Delivery Speed: 8 Strategies for Faster Fulfillment

In today's fast-paced world, customer expectations are high. People who love online shopping want fast delivery times, a critical factor in customer satisfaction. 

With online retailers like Amazon and Walmart offering same-day delivery, it's important to keep up and give your customers the fastest delivery speeds possible.

Improving delivery speed can give retailers a competitive edge, but achieving it can be challenging. 

In this article, we'll explore tips and strategies you can implement to improve your delivery speed and meet customers’ expectations.

Key takeaways:

• Delivery speed is the time it takes for a package to leave your facilities and arrive on your customer’s doorstep. 
• Delivery speed is very important for your business because it keeps your customers happy so they shop with you again. It also gives you a competitive edge in the market.
• Optimizing your delivery routes can minimize travel time and reduce fuel costs, so you can make more deliveries per day.
• Monitoring traffic in real time allows you to identify areas of congestion and quickly change your routes to avoid those areas, helping your drivers avoid delays.
• Many factors can influence delivery speed, including traffic, distance, delivery route and volume, and driver behavior.

What is delivery speed?

Delivery speed is the time it takes for a package to leave your facilities and arrive on your customer's doorstep. 

Delivery speed can vary depending on several factors, such as transportation type, distance traveled, package weight and size, and shipping service.

It’s important to optimize your delivery service to meet customers’ demands while still accounting for package safety in transit.

Circuit for Teams lets you optimize your delivery processes by creating perfect routes and inviting your drivers to join in less than five minutes!

The importance of fast delivery speed 

Delivery speed is very important for your business. Fast shipping can benefit you in many ways, including:

1. Customer satisfaction. Offering fast and reliable deliveries can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
2. Competitive advantage. Customers will be more inclined to pick your service over the competition if you can offer faster delivery than your competitors.
3. Repeat business. Delivering customers’ packages quickly and reliably means they’ll have a positive experience shopping with you, making them more likely to return.
4. Reduced costs. A fast and efficient delivery system can help your business reduce costs by reducing the time and resources needed to fulfill orders. This means less money spent on fuel and more orders fulfilled in a shorter amount of time.

8 strategies for faster delivery speed

Improving your delivery speed can get your product into customers’ hands sooner. Consider these eight strategies to increase your shipping speed.

1. Optimize your delivery routes 

Do you manage your own drivers? Optimizing delivery routes can help you maximize efficiency, reduce delivery times, and improve customer satisfaction.

Route optimization software and algorithms can help you plan delivery routes based on factors like traffic, distance, and delivery priority. 

This allows you to identify the most efficient routes, reducing travel time and fuel costs while improving overall delivery speed. This helps you make more deliveries per day, increasing your capacity and improving profitability. 

Circuit for Teams is a delivery management platform that lets you optimize delivery routes, track last-mile delivery, and update customers.

Circuit for Teams offers easy route optimization that lets you choose the fastest delivery routes for your drivers. 

Choose which navigation app you want your drivers to use, and easily add special instructions, comments, or notes for each package. 

2. Correctly prioritize stops 

The order in which your drivers make stops can affect delivery speed, efficiency, and the overall delivery process. 

Correctly prioritizing stops can help drivers deliver packages quickly, reducing travel time and improving customer satisfaction.

It’s important to prioritize stops based on delivery urgency, with time-sensitive packages first. This helps them arrive within the indicated time frame. 

Prioritizing stops can also help your drivers reduce travel time and distance. 

By logically grouping stops, drivers can avoid backtracking or unnecessary detours, reducing fuel costs and improving overall efficiency. 

This can result in faster delivery times and the potential for more deliveries per day.

Circuit for Teams lets you elect single or multiple stops as first or last. Drivers can complete priority deliveries at the beginning of their routes and leave less urgent deliveries until the end.

3. Schedule in advance 

Scheduling your deliveries in advance is an important part of the delivery process. It allows you to prepare for any issues or changes and improves the overall efficiency and speed of delivery.

Planning ahead helps you anticipate any issues or changes that may come up, like traffic, weather, or unexpected delays. This enables you to adjust your delivery schedules or routes so your deliveries are still on time. 

Scheduling deliveries also helps you maximize your resources by efficiently using your drivers, vehicles, and delivery routes, reducing travel time and resulting in faster deliveries.

