With the utilisation of cost effective courier software, even a small to medium courier company can rival the service standard set by the larger firms – and the cost of improving your system is not that great, so really there is no excuse not to upgrade your company’s old manual system into an automated track and trace software driven system.

The days of waybills and manifestos stacking up all over the place are over. No more cluttering in the offices of your courier company, because specialised courier software now allows you to run a tight ship; with online tracking to keep both you and your customers up to date with all of your deliveries. The system also makes provision for automated dispatch communication and filing of waybills, POD documents, various spreadsheets and other important documentation on your computer network, making for easy access and a more efficient office environment.

Even small courier companies can now operate with effective systems, bringing them closer to the service capabilities of the big players in the courier business. The idea is to get courier company software to eliminate as many of the physical tasks as possible.

In the past customers would call in and the dispatcher would have to write down the order, and call up a driver to collect it, and then the parcel would be priced manually. This process is revolutionised with a specialised software package. With the right software your computer can take care of all of these steps, calculating the most efficient options with regard to driver allocation and tracking delivery routes.

Dispatch is now a breeze, with the computer identifying the best choice of driver for a particular delivery by taking into account his location and the location of the delivery. Cellular phone text messages are utilised for communicating delivery information and waybill as well as POD scans allow for easy tracking and information storage. The cellular phone messages prove to be extremely cost effective and efficient, saving money and time compared to tedious telephone calls trying to find drivers out on the road.

The cost of switching over to an automated system may seem high at first, but the long term savings and streamlining of the courier process will show great returns on your courier software investment. When it comes to courier companies, customers can be fickle, jumping to another courier service over the smallest of price differences, but at the end of the day it is fast efficient service that wins long term customer loyalty. With the appropriate parcel tracking software for your courier business you will be able to give your customers a more reliable service, and by doing so you should win over more customers and be able to offer a more cost effective courier service to your customers.

Effectively, when your courier company switches to an automated system it puts the customer in touch with the delivery process. The specialised software allows the customer to place delivery requests online, and to track the progress of the parcel as well. This means that while the software makes the company more efficient, it also keeps you on your toes, since the customer is able to see exactly how their deliveries are progressing. This should serve as motivation though, and with the time saved by your dispatchers there can be more time allocated to training drivers to develop greater efficiency in the delivery process overall.

Features provided by a decent courier software system should include:

o An interactive collection control system using SMS / Text messages.

o Individual waybill capture, or bulk importing from a spreadsheet.

o Consolidation of waybills onto manifests for linehaul shipping to same destination hubs.

o Consolidation of waybills onto tripsheets for delivery by drivers.

o Invoice generation and printing for selected waybill date period and specified customers.

o Receipt and credit note allocation through to the invoice or individual waybill level.

o Detailed customer statements including full payment allocation details and age analysis.

o Margin calculations per waybill, customer, period, sales rep, etc.

o Waybill pre-printing for customers and for bulk distributions.

o Tracking of parcels through barcode scanning, and printing of barcoded labels.

o Integrated Proof of Delivery image scanning and linking to waybill details.

o Automatic faxing or emailing Proof of Delivery details.

o Export of all reports in most popular formats, including Adobe Acrobat, Excel, etc.

o Instant emailing of all reports.

o Flexible multi-branch setup, using batch transfers or live connections.

o Electronic transfer of manifest and POD information