Delivery and distribution software update: What’s new in January 2022?

In January, KLOUDIP upgraded its delivery and distribution software. Mainly, the users got an enhanced notification system, order management, and design.

Last time, the developers updated it in September, so let’s see what’s new.

New types of notifications

Notifications keep clients and dispatchers updated on the delivery progress and events on the way. In January, we added two new notification types:

1. Visiting an order. The notification informs the dispatcher when a driver stops in the delivery area, indicating that he’s at the final stage. If this final stage takes too long, the dispatcher can contact the driver, know the reason, and deal with the issue.
2. Orders ready to be sent. The notification informs the client that the delivery company picked up his order from the warehouse and will soon pass it to a driver. Now that DISTRIBUTION can send a notification at every delivery stage, you can keep clients updated at all times, just like Amazon does. 

Free notifications

There are two ways to inform the client of the delivery progress:

1. SMS will cost a fortune if you send them to each client and at every step.
2. Emails that most clients miss or ignore.

In January, KLOUDIP introduced server notifications. Now, DISTRIBUTION can send messages to your server, and you decide where to send them further – messengers, CRMs, or other in-house apps.  

If you decide to send messages to clients’ messengers, you will get free instant notifications to supersede SMS. 

Let us know if you want to configure server notifications in your existing account or try DISTRIBUTION for delivery management.

Order management

DISTRIBUTION app automatically assigns orders to the available vehicles and builds optimized delivery routes. 

Sometimes, orders remain unassigned, and get lost or undelivered. Mainly, it happens when there are not enough vehicles. It damages the reputation of a delivery company.    

To prevent this, KLOUDIP added a section to review all unassigned orders while planning routes. There you can see the reasons for non-assignment and add orders routes manually. Moreover, you can use the “Recalculate” option to generate optimized routes comprising the newly added orders. 

Matching orders with the right vehicles

Since January, DISTRIBUTION can automatically assign orders of certain types to specific vehicles. That’s how it happens: 

• When you create an order in the DISTRIBUTION app, you can specify its characteristics – heavy, oversized, dangerous, temperature-sensitive, etc.
• In the app, you can access a vehicle library to overview all the transport available for delivery. Each vehicle in the library has a profile, where you can specify the types of goods it can carry.
• By matching the characteristics of transport and orders, the system automatically finds the best vehicle to transport certain types of goods.

That way, if you have a pharmaceuticals box and refrigerated transport both marked as “temperature-sensitive,” the system will automatically assign the order to this vehicle. 

Now, the dispatcher doesn’t waste time checking each vehicle manually to find the best fit for delivery. 

Order statuses on the map

DISTRIBUTION automatically assigns orders to vehicles and builds optimized routes. After that, the system displays the routes and delivery points on the map. By clicking on each checkpoint, the dispatcher can view additional information about the order. 

Since January, the system indicates the order status for each route point on the map. 

• Confirmed;
• Rejected;
• Not specified.

That way, you can quickly analyze the correlation between confirmed and rejected orders on a route. If the rejected and unknown statuses are too many, it may signify a problem with customer service and order handling. Or a driver just doesn’t know how to use the app. Anyway, you should address these issues. 

That’s all about the delivery and distribution software that you get in January. Contact us if you want to learn to use these features or schedule a live demo covering the DISTRIBUTION app A-Z. 

P.S. In February, KLOUDIP will release a big update for the HAZER IoT platform and GOFER software for business ride management. Subscribe for the news, and stay tuned!