Top 8 Courier Delivery Software of 2024 (Updated List)

User reviews

User Reviews

2. OptimoRoute

Best for automating courier delivery route planning

Available on: Web, Android & iOS (only driver apps)

If you are looking for easy-to-use route planning for your daily couriers, then OptimoRoute is the best option that deals with a high volume of pickups and deliveries to cover daily. What caught our attention was the speed of planning – around 1000 courier routes in a matter of minutes. 

It also lets you factor in variables, including the number of boxes, volume, or weight, to select the right vehicle for your deliveries or pickups. An advanced functionality is the “Return to Depot,” which enables you to plan your driver’s return trip while optimizing delivery routes. 

The app also offers a real-time tracking feature to compare planned vs. actual routes. What we found missing is the ability to consider real-time events like traffic, road closures, constructions, and accidents for planning. It lacks barcode scanning and order-taking like Routific.

Key Features: 

1. Route optimization: Optimizes routes based on general, vehicle-specific, and driver-specific constraints, including time windows, service areas, requisite skills, vehicle capacity, and required vehicle features.
2. Real-time order tracking: Lets your customers know the whereabouts of their orders and reduce inbound customer queries about deliveries.
3. Proof of delivery: Captures your customers’ e-signatures, photos, and notes to document them as a verifiable record and prevent false customer complaints regarding ‘undelivered’ items.
4. Mobile app for drivers: Allows you to send planned routes directly to your drivers to let them navigate these routes in the navigation app (Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Waze) of their choice.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

• Lite: $35.10 per driver/month (billed annually)
• Pro: $44.10 per driver/month (billed annually)
• Custom: Varies based on your unique needs

Free trial: 30 days

3. Routific

Best for maximizing your courier route efficiency

Available on: Web, Android, and iOS

Out of several courier delivery tracking systems that provide advanced routing, Routific piqued our interest as it helps balance the convenience of driving and distance to cover stops. It enabled us to create clean non-overlapping multi-stop routes, preventing drivers from crossing paths frequently despite shortening the overall distance.

So, if you are looking to avoid “spaghetti” routes (as they call it!), Routific can be your ideal routing partner. We also liked how it let us sync customer orders from our e-commerce system to automate our workflows and reduce manual errors.

However, we experienced less freedom of customization when it comes to customer notifications due to the limited number of characters and logos they provide. Also, the app doesn’t offer barcode scanning and order-taking functionality.

Key Features:

1. Real-time traffic-aware routing: This lets you optimize your routes based on live traffic patterns (unlike OptimoRoute) to avoid jams or congestion and ensure on-time deliveries.
2. Engine API: Allows you to integrate their route optimization algorithm in your existing tech stack or business software.
3. Route information: Enables viewing your route details, including start and stop points, travel distance, time, and specific delivery instructions to follow. 
4. Delivery status updates: Convey real-time delivery notifications to your customers to help them stay informed throughout the delivery process.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

Essential: $49 per vehicle per month

Professional: $69 per vehicle per month

Professional+: $93 per vehicle per month

Free trial: 7 days

4. Route4Me

Best for your courier delivery business wanting a scalable solution that you can customize based on your specific routing needs

Available on: Web, Android, and iOS

If you are looking for courier service software that lets you pay only for what you need, Route4Me can be a great option. Unlike several courier software programs, like Routific, which often provides bundle packages, this cloud-based route planning solution offers differently priced subscription plans and add-ons based on your specific business needs. 

The number of aspects it considers when optimizing routes is also simply impressive. Be it your driver skills, labor laws, commercial routes, vehicle capacity, multiple depots, curbside delivery, or recurring routes, Route4Me factors in all.

However, when it comes to adding stops to a planned route and updating the delivery timeline accordingly, Rout4Me failed to meet expectations. Another area of improvement is automated route optimization in high-density areas, as manual adjustments are still needed for multiple routes.

Key Features:

1. Multi-stop route planning: Lets you create optimal multi-stop routes to handle increased volumes of customer orders efficiently.
2. Email & text notifications: Keep your customers informed with custom SMS or email notifications for delivery status confirmations, cancellations, schedule changes, and specific instructions to handle deliveries or appointments, if any.
3. Analytics: Provide detailed insights into mileage, fuel, and drivers’ costs to determine and work on areas of improvement to enhance your overall efficiency.
4. Real-time collaboration: This app enables continuous communication between you, your drivers, and your customers to address any issues, queries, or concerns promptly.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

• Route Management: $200 per month
• Route Optimization: $300 per month
• Route Optimization Plus (Business Optimization): $450 per month

Free trial: 14 days

5. Workwave Route Manager

Best for commercial, residential, and special courier deliveries

Available on: Web, Android, and iOS

This courier service software helps optimize routes and accommodate changes easily. You can use it to dispatch planned routes to your delivery team on their mobile device and get real-time updates regarding your delivery operations.

