Parcel management companies compete in a highly competitive market. Customers demand low rates, on-time delivery and flexible shipping options - all of which can mean increased costs. Is it possible to offer these services to your customers while reducing costs? Yes, by connecting your company to a cloud-based, real-time value network and subscribing to parcel management best practice templates.

The challenge: Competitive differentiation requires your company to have a global reach. You need to plan, collaborate and coordinate with your trading partners at different levels. You need to be able to create the best plans for customer fulfilment, track shipments across multiple partner networks, and share this data with your customers immediately. However, this is not possible given the technology environment outside your four walls.

Other technologies struggle with these limitations.

Inability to scale to meet the huge volumes of data associated with the parcel industry

Planning engines cannot optimise the entire network

How to sense and manage changing demand signals in real time

Vertical systems and databases that cannot integrate key demand, supply and logistics data

Invisibility of external partners' actions

Inability to plan, coordinate or collaborate with external partners

The solution: Connect the real-time value network and subscribe to the parcel management best practice template - eTower

What is Courier Management?

Courier management is the process of organising last mile delivery operations. Courier management includes scheduling order deliveries and assigning them to couriers, overseeing operations, planning and optimising routes, overseeing vehicles, managing fuel and processing courier expense approvals.

The three main objectives of courier management

Delivering products to customers.

Supporting the couriers who deliver those products.

Ensure that customers have a good buying experience so that they come back for more.

This may sound simple, but each objective has its own challenges. Deliveries are time sensitive and products can be fragile. Couriers will face obstacles in the field, including traffic, difficulty locating addresses and customers who are not at home. Your customers expect frequent updates.

Whether you are a seasoned professional or just starting out in the courier business, there is a lot to do. The best way to achieve these goals is to break each one down into simpler tasks. We've done that for you below.

Deliver products quickly and efficiently

The success of your delivery business depends on placing orders with customers on time and in good condition. The faster and more efficiently you can execute deliveries, the higher your profit potential. This is what it means to deliver products quickly and efficiently.

Transporting products safely. Courier management teams are not usually responsible for packing goods, but they do need to ensure that products are protected during transit. Depending on what you are transporting, you may need insulated bags for storing food, cushioned packaging for fragile items or high dividers for sending flowers.

Consistently meet or exceed deadlines and times. More than half of online shoppers say delivery turnaround times define a positive experience, and 89% of consumers abandon brands because of a poor customer experience. If you want to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, you need to optimise delivery routes, allocate deliveries in order of priority and take every measure to maximise delivery speed.

Drive efficiently. Manual calculations are prone to human error and take longer than using software. Rely on courier route optimisation software to calculate the most efficient route in seconds and give yourself a competitive advantage.

Consider implementing a fuel management strategy too. By simply maintaining delivery vehicles and teaching couriers fuel-efficient driving techniques, you can reduce fuel costs and improve overall efficiency.

Maximize work capacity by supporting couriers

When customers shop online, the courier is the only brand representative customer they will encounter. Couriers are arguably your most valuable asset, so it makes sense to support them in any way you can. Here's how to get the best out of your couriers and in turn increase revenue for your company using route optimisation tools such as OptimoRoute.

Provide couriers with clear route directions that are easy to follow. Otherwise, delivery drivers will spend a lot of time sitting in their cars, entering each new address into their GPS, rather than driving to their next destination. Use the OptimoRoute driver app (available for Android and iOS) to provide drivers with turn-by-turn navigation from their preferred mapping app. This will make the whole delivery process more efficient, resulting in more deliveries per day - and more money for you.

Notify couriers of shift changes well in advance. Provide your staff with schedules as far in advance as possible to minimise last-minute no-shows. With eTower, you can schedule up to 5 weeks in advance. The more notice you give couriers, the easier it is for them to find coverage and the less likely they are to "call in sick" on the morning of their shift. Check out our shift work scheduling guide for more information.

Schedule driver breaks appropriately. Driver breaks are not a luxury. They are a legal right and if you don't schedule them proactively, you could run into a lot of problems. eTower can help you schedule breaks automatically to minimise the impact on delivery routes.

Motivate couriers with clear goals and company objectives. Many publications have documented the correlation between a positive company culture and employee productivity. Set clear goals and support your employees in achieving them.

If your couriers are underperforming, the best way to find solutions and figure out how to help them is to simply ask. Couriers may be facing challenges in areas you don't know about. By scheduling regular one-to-one check-ins with each member of your team, you will gain valuable insight into how you can better support their work and improve your overall workflow.

