Feature Review Q1 2023

We're thrilled to announce the exciting updates we've added to our platform in the first quarter of 2023. Our team has been hard at work to enhance your experience and make your delivery operations smoother than ever.

In this blog, we'll dive into the new features and improvements we've made to SmartRoutes and explain how they can benefit your business. So, grab a cup of coffee and join us as we explore the fantastic new features of SmartRoutes!

Jump to what you find most helpful:

1. Planned Distance
2. Custom Fields
3. New Landing Page
4. File Preview
5. Errors in Data Warning
6. Label Templates
7. Reverse this Route
8. New Warning - Preferred Time Vs. Driver Hours
9. Compare Planned vs. Actual Route
10. New Reporting Screen
11. Delivery on Time Report
12. Reports - Actual Duration
13. Live Dashboard
    

Planned Distance

The "Planned Distance" feature in SmartRoutes allows you to review the distance planned for each route in your delivery operation. By checking the planned distance, you can ensure that your drivers are assigned a fair and equitable amount of work. This is particularly important if you have a large delivery fleet with multiple drivers and routes.

In addition to the fairness aspect, the planned distance feature is also useful for calculating payments for contracted drivers based on their assigned distance. With this feature, you can accurately calculate payments for drivers and ensure that they are paid fairly based on the distance they were assigned.

The planned distance feature is an essential tool for optimizing your delivery operations and ensuring that your drivers are satisfied with their workload. With SmartRoutes, you can easily keep track of the planned distances and make adjustments as needed to improve efficiency and driver satisfaction.

Custom Fields

The "Custom Fields" feature in SmartRoutes is an excellent way to personalize and customize your delivery management experience. This feature allows you to create unique fields that are specific to your business needs, which can then be used to store additional information about your deliveries, drivers or customers.

With the recent update to SmartRoutes, you can now add preset values for your custom fields. This means that you can create a list of pre-defined values for a specific custom field. For example, if you need to determine whether assembly assistance is required for a particular delivery, you can set the values as ‘yes’ or ‘no’. This provides a quick and easy way to assign this attribute to each delivery, as well as to report on the data.

The ability to add preset values for your custom fields is a powerful feature that enables you to generate reports more easily and reduces the potential for misinterpretation of data. With the help of this feature, you can standardize the data entry process for your custom fields and ensure that everyone on your team is on the same page.

New Landing Page

Our desktop app has undergone a makeover! When you log in, you'll be greeted by a fresh new screen that offers a range of useful features. When you log in, you'll see a clean and modern interface that highlights key functions such as creating new routes, getting a daily overview of your routes, calendar with date picker and you will have the ability to view dispatched routes at a glance.

With the refreshed landing page, you can easily create new routes for your delivery fleet by clicking on the "Create New Route" button. You can also see an overview of your routes on a daily basis, which helps you plan and manage your deliveries more efficiently. Additionally, the date picker allows you to quickly navigate to specific dates, making it easy to manage your delivery schedule.

Lastly, the landing page provides a summary of routes that have been dispatched to drivers. This feature allows you to keep track of completed deliveries and monitor driver progress in real-time.

File Preview

When you upload a file, you'll be prompted to preview it before continuing. This preview window displays the contents of the file in an easy-to-read format, allowing you to check that all the information is correct. You can also navigate through the file to view all its sections and make sure that the data is structured correctly.

If you notice any errors or discrepancies in the preview, you can easily go back and edit the file before submitting it. This feature saves you time and effort by reducing the risk of errors and minimizing the need to backtrack and correct mistakes.

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Errors in Data Warning

The new data error warning feature in SmartRoutes is an important addition to the platform's suite of tools for managing delivery operations. With this feature, you can easily identify and correct incorrect or missing details in your uploaded files, reducing the potential for errors and streamlining your data management process.

When you upload a file into SmartRoutes, the system automatically checks it for errors and provides a warning if any issues are found. The warning will identify the specific rows in the file that contain errors and indicate the type of error that has been detected. This allows you to quickly pinpoint the problem and take corrective action.

The "only show rows with errors" option is another useful tool that helps streamline the error correction process. When toggled on, this option hides all rows in the file that do not contain errors, making it easy to focus on fixing only the problematic rows. This saves time and effort and ensures that you can quickly get your data up to the required standards.

Label Templates

The new label templates feature in SmartRoutes provides an easy and convenient way to manage your label printing needs. Whether you need to print shipping labels, barcode labels, or any other type of label, this feature simplifies the process by offering pre-made templates that you can customize to your liking.

