Thanks to smartphones and mobile applications like Google Maps, we now have locations and directions of any place right in our pockets. In fact, more than 54% of people aged between 18 to 29 use their smartphones for navigation. This clearly shows that for any iOS and Android app development company route planning has become one of the most sought after features.
Top Benefits of Route Planning:
Route planning can offer significant value to both companies as well as the end-users. Here are the top benefits of route planning.
Helps to Identify the Most Cost-effective Routes
Companies that do not utilize mobile applications for route planning need to allot a separate budget to keep track of field teams. But by using route planning, companies can easily eliminate those communication expenses.
Route planning software uses an advanced algorithm to suggest the best and most cost-effective route choices for mobile personnel.
Reduce Mileage
Route optimization tools can help to reduce overall drive time on the road by minimizing the miles. And the fewer miles on the road results in significant cost saving by:
Decreasing Fuel Costs
Less miles on the road means less fuel consumption and hence, reducing overall expenses.
Reducing Vehicle Maintenance Expenses
Fewer miles on the road will reduce the need for maintenance of vehicles. Vehicles can be used for more number of trips. In short, vehicles spend fewer hours experiencing maintenance and more hours in providing service.
Lowering Accidents
Less time on the road means less contact with the traffic and accidents, thereby positively impacting a fleet’s insurance premiums and eliminating expensive risky costs.
Significance of Real-Time Features in Mobile Apps
Decrease Time Spent Planning Routes
With a route optimization solution, drivers can spend less time on trip planning. These advanced route mapping solutions decrease complexities in route needs, traffic stream, and make it easy to have a quick solution to determine the best routes for each destination.
Improve Drivers’ Performance & Productivity
Drivers that don’t handle their time well, take needlessly long breaks or refuse to follow the routing plan, which can cost the business money in unnecessary fuel as well as missed meetings.
What Apps Can Benefit of Route Planning?
There are many types of mobile apps that can gain benefits from route planning. Here, we will discuss some apps whose service can be improved by adding route planning.
Taxi Booking Apps
Traditional taxi businesses have always faced the challenges of eagerly waiting for phone calls, finding riders’ exact locations, and so on. iPhone or android GPS tracking app development is now getting popular for cab service businesses.
These taxi businesses, thanks to smartphones and technology, can now just build a taxi booking app with a smart route planning to find safe and fewer traffic routes.
Read more: How To Develop On-Demand Uber Pickup and Delivery App
Last-mile Delivery Apps
Last-mile delivery is an expensive operation comprising more than 50 percent of total shipping costs. Thankfully, there are many logistics companies worldwide who are simplifying this process using route planning software.
Fuel Delivery Apps
The transport industry is no stranger to the rush of on-demand fuel delivery apps and its services. With fuel delivery apps, you don’t have to visit a gas station to get a refill anymore. You can simply get your tank filled by ordering fuel online and get it delivered to your home or on the road.
Cooking Gas Delivery Apps
Nowadays, many entrepreneurs are trying to establish their own Uber-like platform that connects cooking gas suppliers and enterprises with the end-users.
On-demand Service Apps
These days our smartphones have become magic wands that help us to obtain the desired services right at the door.
People now need on-demand food delivery, on-demand beauty products, on-demand car repair, and so on. All the apps providing these services generally need to know the location of customers to make a delivery.
Event Apps
Suppose a person is going to visit a new city or country. In this scenario, he or she needs a hotel to stay for the night and a good place to eat somewhere. For circumstances like this, you can let users plan routes from events to nearby restaurants or hotels, or even to city sites and elite activities.
Healthcare Apps
Route planning software plays a very vital role in healthcare apps. For instance, if a patient is so ill that he/she cannot commute to the hospital then route planning can help doctors and nurses organize their examination trips at patients’ apartments or houses.
Travel Apps
You can make your consumers traveling experience more interesting and engaging by allowing them to plan tours and travel routes right within your app.
Parking Apps
Planning a route to park your car when traveling to other cities and countries can be a great time & money saver. Parke, one of the top parking apps, helps consumers in finding nearby parking spots and complements that service with customizable routes.
What Features Should Your App Offer Through Route Planning?
Route planning software can help to provide multiple features to end-users. Here, we have listed some amazing features that your app should offer through route planning:
Hands-Free & Vice Guided Navigation
We all know that checking the phone every now and then is very risky and we shouldn’t do it when we are driving. It can result in accidents and injuries.
Save, Share & Import
Mobile apps that include GPS and navigation features must also have options of saving favorite routes, places that you can easily share with your family and friends. These are the distinctive features that can help your app being the finest delivery route planner apps.
Handle Changes & Risks
When everything is perfectly planned, there’s always a chance that something will go off the road. For example, you may need to change the route if the hotel is no longer there, or maybe a client cancels a meeting. This is why you need to provide an option that lets your users edit, cancel, and postpone their trips.
Sync Tour Plans
Usually, users are not always alone when going on a route: renters go with agents, doctors visit patients with nurses and many more. For this reason, users need a feature in their app to share their routes with others.
Let Users Plan Their Time
Today, users want to be the in-charge of deciding the list of places to visit, when to visit, and how much time they want to spend at each place.
Prioritize Stops
When picking places to visit, users may be more fascinated with some places than others. For instance, suppose a person is picking an apartment to rent; he/she tends to like some options more than others and maybe wants to go there first.
Conclusion
Route planning is a key feature for a wide variety of mobile apps across the niches. Since mobile apps are increasingly augmenting our real life interactions through accurate location mapping, the feature will continue to hold importance for future apps.
