Intro to Courier Management Software: The Key Features and Functions

Making use of delivery services is one of the most popular consumer habits. This can be easily proved by numbers. By 2027, the same-day delivery market share is expected to reach $24.4 billion.

The purpose of this article is to tell you more about courier management software, its main features and functions, and the benefits it can bring to small businesses. Contact us anytime you want to learn more about the very process of custom software engineering.

Overall, delivery services run with courier delivery software can significantly change your business. According to Canadian POS corporation, delivering goods directly to the client’s doors can increase sales, add client trust in your company, and boost customer loyalty. Delivery experience also leads to the growth of repeat purchases, which has a significant influence on your profit.

Despite the benefits, the delivery process has a lot of challenges businesses can hardly cope with. The first is the time factor. Delivery service is a time-dependent process. The quicker you will be, the higher chances are that a customer will stay with you for a long time. But to deliver goods quickly, you need to plan your routes efficiently, invest in vehicles, hire a lot of employees, etc.

Another challenging factor to consider is the peculiarity of the products you offer. If it is food, it will require you to ensure specific conditions for delivery. Also, you will need to choose the right service radius covered by your delivery services to earn as much as possible but not to overload the business at the same time. On top of that, your customers will expect you to update them on the delivery progress, approximate time of arrival, and more.

All these challenges can be solved with one solution — a fast-working and automated courier management software.

What courier management software is

Courier management software is a system, application, or solution used for organizing the process of delivery and delivery-related operations. Courier software can cover everything from informing the employees about the new delivery order to automatically assigning it to a free courier and suggesting the best delivery route.

Courier service software can improve time management, ease the process of assigning delivery orders to couriers, optimize resource planning and operations, as well as increase efficiency.

Benefits of delivery software for small business

Delivery software for small businesses can be the chance to level up their operations by adding automation and efficiency. A small delivery business can benefit from 3 main functions the courier management system performs:

• Ensuring access to delivery information
• Automating back-office processes
• Improving the experience of both couriers and customers

Each of these functions has its limitations and challenges you should consider before building dispatching software for small businesses. If you need expert help from a professional software engineering partner, you can get in touch with us. We are trusted by big e-commerce enterprises that lead several European markets. Anytime, we can help you build an e-commerce solution that suits your and your user’s needs.

Let’s discuss each of the functions in more detail.

Ensuring access to delivery information

Your sales directly depend on the number of orders you get. As you add the delivery option to your service line, you can increase the number of clients. Just think about the number of people who possibly prefer the competitors over you simply because they offer the delivery option.

Modern customers get used to solving all their problems via the Internet without leaving their homes. This is why the delivery service is so important.

Dispatch software for small businesses can help:

• Ensure that products are transported safely

Some product categories require particular transportation conditions. Courier management software can automate the function of selecting the couriers who can ensure safe transporting conditions (for example, by having the right vehicle type or food bag of the right size).

By using courier service software, couriers can access the delivery order details and be reminded of the transportation requirements.

• Meet the delivery deadlines

According to Oracle, the reduction of order fulfillment and delivery time is what determines if the client experience was positive. If the experience was positive, 78% of clients will likely keep ordering from that company.

Courier management software can automate a lot of functions for a small business. For example, with its help, the delivery orders will be automatically assigned according to priority, client/courier location, etc.

• Effectively plan their routes

Of course, your employees can calculate the best routes manually. However, it can lead to human errors and missed deadlines. Also, the very process of calculating the optimal options takes time.

Meanwhile, a courier management system can do it for you in seconds. What’s more, it can replan the routes in real time considering the obstacles that appear on the way.

Besides, the software for the small business delivery service can optimize your fuel management strategies. By adding fuel management features, you will keep track of your fuel expenses and vehicle maintenance costs.

The employees can log the expenses manually, or the software engineering partner can integrate the software with payment systems and the data will be automatically synchronized.

