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There’s no denying that being a hired driver can be very exciting. It enables you to enjoy the activity you like and easily make money from that. However, being a truck driver or courier company driver isn’t easy. Being a logistics manager you have to wonder how do drivers waste time on the road and what can fix this issue?
When a driver is late, the company they work with will have quite a bit of loss. It might be a lot more challenging than you might think, which is why focusing on understanding the causes of this problem is essential here. So, how do your drivers waste time? Let’s look at some of the most common ones.
1. Unauthorized personal stops and usage
There are lots of drivers that just stop their cars on the road, which makes unauthorized stops. Be it shopping, visiting friends, or anything like that, all of them are unauthorized stops. As you can imagine, every minute is crucial in the transportation world and the more time is wasted by the driver, the worst it will get. The fuel consumption will be higher, the driver will be late in deliveries and the number of accidents that appear on the road from this particular issue will increase exponentially.
Using a vehicle without authorization can be quite problematic. If they use company vehicles for personal usage during working hours, your company will be the one responsible for all of these problems financially and legally. Not only is the service life reduced, but the maintenance costs and fuel will also increase. Imagine how much it would cost your business if the case keeps repeating?
2. Driving through traffic
Another way many drivers lose time is because they lack good route optimization software and they just drive through traffic. Some drivers are actually going through these areas intentionally as they want to kill time. But aside from wasting time, fuel economy is also affected here. The issue is that managers can save around $6000 (USD) each year if they eliminate excessive idling problems like the one we mentioned above.
3. Opting for longer routes
Although many companies should use route optimization software, not all of them do. As a result, their drivers focus on opting for longer routes. As you can imagine around 15% of the truck miles generated each year aren’t profitable because drivers don’t really opt for an efficient way to save time and money. So, taking the longer routes makes it hard for the company even if the driver might be ok with taking stops and opting for a much longer route in the end.
4. Spending time at a customer location
Each driver has a limited amount of time when it comes to dealing with the shipment of each product. Obviously, the allocated time is proportionate with the overall costs of that item. But you can imagine that the more a driver will stop, the smaller the amount of time he can spend at any customer location. If he stays overtime at a certain location, he will waste that time from his own budget and that can be very troublesome. It has not counted the fact that each customer location has a specific time window that must be considered in order to avoid failing in deliveries on time.
5. Longer lunch breaks
There are lots of drivers that don’t just eat for 10-15 minutes and then go back on the road. Some drivers are actually taking 2-3 hours or more for a lunch break. Obviously, every minute lost leads to a higher chance of delays and other delivery problems. Do you even know about this issue if you plan routes on paper?
How can you solve these problems?
Thankfully, even if your drivers are wasting time and money, you can solve the issue in a very creative and distinct manner. The benefit here comes in the form of route optimization software. This software enables you to see what your drivers are doing in real-time, and you can easily manage them without a problem.
If a driver isn’t moving although he was scheduled to do so, you can easily find out about that and contact him to see what happens. You can also use fleet management software that helps you find the very best routes on the market. With help from software like vRoute you will not have a problem optimizing your revenue, and at the same time, you will have a good insight into what’s currently happening on the road.
Route optimization software is great for last-mile deliveries, helping you make sure that no driver is late. Plus, fleet management software can be easily accessed even from your mobile phone, which means that accessing it on the road or outside the office isn’t a problem anymore. vRoute and other route optimization software/fleet management software will provide you with great visibility of your drivers’ delivery progress.
On the other hand, good fleet management software like vRoute will provide your driver with a great function that helps optimize their route so no prolonged routes will be encountered anymore. It will also calculate the best possible route that saves time and money. The fleet management software will also help them navigate to any delivery addresses with a real-time map and directions.
If you want to lower the amount of money and time you waste from careless or unprofessional drivers, you should consider using good fleet management software and route optimization software as fast as possible. This eliminates the hassle your drivers find on the road and the experience will always be second to none! Start using vRoute or any other great last-mile delivery optimization tools to see all of these benefits, save money and boost your business!