Delivering a superior customer experience

Each step in the logistics supply chain and last mile delivery chain brings you closer to your ultimate goal: providing an outstanding experience for your customers. When your products arrive safely and on time, your customers usually have a good experience. However, if you want to take that experience from good to great, you need to perform the following actions.

Provide highly accurate delivery ETA. customers want delivery status updates (via SMS or email) and the more accurate you can be, the better. Choose courier management software with real-time updates for your customers.

Develop a customer-focused contingency plan. Even if you provide real-time tracking for your customers, you may encounter a situation where a parcel needs to be delivered but the customer is not at home. For scenarios where the customer comes first, you must have a strategy in place, whether it's leaving the parcel with a designated neighbour or calling the customer to ask what they want you to do.

Courier management is a process that can always be improved. Revisit these goals often and always look for ways in which you can do these things better, faster and more efficiently.

Try us for free and you'll get

Reduce your operational costs by 30%

Increase delivery capacity by 43%

Plan up to 7 times faster

Increase revenue by expanding your geographical footprint

Leverage existing ERP and legacy systems

Increased revenue through better 'intermodal' partnerships

Higher levels of customer service

Reduced IT, operational, transport costs

Sustainability - reduce carbon footprint

Why you need a courier management system

You need a courier management system because without it, you won't be competitive. The Courier Delivery Management System (CMS) is a commercial software that simplifies courier management and routing. the CMS simplifies all the following tasks.

Planning and optimizing delivery routes

Courier tracking and scheduling

Courier performance analysis

Parcel tracking during delivery service

Updating customers

Manual planning and routing are time-consuming processes. It is difficult to isolate the best route in a city with thousands of different roads. When you need to count hundreds or thousands of stops, it is almost impossible to do so. This is the so-called travelling salesman problem - and it's a problem that courier management systems have to solve.

Courier management FAQs

Get the answers to some of the most common courier management questions below, as well as links to resources where you can learn more.

Is inventory management part of courier management?

Inventory management and courier management are different things. Inventory management is the act of managing the products or stock in a warehouse. Courier management includes last mile delivery and delivery team management. These processes go hand in hand and often work in tandem, but are managed by different teams.

What is the difference between courier management software and warehouse management software?

Warehouse Management Software (WMS) is designed to simplify inventory and logistics management within a warehouse or storage facility, CMS simplifies courier management and last mile delivery. Many couriers and logistics companies use both. The software can be easily integrated for seamless communication.

How much does a courier management system cost?

Pricing depends on the specific software solution you choose and the number of drivers or vehicles in your fleet. eTower starts at $19 per month per driver, billed monthly (or $17.10 per month per driver, billed annually). We offer a free 30-day trial with no credit card information required, so you can try it risk-free. Find out more about our pricing structure.

How do I offer parcel tracking to my customers?

The easiest way to provide parcel tracking to your customers is to use a CMS with route optimisation, such as OptimoRoute, and let the technology do the work for you. eTower uses your courier's GPS location to provide your customers with real-time tracking and ETA, showing them when their order will arrive, down to the minute. All you have to do is enable customer notifications and create your own custom messages.

Does courier management software help with shift work scheduling?

Most courier management software systems have at least basic staff scheduling features. eTower has advanced features that help with scheduling and planning. You can schedule staff and arrange delivery routes for up to five weeks at a time in eTower, and the software will show you if you need more drivers for a particular shift. eTower also makes it easy to schedule driver breaks and quickly adjust schedules if drivers encounter traffic or obstacles along the way.

Does the courier management system work if I have contract drivers?

Yes, you can use courier software whether your drivers are independent contractors, full time employees or both. Courier management systems like eTower rely on GPS tracking, which is enabled through an app that each driver downloads to their phone, so drivers can use their own phone and their own vehicle.

Does the courier management system work if my courier drives a different size vehicle?

Yes, as long as you choose a courier management software like eTower, which allows you to enter unique cargo space specifications for each driver. In eTower, once you have entered your vehicle specifications, you can plan your route, including multiple returns to the site for reloading.

A partner that grows with you

At eTower, we know you're working hard to grow your business and we believe it's our job to grow with you. That's why we're always working to improve our software and support you on your path to successful delivery. We are developing new features based on feedback from our customers and our support team can help you with set-up, troubleshoot integration issues with other software, or answer any questions you may have along the way.