How route optimisation software improves DIFOT and reduces delivery failures

For fleet managers, DIFOT (delivered in-full, on-time) is the number your board sees. They might not understand the nitty gritty of modern supply chains, but they know what DIFOT means. It's the metric that tells enterprise retailers whether you're capable of meeting their customers’ delivery expectations or, if you manage your own fleet, it’s the difference between your next performance review being all smiles or slightly awkward. 

And yet, most fleet operators are still trying to maintain their DIFOT rate using spreadsheets, phone calls, and driver instinct. While ‘vintage’ is great when describing a car, leather jacket, or record player, ‘vintage route optimisation’ isn’t going to protect - let alone improve - your DIFOT rate.

DIFOT isn't eroded by one major failure. Instead, it's the accumulation of many smaller failures (sometimes, they’re so small that operators don’t even realise something failed). For example, a driver took a ‘shortcut’ through a school zone during pick up, a stop was sequenced after its time window closed, or a dispatcher sent the nearest vehicle to a pickup it was too small for. Stack these incidents up across a fleet and a year, and your operational problem just becomes a commercial one.

Route optimisation software is how fleet managers can protect their DIFOT and turn their delivery into a commercial engine. But what is route optimisation software? How does it work? And what impact does it have?

Improve delivery performance

The easiest way to miss a delivery window or deadline is to plan as if it doesn’t exist. Manual planning tends to sequence stops geographically. Drop A, followed by drop B, then drop C, because they're broadly in the same direction. It might work for a fleet of four or five vans in a small area, but not if you’re running 40 vehicles across a sprawling city like Sydney or many of your drops are appointment-based (think delivering building materials or collecting and dropping off pathology samples).

Route optimisation software goes beyond a map and a quick eye test. It takes into account everything from time windows and driver hours, to vehicle capacity, depot returns, and traffic patterns across time of day. That's hundreds of variables per route, recalculated in seconds. No dispatcher or driver holds that much in their head, no matter how experienced. Remember that driver who took a ‘short cut’ past the school at the exact wrong time of day? That wouldn’t happen with route optimisation software like NowGo by Shippit.  

When routes are built around windows and on-the-ground conditions and constraints, rather than a map and a sequence built the night before, DIFOT improves. When the system knows a medical run has a highly regulated two-hour window - which, if missed, triggers a patient recall - it prioritises it over the collection of scrubs, even if that pick-up is two minutes closer. And when exceptions hit (which they inevitably do) like a driver running late or a loading dock is blocked, the route rebuilds around the change.

Route optimisation software improves DIFOT and DIFOT consistency. For fleet managers negotiating SLAs and renewing contracts, that matters. A fleet that runs at 97% every day beats a fleet that runs at 99% on Mondays and 93% on Thursdays, even though the monthly average looks similar. Consistency is what wins the next renewal.

Reduce failed deliveries and redelivery costs

For fleet operators, margins are already razor-thin. A failed delivery is kryptonite for fleet managers. You've already paid for the fuel, the driver hours, the vehicle time, the depot space, and the return leg. A redelivery tomorrow means the same costs again. For a standard parcel, the margin is gone. For a large delivery, like plasterboard to a construction site, the redelivery can easily exceed the margin on the entire order. And for a B2B order, it could see your product de-listed entirely.

Route optimisation software reduces failed deliveries at both the planning phase and re-planning when disruption hits. 

• The planning phase: Most delivery failures aren't random, which means most can be avoided. Think of a route too tight to absorb one bit of traffic, a vehicle too small for the load, or a driver assigned to a site they're not certified for. The best route optimisation software catches those errors as the route is being planned, not when the van doors won’t close on that sofa. The system builds around these hard, non-negotiable things like driver certifications, vehicle specs, appointment windows. In the world of fleet management, planning is critical. So is adaptability. 
• The re-planning phase:  No matter how rigorous your planning is, disruption is an occupational hazard for fleet operators. Sometimes vans don’t start or drivers call in sick. When that, or anything similar, occurs, dispatchers can use route optimisation software to reassign a job to the nearest viable driver, resequencing the remaining stops, pushing the overflow to a second run rather than a next-day redelivery. Platforms like NowGo by Shippit do this in real time, with the full picture of who's where, what they're carrying, and what time they're expected at drops or back at the depot. 

The result is higher DIFOT and lower WISMO (where is my order?) enquiries. For delivery-led businesses, WISMOs can account for up to 70% of all customer service enquiries. Redeliveries generate enquiries and every enquiry costs you in customer service hours and customer patience. 

Increase fleet productivity without adding vehicles or drivers

As we approach the start of a new financial year, it’s likely you’ve asked or answered a variation of the question: “Can we move 10% more volume next year without growing the fleet?". When you're managing fleets and routes manually, the answer is almost certainly no. 

With route optimisation software, the answer is very different: 

• Route optimisation software increases drops per shift. Better sequencing means drivers complete more stops inside their legal hours, without rushing and without breaching fatigue management rules like the Heavy Vehicle National Law. Across a fleet of 40 drivers and 250 shifts a year, a 5% lift in drops per shift quickly adds up.
• Route optimisation software reduces dead kilometres. When routes are manual, drivers take the way they know rather than the quickest way, empty return legs are wasted time, and drivers return to the depot with capacity to spare. With route optimisation software, less distance means less fuel and less vehicle wear - both of which carry significant costs, especially today.
• Route optimisation software cuts dispatcher time from reactive to proactive. Manual dispatch is mostly firefighting: answering driver calls, reshuffling routes, and scrambling to find the closest vehicle for an urgent job. Quick-assign tools armed with real-time visibility turns 10-15 minute phone calls into seconds. 

For many fleet operators, DIFOT is a scorecard that a board will either nod or frown at during the quarterly review. With route optimisation software, it's not a scorecard - it’s a growth lever waiting to be pulled.

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Ready to see how route optimisation software can underpin the next phase of your business’ growth? Book a demo of NowGo by Shippit.