be able to work efficiently with 3PL systems, GPS tools, CRM platforms, and so on.

Also Read: 7 Must-Haves to Consider While Developing Apps for Logistics

Give New Wings to Your Logistics Operations With Apptunix

Apptunix is well known for its logistics software solutions. Whether it’s custom logistics or transport app development, trucking dispatch software development, fleet management software development, smart inventory management software development, or so on Apptunix has established itself as one of the top logistics software development company.

Moreover, as a leading mobile app development company, Apptunix has proven its worth in the fields of advanced technology, a creamy layer of developers, complete transparency, timely deliveries, and so on.