The United States Postal Service has been challenged in recent years with new delivery companies taking over in terms of customer service, customer experience and quickness of delivery. One question is constant for customers and employees alike - is the USPS effective? Is it improving its services to boost workplace productivity, reduce wasted time, and serve more happy customers?
If you are a new USPS driver, you might be struggling to plan an efficient delivery route. But you're not alone - there is an exceptionally high turnover rate for this job that is directly related to efficiency in the workplace, resulting in miscommunication and plummeting customer retention rates.
Although the USPS annual turnover rate has decreased to 38.5% in 2019 from a whopping 42.8% in 2016, the USPS is still struggling to educate and onboard their new drivers in an efficient manner.
So what are these effective tools that are helping to reduce employee turnover, save money, and improve performance?
- Straightaway
Straightaway is a route optimization app that creates the most efficient and easy-to-follow routes for delivery drivers. This dynamic route optimization and navigation program helps USPS drivers focus on the most important part of the job - making customers happy and eager to use USPS’s services again with safe, consistent, and on-time delivery.
Instead of toggling between various apps, switching screens, and swiping away on their iPhones while driving, USPS drivers have a streamlined experience. All they have to do is turn on the app and snap a photo of their delivery manifest, take a picture of a shipping label, or add stops with search. With the click of the button, Straightaway calculates the optimal route.
The Straightaway software organizes the thousands of possible route combinations and real-time data sources to develop the most efficient path between the hundreds of stops. Plus, Straightaway recalibrates itself in real-time to respond to shifts in traffic. With this feature, you’ll automatically reroute around sudden slowdowns, so they don’t slow you down.
Another part of the streamlined Straightaway experience is turn-by-turn navigation. USPS drivers can listen to and follow directions without pausing to check their phones on route or during drop-offs. Altogether, this easy-to-use app saves drivers time and headaches on the road.
- Google Maps
Although this app is less efficient for delivery drives, with Google Maps you can easily add multiple stops, avoid traffic jams, clearly see your route, and view your ETA to each location.
Although USPS drivers can use this app to help navigate between stops, the utility of this software means that couriers have to manually input stops and click ‘Continue’ after each successful drop-off. In addition, users can only add up to ten stops, including their final destination or return location.
- Opti-Time
Opti-Time is a versatile piece of route optimization software that can handle a massive number of delivery locations, extensive data points, and multiple stops when calculating the most optimized delivery route. In addition, this app supports territory balancing and real-time updates to traffic and road conditions. Territory balancing allows the drivers to view all of their stops within a map and see any current problems within the map grid, providing the drivers with information like their customer volume and the geographic size of the delivery area.
The main benefits of using Opti-Time is the fast speed and reliability - since this software is paired with Microsoft, the cloud performance and data security is at the highest level possible. Microsoft can provide scalability and versatility that you would not find in other apps.
Furthermore, Opti-Time lets you easily automate your route optimization and planning process by running it through every scenario. This way, it does a type of “trial and error’ process that ensures the final route is the best.
- Tour Solver
Another piece of route optimization software that can work well for USPS drivers is Tour Solver, a cloud-based solution that helps delivery businesses create seamless routes for a high number of deliveries or collections. This route planner is affordable, easy to use, and can work with delivery routes of all sizes.
Tour Solver has numerous benefits over other route optimization software that can make it a smart choice for USPS drivers. One of the main stand-out features of Tour Solver is the ability to split a geographical area into sections to help balance the loads of delivery drivers. This can organize delivery routes and prevent overworked employees from becoming disgruntled during the work day.
Furthermore, there are many route optimization customization options for delivery drivers. You can optimize a single route over a one-day period, perform multi-route optimization over a one-day period, optimize various routes over multiple days, and optimize multi-site routes for added functionality.
- WorkWave Route Manager
The fifth route optimization tool that all USPS drivers should check out is the WorkWave Route Manager. WorkWave is a cloud-based software that plans routes, tracks drivers, and connects all levels of a delivery company in real-time.
WorkWave is a great choice for drivers who want happier customers because it’s features are largely customer-centric. Some of these features are the ability to add new orders and last-minute deliveries mid-route, and to provide proof of delivery directly to customers.
The main benefits of using this route optimization software can put it a step above the rest when comparing the efficiency and productivity of apps. The first benefit of WorkWave is the ability to monitor and track the drivers via GPS. by using the GPS Mobile App with their daily routes, management staff can easily see a driver’s location to ensure they are completing their route on time.
Furthermore, drivers have the potential to boost their communication between themselves and the customers waiting for their delivery by using Customer Notifications and providing a Live Tracking Link. Increased communication and transparency between customers and businesses can lead to an increased customer retention rate, keeping people satisfied with your services for a longer period of time.
How USPS can boost customer retention and driver loyalty
USPS drivers can further reduce the rate of drivers leaving their company by making their lives even easier. Integrating the newest apps and software to optimize delivery routes, increase daily productivity, cut down on wasted time, and boost customer satisfaction levels is key to reducing the employee turnover rate and increasing the customer retention rate.
Along with making the lives of the delivery drivers easier, USPS needs to continue staying in the running of the best delivery company worldwide. To stay in a tight race with other delivery giants, such as Amazon and FedEx, USPS needs to focus on the most important business aspect - the customers. Even though companies are always focused on the next big thing, the most important facets of businesses are typically customer loyalty and employee morale. Keeping both of these aspects of your business high is essential to boosting return on investment daily productivity, cutting costs, and becoming more successful.
