Starting Up a Couriers Business - The Boxby Tips for Survival during a Credit Crunch.
(5) Route Planning and Route Mapping - Software, Hardware and other Options
As a courier, your profits will be impacted by many factors, but one of the most important, and obvious, ones will be mileage. It is vital that you sit down and plan your routes properly. Driving around on instincts, and using your natural bearings may get you to your destination, however it will not the shortest route, the quickest route or the most profitable route.
Information you Need to Plan your route
For every pickup and delivery you are doing, you will need the following information;
- Name, address, 2 telephone numbers; mobile & landline
- Any specific delivery instructions, or directions, gate codes, etc.
- Any alternative delivery arrangements
- Whether or not there is ground floor access
- Times that pickup or delivery is possible
- Details of consignment; dimensions, weight and number of packages
- Any special requirements, signatures, checks before signing.
Get yourself organised and make sure that you gather all of this information for every pickup and delivery. It seems time consuming and maybe unnecessary at first, but you can be guaranteed that missing this type of basic factual delivery information will result in serious losses in time and money whilst you are out delivering.
Free Website Route Planners and Mapping Websites
If you are planning your delivery routes from an office, on either a desktop PC or laptop then a tom-tom probably isn't the best piece of equipment to use. There are free mapping websites such as google maps, multimap, the AA's free website route planner, streetmap. The problems with these sites are that they don't let you save, revise and edit your routes. They are good if you want to look up an address, or want to see route options for a single journey. However websites like this can be hard work if you are trying to plan a 15 stop multidrop delivery route.
Low Cost Route Planning Software for PCs.
Our personal favourite is a Program called Travelmanager. Travelmanager costs only £29.99 and so is very affordable for anyone just starting up a courier business. However, it is detailed and powerful enough to deal with even the busiest of courier companies. Travelmanager lets you build a route with 25 stops, and if you have 14 or less stops it will even optimise the route for you, calculating the best possible route for you to take.
The drill down to street level is very detailed, using Ordinance Survey data for accuracy, Travelmanager also has a number of inbuilt databases, and even lets you build your own databases which you can overlay on top of the maps.
You can use Travelmanager to prepare routes which minimise cost, or time, which avoid motorways, or have a preference to motorways. You can set your own costings into travelmanager so that you have full knowledge and control over the costs of your delivery runs. All routes can be saved, and continually edited and revised. You can reorder your routes with a simple click and drag of the mouse.
For more information, or to purchase Travelmanager, then click here
Satnav Equipment for the Professional Driver - ProNav
If you are a regular user of High Street Satnav then you will be aware of the sometimes problems relating to one way streets, etc. But if you compound this with being a courier in a commercial vehicle, then the possibilities for bad Satnav directions increase dramatically. One solution is Pronav. This is a Satnav, very similar in look and use to the High Street units, but far more complex in the data that it holds. It includes information such as whether a road is wide enough for you to pull up and unload, information on low bridges, parking restrictions, loading bays and penalty charge restrictions. Also including information such as areas prone to high winds truck stops and other more useful information (as opposed to highlighting theme parks!)
Satnav Equipment - Cheap & Basic
The Satnav is the popular option. Frequently cheap, and easily obtainable from High Street retailers, or online websites. It's maybe not so good for planning long multidrop routes, but it does have the advantage of sitting next to you in the van, and giving you a shout when you've driven past your exist.
Satellite Navigation equipment has come down in price dramatically over the past few months, and although Satnav does depend on you telling it where to go, it does normally get you there. Some satnavs have the ability to base routes on the drivers preference (ie motorways or urban roads), and some satnavs work in conjunction with traffic alerts, which can steer you clear of delays and traffic jams. You need to do your research to make sure that the unit you buy does have the functionality that you require.
The Perfect Combination?
A software program like travel manager lets you plan your route in the office, giving you full visibility of all routes, all collection and delivery points, and your order and schedule in one easy view. You need to couple with this an in van mapping solution, either the Satnav, or even the old fashion Road Map.
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