What Is Route Planning and Why Does Every Field Sales Team Need It?

For any sales operation that regularly runs business on several stoppages to reach different end locations, route planning is an essential facet. Whether you are a trader, distributor, furniture seller, pharmacy, independent carriers, equipment manufacturers, FMCG suppliers, or any other enterprises that provide last-mile distributions, the struggle for logistics remains the same. 

Here, strategic route planning enables you to maintain brand loyalty, increase fleet volumes, ensure customer satisfaction, and make the routes profitable and efficient. The core benefit of routing logistics is operational efficiency with time management, which ultimately boosts sales productivity. 

Let’s discuss in detail the significance of route planning and advanced strategies for planning delivery routes.

WHAT IS ROUTE PLANNING?

Strategic route planning refers to identifying the most optimized path or series of distribution stoppages to deliver the supplies to end consumers. In this process, many distribution-led elements are considered, such as vehicle capacity, quantity of orders, delivery timeframes, and service time to be covered in a whole day. 

Although route planning in logistics has been discussed for decades, technology now makes it easier to optimize supply chain operations. An AI-powered CRM can also connect customer and sales data with route planning, helping teams plan visits more efficiently.

The best route is evaluated with certain stops for planning deliveries that are cost-efficient, time-saving, and secure. Customized maps are generated for specific routes to help delivery partners achieve the best results. 

All in all, it not only saves time but also prevents unwanted fuel consumption that reduces transportation costs.

DIFFERENT SORTS OF PREVELANT ROUTE PLANNING

Several challenges are commonly seen in sales routing planning that vary from product to product. Hence, the route planning can be clubbed into six categories as per common factors to help businesses streamline the delivery planning.

1. Multi-Stoppage Route Planning: It determines the overall delivery paths, taking into consideration the highest number of stoppages the delivery partner can complete in one go. Here, the multi-stoppage route planning application generates the most suitable path covering all stops in the best time.
2. Closed-Path Route Planning: Closed-path routes are basically a continuous journey happening in a loop that begins and ends at the same point. The driver again takes a U-turn after supplying all products and again collects deliveries back to the beginning stop. Due to the return trip, they are time-consuming.
3. Depot-to-Depot Route Planning: Depot-to-depot routes streamline travel paths for drivers who take commercial vehicles to different depots, storehouses, hubs, and fulfillment centers. It is mainly suitable for the automobiles that begin with a full or empty load. It helps in lower fuel usage, balances fleet load, and meets delivery deadlines for all routes.
4. Dynamic Route Planning: It is a real-time navigation tool that adapts to instant constraints such as weather issues and traffic jams, and determines the route plans instantly. It accommodates all real-world variables and last-moment requests too, to reschedule the routes and provide additional vehicles to help drivers complete deliveries in an efficient time.
5. Open Path Route Planning: It is the complete opposite of closed path routing, as the end depot stop is far away from the starting point. The driver follows a linear path covering the maximum stops in a defined range of time. The end of this delivery route takes time to cover, and hence, the cost is higher to get back.
6. Reverse Open Path Route Planning: As the name suggests, the driver starts from the farthest point from the depot and returns to the depot at last. This route planning determines the roadway backward in a way that the heaviest vehicle loads are dropped first, making the vehicle lighter on each stop. It saves fuel and ensures a safe journey back to the depot.

ADVANTAGES OF ROUTE PLANNING IN LOGISTICS

Sales team representatives who check on several user depots can strategically plan their day through route planning. Managers can follow up on the deliveries planned from their offices themselves. Planning deliveries in a wise manner can help you cover more clients than expected. Let’s discuss more such benefits of route planning for the field sales team.

1. Competitive Timeframes: When the route plan is automated, the driver can focus on their work rather than planning the routes for the whole day. It saves the time and energy of transporters, so they can complete their deliveries in a shorter time. It not only satisfies consumer satisfaction but also increases the work efficiency of drivers. It increases the possibilities of repetitive purchase orders and improves profits.
2. Reduce Emissions: Sometimes, the decided routes are not taken due to real-world constraints like sudden traffic jams and weather disturbances. In that case, route planning helps to provide the best route possible in real-time, which takes care of traffic rules, jams, city decorum, and does not harm the environment.
3. Data Updates From Field: For field salespeople, their office is essentially on their mobile through CRM software. An AI CRM platform can help connect field activity, customer information, and sales updates in one place, allowing teams to share important information with management instantly. Instant updating to management saves time at the end of the day for sharing daily reports. From Clocking In to Clocking Out, everything can be done through mobile software that saves further time.
4. Cost Efficiency: Sales operations are all about saving costs and increasing profits. Saving time will automatically save costs as well. If everything is well planned, salespeople can visit more places and save time. Covering more sales points in less time is ultimately beneficial for the Company and also increases productivity. It also saves fuel costs, operational expenditure, and efficient resource utilization.
5. Boost Sales: Route planning not only helps the company and delivery partners, but also the consumers who get the timely deliveries. Proper route planning can also serve orders that are urgent. Ultimately, it will make the consumer happy as their last-moment requests are met on time by the Company. It will improve client relations and trust with the Company, leading to enhanced future sales.
6. Real-Time Customer Handling: With robust mobile CRM software, customer needs are handled in real-time. Salespeople can resolve any issues, distribute orders, take client queries, etc., all in one app at an appropriate time. The responses without delays build trust and foster stronger customer satisfaction. In this way, you can earn loyal consumers for a lifetime in this competitive market. Companies must maintain relations with an effective route planning.

WHY CHOOSE TRADEONE FOR ROUTE PLANNING IN LOGISTICS?

TradeOne is a popular CRM software in businesses that deal in high-end supply chain management involving many stakeholders, both on and off the field. Our app has the unique feature of delivery tracking in real-time with proper invoice updates.

We not only help you plan efficient routes but also connect those activities with your sales and customer data. With an AI CRM solution, teams can manage leads, customer information, sales activities, and route planning from one platform. Every loophole is covered from all angles, from lead generation to route planning to actual sales; we cover it all for you.

Maintain proper data of clients, deliveries, sales reports, feedback, vehicle updates, and whatnot. With TradeOne, you can automatically plan your daily deliveries most efficiently, saving time, cost, and effort.

Get in touch with our representative to learn more about the amazing benefits TradeOne has to offer you.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What is Route Driving?

It is a procedure of delivering goods as per a predefined path, as per exact navigational routes, constant directions to a specific location, strict compliance with the timelines, etc.

2. What is the future of Route planning?

The latest technologies have evolved the route planning system with upgrades like Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), and Advanced analytics. It will influence future logistics operations more.

3. What are the key elements needed for strategic route planning?

To get the strategic route planning right, you must consider the key factors like vehicle capacity, delivery expenditure, delays due to unavoidable reasons, total distance, delivery time window, and any specific consumer requests.

4. Why is route planning essential for sales?

Route planning is the backbone of sales functioning in a transportation business. When the end product is delivered on time, saving costs by building happy & loyal clients, then ultimately sales will be increased.

5. What is the difference between route planning & route optimization?

Route planning offers a complete delivery path to the salesperson logically. Whereas, route optimization implements complex algorithms that consider surprise elements and make different route variations.