Automating back-office processes

From the first to last touchpoint with your brand, a client gets a certain impression about the quality of services you deliver. This means that the interaction of your couriers with clients is as important as processing orders promptly and responding to user requests asap.

With the help of courier software for small businesses, you can instruct the couriers at each stage of their work process. Firstly, the system can automatically send route suggestions and tips. Instead of manually finding the delivery orders and entering the next destination address into a GPS navigation app, a courier will press one button and effortlessly move from one delivery order to another.

Your e-commerce development partner can integrate the software with the mapping app of your choice. This way, you will get a real-time picture of what is happening on the route without the need to switch the systems.

The courier software can also be used for schedule management. By integrating AI-powered models into your app, you will be able to organize the schedule effectively. The system will define the busiest hours and calculate the optimal courier number per shift. Couriers will also use it to manage their schedules, check in real-time what shifts are unavailable because other couriers have already chosen them, etc.

Forbytes can help you with AI development. We are software development nerds and do a lot of great things together with our clients. Check them out:

An ordering system for small businesses can be used to manage courier breaks, contact employees to inform them about the issues, contact clients via the system (not to interfere with their privacy), and more.

On top of that, as your software engineering partner, Forbytes can integrate the feature of setting goals for your couriers. They will be able to achieve new levels, accomplish goals (for example, complete N orders per month, or earn a 5/5 client satisfaction rate for a week), and more. If you offer some award for such achievements, it will motivate them to improve their skills — and improve your service at the same time.

You will get access to the data on each courier’s performance. If some of your employees underperform, you will be able to promptly spot it and analyze why it is happening. Your couriers may face some challenges you are not aware of. By solving these challenges, you will be able to improve the productivity of couriers and the overall workflow.

Improving the experience of both couriers and customers

By building fast-working and visually appealing courier software, you will get the chance to ensure an elite client experience. Each time your orders are safely and timely delivered to your customers, you earn points for being a dedicated business.

Investments in business development and improvements also influence your reputation in the eyes of clients. They understand what they pay for. The research by PWC reports that more than 86% of customers are ready to pay more for a good client experience.

Above, we described how couriers can benefit from using courier service software. As for clients, they will use it to be continuously informed about their delivery orders, order status, and estimated delivery time.

In case something changes in delivery details, the customer will always have the chance to get in touch with the courier via the system or change the details themselves till the feature is available. For example, this feature will be useful if a customer is not at home and the delivery is coming.

Clients will also receive real-time updates via push notifications and get the opportunity of live driver tracking. They will get everything necessary to control the process, which will be highly valued by your audience.

Features and functions of courier management software

If you are determined to build courier dispatch software, here is the list of the main features and functions it should possess. These features will enable easy and quick delivery management for both couriers and employees.

So, the admin panel can include the following:

• Sign up

You can provide the standard option to sign up with an email/phone number and password or offer quick signup options with the Google/Microsoft/Facebook accounts, etc.

• Security features

For instance, additional security features can include two-factor authentication or notifications about unrecognized logins.

• Dashboards

These can typically be displayed on the main screen of the system. Dashboards are aimed to visualize critical data on delivery (orders delivered; in progress; pending) or performance (revenue, expenses by the last 1/5/10 days).

Other ideas for ecommerce dashboards in courier dispatch software include dashboards on couriers (how many of them are now at work, how many of them are waiting for delivery orders, etc.) Obviously, this information will be updated in the system in real-time and will require no human intervention.

As a skilled software development partner, we can add the opportunity to customize these dashboards. By doing so, each employee will be able to adjust the dashboards to their needs. The dashboards will display the data an employee needs for performing their tasks.

Contact Forbytes if you need help with ecommerce customization.

• Delivery management

This feature lies at the core of courier delivery software. The software will help you in delivery order management. Your managers will use it to keep track of the whole delivery process from start to finish.

In the system, the delivery orders can be marked with a certain color depending on their status. For each delivery order, there will be the order number, details, client ID, current status, and more.