In busier times, Circuit for Teams lets you quickly add a list of drivers and deliveries to get the fastest routes.

4. Modify delivery routes in real time 

Modifying your delivery routes in real time can help save time and increase delivery speed. 

Traffic is unpredictable, but Circuit for Teams can adjust your routes using real-time traffic information to avoid traffic congestion and reduce travel time.

Monitoring traffic in real time allows you to identify areas of congestion and quickly change your routes to avoid those areas, helping your drivers avoid delays.

With Circuit for Teams, your dispatchers can modify in-progress routes while automatically notifying drivers about the changes. 

In addition, you can send notifications to customers alerting them to the changes. 

5. Consider forward and reverse logistics 

Considering forward and reverse logistics can streamline your delivery process and improve efficiency. 

Forward logistics involves the transportation of packages from your facilities to their final destination, while reverse logistics involves the transportation of your packages from the final destination back to your facilities or another location. 

Planning both forward and reverse logistics allows you to optimize your delivery process, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. 

For example, planning your reverse logistics in advance helps you better manage returns. 

This allows you to decrease the impact on delivery schedules and reduces the chance of delayed shipments.

Circuit for Teams can help you with forward and reverse logistics with its ability for dispatchers and drivers to mark stops as pickups or deliveries, allowing the driver to save time and prepare space in the truck when needed. 

6. Increase your vehicle capacity 

Having a large team of vehicles can help your business in many ways. The biggest way is allowing you to handle a larger number of drop-offs so you can serve more customers and increase revenue.

A large team of vehicles can also offer faster shipping options like one-day delivery, same-day delivery, or next-day delivery, improving customer satisfaction and retention.

More vehicles also mean you can manage any unexpected issues or changes, like an increase in demand. 

More resources allow you to respond quickly and effectively, minimizing disruptions and keeping your deliveries on time. 

7. Use driver tracking 

Using delivery driver tracking can help you understand where issues or delays may be happening so you can address them.

For example, let’s say one of your drivers is stuck in traffic. Tracking them in real time allows you to adjust the delivery schedule or route so deliveries are still on time. 

Driver tracking can also give you insight into your drivers’ behaviors so you can make sure they follow safe and efficient practices. 

Monitoring factors like speed and braking helps you identify areas where drivers may need improvement with feedback or training.

Circuit for Teams has real-time driver tracking and accurate ETAs, so you know if your drivers are behind or ahead of schedule.

8. Measure and adjust to your KPIs 

Measuring and adjusting your key performance indicators (KPIs) is key to increasing your delivery speed. 

These metrics give you data and insights into all areas of the delivery process, such as delivery dates and times, vehicle utilization, and customer satisfaction.

Measuring your KPIs allows you to identify areas where you can improve performance and take steps to fix them.

For example, let’s say your delivery times are longer than expected. You can analyze the data to identify potential bottlenecks in the delivery process, like inefficient delivery routes.

Then, take steps to address the issue, like optimizing your routes or prioritizing certain stops.

Circuit for Teams offers you the ability to do all this and more thanks to the Premium version, which allows you to analyze and improve delivery efficiency.

Which key factors impact delivery speed?

Several key factors can impact delivery speed, including:

1. Distance. The distance your delivery has to travel can impact speed, as longer distances usually mean longer delivery times. 
2. Traffic. Traffic patterns constantly change and impact your speed. Traffic congestion, accidents, and road closures can cause delays and increase delivery times.
3. Delivery route. Your drivers’ routes can impact their speed. Optimizing routes can reduce travel time. 
4. Delivery volume. The more packages you must deliver, the more time needed to complete each delivery.
5. Driver behavior. Your drivers’ behaviors can also impact speeds, so make sure your drivers practice safe and efficient driving methods. 

There’s a lot to consider when working out how to make deliveries as quickly and efficiently as possible, but Circuit for Teams will consider all of these factors for you.

Find out how Circuit for Teams can optimize your delivery process

Faster delivery speeds help improve customer experience and give you a competitive edge. 

If you're an eCommerce business that handles your own delivery operations, Circuit for Teams can help you increase your last-mile delivery speeds with its route optimization and real-time driver tracking.

With Circuit for Teams, you can confidently plan, track, and manage your delivery operation, allowing you to offer fast delivery to your customers.

Try Circuit for Teams today.