When owners & managers of businesses and non-profits manually plan routes for deliveries, pick-ups, and service calls, they typically aren’t thinking about the hidden costs of manual route planning. If those owners & managers calculated what it really costs to manually plan routes for their fleet vehicles, they would immediately deploy an affordable route planning software tool like RouteSavvy.
What Are The Hidden Costs Of Manual Route Planning?
There are 3 main hidden costs associated with manual route planning:
- Wasted time, in the office and on the road
- No reduction of fleet operating costs associated with the use of route planning software
- No increases in business revenue & profitability
Hidden Costs of Manual Route Planning: Wasted Time
When owners & managers of businesses & non-profits spend hours each day, or the night before, manually planning routes for the next day’s deliveries, pick-ups, or service calls, they’re losing time that can never be recovered. That wasted time could be applied to any number of more productive endeavors: business planning & strategy, customer outreach, and marketing, to name a few. For those owners & managers spending time in the evenings planning the next day’s routes, that is time that could be spent with family. When you let route planning software tools like RouteSavvy optimize your routes, it typically cuts about ¾ of the time spent on manually planning routes.
RouteSavvy customers routinely say they’re saving an average of 2 hours per week; 8 hours per month; and a whopping 96 hours per year. This means the amount of time being wasted on manual route planning is as high as 96 hours per year.
Hidden Costs of Manual Route Planning: No Reductions of Fleet Operating Costs
When business & non-profit owners and managers manually plan routes, they are planning routes that are not as efficient as routes generated by route planning software tools like RouteSavvy. As a result, the business or non-profit fleet is still driving more miles than what would be driven if they had used affordable route optimization software.
Let’s think conservatively and assume that manual route planning results in your fleet driving 500 miles per month that could have been avoided.
The fuel cost of driving 500 more miles per month is 50 gallons at an average per-gallon price of $2.97 = $148 per month. When you multiply that expenditure by 12 months, it’s $1,776 per year that route planning software would have saved the company or non-profit – just on fuel costs alone.
Hidden Costs of Manual Route Planning: Lost Extra Revenue
When a route planning software tool like RouteSavvy reduces miles driven to get the same job done, it means that managers can shoe-horn extra service calls, deliveries, or pick-ups into schedule. That extra revenue can add up & help a business’s bottom line in good times and bad.
Let’s assume the fully optimizing your routes means you can shoe-horn in just 1 extra service call per week.
Let’s assume that the average service call is 2 hours @ $180.
Four extra service calls per month = $720.00 per month, and a whopping $8,640 per year in extra revenue.
If you manually optimize routes and you’re driving 500 miles more than you should, the extra revenue generated from one extra call per week would simply not manifest. And indeed, that would qualify as lost revenue.
A Tally of the Hidden Costs of Manual Route Planning Over A Year
Numbers don’t lie. Here’s a look at how much manual routing really costs:
- Extra Staff Time Spent On Manual Routing = Up to 96 hours per year
- Lost Fuel Cost Savings From Manual Routing = $1,776 year
- Lost Revenue From Manual Routing (Shoe-horning 1 Extra Service Call Per Week) = $8,640 per year
When you consider how a modest investment in affordable route planning software can save significant time and money, it’s mind-boggling that businesses or non-profits would still be doing manual route planning. The hypothetical (but very realistic estimated) savings listed above total close to $10,000 per year.
These top 3 hidden costs of manual route planning make it a no-brainer to use route optimization software. Sign up for our Free, 14-day trial and see how route planning software can transform your business or non-profit.
