Home Delivery Logistics Solutions

Make “Wow” your delivery standard - boost satisfaction and cut last-mile costs

Don’t settle for OK deliveries — cut miles, reduce costs and deliver on time.

Increase the number of deliveries per route and reduce delivery miles.

Improve customer satisfaction with accurate ETAs and short delivery windows.

Reduce time planning deliveries with continuous route optimisation.

Move beyond OK, reduce emissions and meet customer sustainability expectations.

Descartes’ advanced routing and scheduling solutions mean lower costs, better utilisation, and measurable savings. That’s more than OK.

Balance Routes and Reduce Costs

Reduce planning time with route optimisation that handles constraints, traffic patterns and time windows.

• Increase delivery density and productivity.
• Insert same-day orders while keeping delivery promises.
• Stick to time windows while optimising for distance, time, cost or number of routes.

Proof of Delivery

Descartes Mobile ePOD software captures delivery data in real-time, helping you speed up operations, cut costs, and go paperless.

• Collect customer details, images, and signatures upon delivery
• Transmit data instantly to reduce invoicing errors
• Eliminate paper and printing to streamline processes
• Support sustainability goals with a digital-first approach

Enhance the Customer Experience

Customer engagement software reduces delivery failure rates by 20% and improves net promoter scores (NPS) and customer satisfaction.

• Give customers the transparent, mobile-first experience they expect.
• Ensure customers are ready for their delivery.
• Track deliveries in real-time.
• Reduce inbound calls on estimated time of arrival (ETA).
• Collect timely feedback for fast resolution of any issues.

Last-mile home delivery challenges

Visibility

Creating visibility both internally and externally within your delivery chain is essential for optimising operations and ensuring customer satisfaction. Investing in technology improves overall delivery performance and builds stronger relationships with customers.

Delivery costs

Businesses need to increase home delivery productivity and reduce delivery costs to stay competitive. Adopting the latest technology solutions for fleet operations reduces costs in last-mile delivery by increasing delivery density and reducing the miles per delivery.

Outdated technology

Planning home delivery routes on maps and using spreadsheets for schedules is inefficient. The latest technology for last-mile deliveries offers real benefits for the entire delivery operation, reducing delivery planning time by up to 75%.

Low efficiency

Limited delivery options, manual planning, inefficient routes and poor customer delivery notifications results in operational inefficiency. Implementing delivery optimisation software increases first time delivery rates and improves delivery productivity by up to 35% without expanding their fleet.

Delivery Options

Customers want to select their own delivery dates/times. Offering delivery options at the point of sale means customers can choose what's convenient for them. Many consumers will pay extra for convenience and sustainable deliveries, while price incentives can be used to encourage slot selection that increases delivery density.

Failed First-Time Deliveries (FTD)

When customers aren’t home, providing two-way communications, delivery updates and live tracking links minimises delivery failures.

Proof of Delivery

Basic signatures are no longer sufficient. Avoid disputes and chargebacks with photo evidence, GPS and time-stamp validation, plus sign on glass with name capture.

Porch Piracy & Safe-Place Risk

When packages left in “safe places” are stolen, liability may sit with the retailer or carrier. Advanced customer engagement tools help mitigate this with customer notifications and real-time arrival alerts coupled with photo confirmation.

Bulky & High-Value Delivery Complexity

Home delivery isn’t just parcels. Bulky and heavy furniture or appliances require two person crew co-ordination, installation confirmation and removal of old goods. Choosing a route scheduling solution that allows for these types of options maximises income from value added (installation) services and can influences buyer behaviour.

Proven Results

194%

Jobs/van/day increased

450k

Annual distribution costs savings

35%

Increased delivery productivity

25%

Delivery capacity increased

75%

Reduced daily planning time by

“Working with Descartes, we’ve saved 13% on annual fuel costs, which equates to approximately 354,000 fewer miles driven.”

Smart Reservations

Descartes’ solution enables retailers to offer a selection of costed delivery slots at the point of sale that are convenient for customers and operationally efficient (i.e., feasible and profitable to fulfil) for retailers. Incentives can be used to encourage delivery density or offer “green” delivery slots to the consumer.

Delivery Scheduling for Big and Bulky Items

For big and bulky deliveries, customers expect precise time windows. Yet many retailers offer fixed slots without factoring in capacity, distance, or driver constraints—leading to missed commitments or underused fleets.

Combining scheduling with route optimisation ensures delivery windows are both realistic and profitable.

Home Delivery Frequently Asked Questions

• 1. Can Descartes’ solution handle multi-drop home deliveries with time windows?
  Yes, the system manages complex multi-drop home deliveries with strict time windows, installation constraints, and real-world contingencies.

• 2. Does it support multi-depot operations?
  es, the system fully supports multi-depot operations and can:

  • Automatically select the optimal depot for each order
  • Rebalance work dynamically between depots
  • Optimise across depots as a single network
  • Simulate depot openings, closures, or boundary changes
  • Model capacity and service impacts before operational changes are made

• 3. How accurate are your delivery ETAs?
  Delivery ETAs are continuously calculated and dynamically updated based on:

  • Real-time vehicle location
  • Live route progress
  • Traffic conditions
  • Job duration performance
  • Time window constraints

• 4. Can customers schedule or track their delivery themselves?
  Yes, customers can track their deliveries through a self-service experience that is fully integrated with live routing and capacity visibility.

• 5. Can we collect feedback immediately after delivery?
  Yes, Descartes’ customer engagement solution enables retailers to capture feedback immediately after delivery.

• 6. How does digital proof of delivery protect us from disputes?
  Digital POD protects retailers by providing time-stamped, location-verified, image-backed proof of delivery that can be accessed instantly and shared in seconds.

• 7. How easily does it integrate with our existing systems?
  Descartes’ platform integrates seamlessly with existing retail technology stacks.