How Route Optimisation Helps Building & Construction Save Money & Resource

You may have noticed the walls of scaffolding that were quickly erected as lockdown began easing.

We certainly did!

While the temporary sound of hammering and drilling isn’t the most pleasant noise to wake up to, one positive is that the building and construction company is very much open again.

In fact, monthly construction output grew by a record 23.5% in June 2020, substantially higher than the previous record monthly growth of 7.6% in May 2020. And it is creeping closer to the pre-COVID-19 levels of 24.8% in February 2020.

Despite this growth, it is still an uncertain and challenging time for any industry, including building and construction. It is important that to continue consistent growth and to rebuild business, the industry focuses on saving money and resource at every possible opportunity.

One solution is to use a route optimisation system, such as MaxOptra, to streamline business operations, supply chains, and delivery requirements.

Here are some of the solutions we suggest:

Improve your fixed routes

For the construction industry, or anyone in the construction industry supply chain, now is the time to ensure that routes are as efficient and streamlined as possible. Due to a significant increase in activity, dealing with delays or impractical routes is the last thing a business would want to be dealing with right now.

We know that fixed routes can degrade over time, so by using route optimisation software you can be confident that you are getting the very most out of your fixed route network: managing priority customers and any route changes that have come about.

Upgrade to dynamic, optimised routes

Alternatively, now could be a great opportunity to upgrade from fixed routes to dynamic, optimised routes. This will enable businesses to save time and resource by allowing software to produce multi-drop routes in seconds, as well as taking into account traffic, vehicle information, route restrictions and driving times.

Integrate your business systems

Don’t waste unnecessary time due to bad integrations. Now, more than ever, it is important that all of your business systems are fully integrated and running smoothly. This will ensure no bottle-necks or issues during such an important time.

By using a system, such as MaxOptra, that offers an open API, you can easily integrate all of your existing business systems.

Improve customer communication

It’s a stressful time for the building and construction industry, meaning that you don’t want to add to their worries with late deliveries or a lack of communication.

Keep your customers informed with advance and on-the-day email and SMS communications, such as predicted delivery times, and real-time updates on where their order is.

Track vehicles and performance

Of course, if you’re putting measures in place to ensure you keep your end-customer happy, you will want to track the success of your efforts.

That’s why it’s important to know what’s going on once your vehicles have left the depot. You can either link systems such as MaxOptra to your current in-vehicle telematics, or use our Driver App to monitor what’s going on in real time.

If you are a business in the building and construction industry and would like to discuss your routing and scheduling needs, get in touch with one of our experts for a consultation or demonstration of our system. Alternatively, check out more of our construction industry content.