To access the label templates, simply navigate to the settings menu in the SmartRoutes app. From there, you'll see a section labeled 'label templates' where you can select the template that best suits your needs. You can choose from a variety of templates that are optimized for different label sizes and printing preferences.

Once you've selected your template, you can customize it with your own branding, logos and text. You can also choose the specific label design that works best for your needs. Whether you need to print labels for individual products or for entire shipments, the label templates feature makes it easy to create and print labels quickly and accurately.

Reverse this Route

The new route reversal feature in SmartRoutes provides a convenient and flexible way to modify your planned routes. Whether you need to change your route direction to avoid traffic, reach a destination more efficiently or for any other reason, this feature makes it easy to do so.

To reverse your route, simply open the stop panel and click on the 'three dots' menu located in the top right corner of the screen. From there, you'll see an option to reverse the planned route, which you can select with just one click. Once you've selected this option, the planned route will be reversed and you'll see the new route displayed on the map.

New Warning - Preferred Time Vs. Driver Hours

With this new update, you'll receive a warning message if you try to add a stop to a driver's route that falls within their preferred time window but exceeds their working hours.

This feature is designed to prevent scheduling conflicts and driver fatigue by prompting you to proactively add stops to routes with available drivers during the preferred time. By doing so, you can avoid overburdening a single driver with too many stops or requiring them to work beyond their allowed hours.

Compare Planned vs. Actual Route

This feature provides you with a visual representation of any deviations from the planned route again enabling you to identify areas for improvement in your delivery process.

To use this feature, simply view the planned route on the map, which is displayed in its original color. Then, toggle on the "actual route" layer, which shows the actual route driven in orange. This makes it easy to compare the two routes side-by-side and identify any differences between them.

New Reporting Screen

Our redesigned reporting screen features a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate and locate the reports you need. You can access reports on a variety of topics, such as orders, drivers and notification status, among others.

We understand the importance of having quick and easy access to your data, and that's why we've made this update to enhance your reporting experience on the platform. With this improved reporting screen, you can stay informed about the key metrics and KPIs that matter most to your business.

Delivery on Time Report

This report provides you with a complete breakdown of all orders that were completed enabling you to see which ones were delivered on time and which ones were not. This can help you identify any trends or patterns in your delivery process that may be impacting your ability to meet customer expectations.

In addition to providing you with on-time delivery metrics, this report also allows you to view the duration of each stop for every order. This information can help you identify any inefficiencies in your delivery process, such as long wait times or inefficient routes.

Reports - Actual Duration

This new feature allows you to toggle on 'actual duration' in the stops report. With this feature, you can view the actual duration of each stop, helping you understand how long it takes your drivers to complete each delivery. This information can be used to improve planning and ensure that enough time is allocated for each stop in the future.

By tracking the actual duration of each stop, you can also identify any inefficiencies in your delivery process and take steps to address them. For example, you may discover that certain stops take longer than others due to traffic or other factors. Armed with this information, you can adjust your routes and schedules to minimize delays and improve overall delivery performance.

Live Dashboard

With this revamped feature, you get a live tracking map of all your delivery routes along with some amazing extras! The Live Dashboard allows you to filter dates and toggle on/off routes in progress. You can also search stops by name, making it easy to find a specific delivery location. With this feature, you can monitor your delivery progress in real-time, enabling you to provide your customers with up-to-the-minute updates on their orders.

In addition to real-time tracking, the Live Dashboard also allows you to pull reports on failed, outstanding, and completed orders.  You can even add your own reasons for 'failed' orders, such as 'nobody home.' This level of detail enables you to quickly identify and resolve any issues that may be impacting your delivery process.

Start Optimizing Your Delivery Process Today with SmartRoutes

The first quarter of 2023 has brought some exciting updates to SmartRoutes and we hope that you will find these new features helpful in optimizing your delivery process and achieving better business outcomes.

Whether it's the enhanced file preview, the actual duration reports, the planned vs. actual route comparisons, the delivery on-time report or the live dashboard, we're confident that these updates will help you improve your delivery operations and increase customer satisfaction.

If you're not yet using SmartRoutes, we invite you to sign up for our 7 day free trial to see how our platform can help you streamline your delivery process and save time and money. And if you have any questions or would like a personalized demo of our system, please don't hesitate to book a demo with our team.

For any questions for current customers visit our support page and to keep up to date with feature updates you can check our What's New page!