You will be able to apply filters to the order list and sort them by different categories. Also, you can export the delivery order lists.

The delivery orders will be assigned automatically to couriers with the help of AI models. However, you will be able to introduce changes or reassign orders anytime. Also, couriers will be able to pick up the delivery orders manually after confirmation.

• Courier management

Courier management feature will be one of the main features of your courier delivery software. By using it, you will check and manage courier information (both for you and your customers). For example, it will include the name, contact details, status (in delivery/looking for orders/unavailable), vehicle info, driver’s license number, etc.

Also, the system will be used to access data on courier salaries, work schedules, and work expenses.

• Fleet management

You will need this feature if your business owns vehicles and uses them for delivery services. You will be able to check the vehicle details, check which courier is currently using the vehicle, and add maintenance information or info on fuel expenses.

The software will also be used for location tracking and assigning a driver to each vehicle. Besides, the system will automatically remind your employees about upcoming vehicle checks or maintenance issues unsolved yet.

• Finance management

This feature will add transparency to your finance operations. Our team can integrate your software with other solutions you use. This way, your financial data from the courier tracking software will be synchronized with other solutions. This will help you see the global picture of your profit and expenses.

The system will automatically collect data on each delivery finished by the courier, their earnings, your delivery earnings, fuel expenses, etc.

By integrating analytics and reporting tools, you will be able to collect historical data and analyze performance. This will enable you to find finance management gaps if any. By solving these gaps, you can optimize your budget and increase the efficiency of operations.

• Tracking

The feature of GPS tracking is available after integrating the software with powerful mapping software options. Your managers will use driver tracking in real-time, check their location and movement if needed, set the delivery service radius, etc.

• Push notifications

The feature of push notifications will be available for your in-house employees as well as couriers. For example, the system will inform free couriers about new delivery orders or changes in delivery orders. It will also send a notification to the user when the driver approaches the destination.

Users having access to the admin panel will be able to customize notifications and enable or disable this functionality. Or, they will configure the set of rules that will enable or disable this feature automatically.

In conclusion, the purpose of this list is to give you an understanding of the basic features courier dispatch software should have. However, the list of these features can and should be adjusted to your particular needs.

A custom courier management system vs. an on-premises solution

If you are looking for courier tracking software on Google, you are likely to find a lot of sites offering on-premises solutions. Interestingly, each of them claims to satisfy all your business needs and adjust to your requirements.

The question is, how can one piece of software meet the needs of all courier companies using it, regardless of their target niche, client specifics, and business goals? This is what we will try to answer.

If we compare building software from scratch and purchasing an off-the-shelf one, the second option seems quicker, cheaper, and more accessible. However, custom courier software has a lot of strong sides in comparison to existing solutions. It’s an investment in your long-term efficiency, management strategy, and brand identity.

Custom software outperforms on-premises software in many aspects, including:

• Need-tailored option. Custom courier software is built considering all your business needs and the peculiarities of the market you operate in. You are not limited by the provider in the number of orders you can store or some other features and functions and are not required to pay for them an extra fee.
• Save money. At first glance, it may seem that monthly payments or regular fees for using on-premises software don’t affect your courier company in any way. But in the long run, you can save a significant sum of money that can be invested in creating custom software. Furthermore, in a custom solution, you don’t pay for the features you never need. This is not the case with on-premises software where you pay for the software as a whole without deciding on the features you need or not.
• Flexibility. With custom software, you do not depend on anyone. Instead of sharing your business data with third parties and worrying about data security, you can stay flexible, introduce changes anytime, and know for sure that your data is confidential. Also, you can add, change, remove features, and improve your solution as your courier company grows.

Need help with software development?

Forbytes is a software engineering partner that has been serving clients for more than 12 years.

We can help you build a custom courier management system tailored to your brand’s needs, integrate it with the other systems you use, and automate a lot of processes in your company with the help of technology.

Just let us know if you need any assistance.