It lets you label and track your products through different stages of the entire supply chain by scanning different types of barcodes on your products based on their type. A standout functionality that we recommend considering is the route simulations that it provides.

Using this feature, you can change different variables in a simulated environment to evaluate route modifications and implement the most suitable changes. However, less comprehensive reports may not meet your expectations as they fetch data for only a few days against what’s needed, causing reliability issues.

Key Features:

1. Reporting & Analytics: Helps monitor your vehicle usage, track your drivers’ behavior to identify and reward good performers for retaining them, and make informed business decisions through data-driven insights.
2. Customer notifications: Let you notify your customers of their package locations through real-time ETAs.
3. API integration: Facilitates integration with your customer management portal to auto-update your route plan based on the incoming customer orders, saving time and labor.
4. Route Manager Voice: Enables your drivers to call your customers through their mobile app and notify them off the upcoming or canceled delivery

User Reviews

User Reviews

6. Onfleet

Best for streamlining your courier delivery operations

Available on: Web, Android & iOS (only driver apps)

Onfleet is one of the leading courier software that courier companies can use to start and scale their delivery operations. While other software may overlook it, Onfleet goes the extra mile to safeguard customers’ privacy through anonymous calls that customers may make to their driver, dispatcher, or call center. Besides route optimization, you may also like the auto-assign functionality that automatically allocates tasks to your drivers based on availability, location, or skills, saving time and increasing your fleet dispatching efficiency.

By providing live driver locations with accurate ETAs, Onfleet helps ensure transparency in your courier delivery operations. However, you may find it expensive, especially if you have a small courier business with a small delivery radius with a handful of stops. Testing also revealed that duplicate orders may sometimes get added to drivers’ routes, leading to delivery inefficiencies.

Key Features:

1. Real-time dashboard: Lets you consolidate dispatching and routing operations to give you a unified view and simplify delivery management.
2. Feedback collection: Enables you to request and collect feedback via SMS immediately after deliveries to engage your customers and make them feel valued.
3. Performance reports: Provide insights into delivery success rates, feedback scores, service times, and distance traveled to find areas of improvement. 
4. Contactless signatures: Helps you receive customer signatures from your recipients via SMS to ensure compliant delivery confirmation and minimize delivery-related complaints.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

Launch: $550/month

Scale: $1265/month

Enterprise: Custom

7. OnTime 360

Best routing system for courier services looking for a one-stop courier management solution comprising features like barcode scanning, invoicing, and workflow management

Available on: Web, Android & iOS

Unlike several other software like Routific and Route4Me, OnTime provides a workflow designer to define and control different processes. We tested this functionality to customize our delivery notifications and define the conditions that trigger their sending and loved the outcome.

Moreover, if you trust your drivers and are willing to empower them with decision-making, OnTime 360 can serve your purpose. It not only lets you assign tasks to your drivers but also shows unassigned customer orders that drivers can assign themselves based on their route and availability.

Another standout feature is billing management, which auto-generates invoices for customers based on the shipping information fed into your system. However, the starter package doesn’t provide advanced routing and driver scheduling, rendering it expensive for small businesses.

Key Features:

1. Barcode scanning: Allows you to enter your barcode or scan it to get all matching shipments, their assigned drivers, and locations, enabling fast information retrieval. 
2. Color coding: Helps you customize colors of delivery and pickup stops to indicate different levels of priorities and handle them accordingly. 
3. Offline access: Enables your drivers to work uninterruptedly in areas with unreliable cellular service and sync all the outstanding data once internet connectivity is restored.
4. Customer web portal: This lets your customers schedule deliveries and create orders themselves to reduce errors and enhance trust.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

Essential: $39/month (for 2 users)

Professional: $129/month (for 6 users)

Enterprise: $199/month (for 10 users)

Enterprise Plus: $349/month (18 users)Free trial: 14 days

8. Onro

Best for customizing your workflows to automate and streamline your courier delivery operations

Available on: Web, Android & iOS

Like OnTime, Onro also provides automated custom workflows to maximize your courier delivery efficiency. What makes it stand out is that it caters to the requirements of both on-demand and batched courier delivery businesses. 

Equipped with a courier dispatch panel, it lets dispatchers manage couriers and vehicles, assign tasks to drivers, and track delivery progress in real-time—all from one place. It also provides your customers with a user-friendly courier app to place orders, track deliveries, and make online payments. However, you may find it lagging a little when automating many workflows.

Key Features

1. Admin dashboard: Provides you with a backend interface to manage your dispatchers, costumes, courier drivers, and analytics easily and centrally.
2. Support for different workflows: Enables you to handle pickups and all types of deliveries, including on-demand, scheduled-for-the-next-day, same-day, and overnight. 
3. Driver app: Uses route optimization to optimize courier routes to reduce delivery times and facilitates communication for better control over courier operations.
4. White-label capabilities: Lets you customize elements like brand name, logo, and color scheme to align them with your brand identity and meet your specific business requirements.

User Reviews

User Reviews

Pricing:

Business: $239/month

Enterprise: Not disclosed

Free trial: Not available – only demo provided

4 Primary Benefits of Courier Management Software

Using courier management software will help your courier business simplify business processes and enhance your delivery efficiency. Here are the 4 major advantages of courier delivery service software.

1. Minimizes transit time and fuel consumption

Routing systems for courier services use advanced algorithms to create the most efficient routes that don’t overlap or crisscross. It helps reduce your drivers’ time and distance to reach their assigned destinations, cutting down time and fuel costs.

2. Improves customer satisfaction

Using courier software, you can track your courier deliveries in real-time to know their locations and progress. It also facilitates determining and communicating accurate ETAs through SMS or email to your customers, enhancing last-mile visibility and satisfaction levels.

3. Provides insights for enhancement

Courier routing software provides comprehensive reports to help assess your overall delivery performance. For example, it provides route summary reports to know the total stops covered, failed, and unattempted in a given period. Based on these details, you can initiate targeted improvement measures to improve your fleet performance.

4. Reduces errors in routing

Courier delivery tracking software helps not only import the list of addresses from Excel spreadsheets but also verify their accuracy. It shows the locations that may be inaccurate and prompts you to either verify them manually or replace them with similar real-world locations through auto-suggestions.

5 Key Considerations When Choosing Courier Delivery Software

Your choice of courier dispatch software is subject to your type of courier business and unique delivery requirements.

For instance, if you are an on-demand courier delivery service provider, you may require software to schedule deliveries or pickups, track your drivers, and complete them as fast as possible. 

On the contrary, if you are a batched courier delivery service provider, you may need route planning and optimization capabilities to maximize your deliveries per trip and reduce last-mile delivery costs.

The other considerations that you must base your choice of courier software on are as follows: 

1. Integration 

Considering whether your courier software integrates with your existing tools like accounting, CRM, or ERP is important. Integration helps ensure a seamless data flow between different systems to manage orders, generate invoices, and connect with customers more effectively.

2. Scalability

Determining whether your software for courier management can keep up with increasing orders and deliveries as your business grows is imperative. Therefore, you should ensure that it supports adding extra vehicles, delivery drivers, and locations as you scale your delivery operations.

3. Customer service 

Reliable customer support is crucial to ensuring smooth onboarding and redressal of issues to minimize downtime. Therefore, you should check for the channels (email, phone, chat, or AI bot) that your software’s support team provides. Assessing the team’s responsiveness is also crucial to gauge the average wait time for problem resolution.

4. Security and Compliance

Data security is paramount as you deal with customers’ personal details like name and address. Therefore, your courier management software should adhere to relevant data protection laws as per your industry and region. Checking your software for data encryption, secure login methods, and regular security updates can also help you pick secure courier dispatch software.

5. Degree of customization

The freedom of customization is pivotal to tailoring your courier software to meet your unique requirements. It should enable adding or renaming specific data fields to record certain data like package details, special instructions, or customers’ notes. 

The next section explains in detail the key features to look for in the courier software solution you choose.

6 Essential Features to Look for in Courier Delivery Software

While the extent of the courier delivery software you want may depend on your business needs, here are the features that you must seek, no matter the scale and type of your courier business.

1. Real-time tracking

Real-time (GPS) tracking capabilities help you monitor the location and status of your deliveries without having to call your drivers. This enhances your visibility and control over the delivery process. 

2. Constraint-based route optimization

This feature helps optimize your delivery routes based on live traffic, customers’ delivery time windows, distances of destinations, and legal regulations like maximum allowed speed. These optimal routes help reduce the distance and time to cover delivery stops, reducing associated fuel and maintenance costs.

3. Customer notifications

These notifications let your customers know about their delivery status, delays, and real-time estimated times of arrival (ETAs). It helps foster transparency in your delivery operations, boosting your customers’ trust in your brand.

4. Proof of delivery

This feature helps collect your customers’ electronic signatures or photos of items delivered to maintain a verifiable record. It helps reduce fake delivery attempts and false delivery complaints from your customers.

5. Reporting & analytics

This feature provides details like the total assigned stops, successful deliveries, and failed delivery attempts per driver. These insights help you identify areas for improvement and enhance your delivery efficiency.

6. Mobile access

This feature is crucial for providing you and your delivery drivers with access to information related to your customers and routes on phones and tablets. It also lets you update statuses, make instant changes to your route, or communicate with your customers anytime, anywhere.

Now that the benefits of courier management software are clear let’s understand how to choose the right fit for your business.

Courier Delivery Software: Your Key to Seamless Courier Delivery Operations

Courier delivery software is undeniably pivotal to maintaining a competitive edge in today’s courier industry where every minute counts. It paves the way to increased efficiency in delivery scheduling, driver tracking, and real-time communication with your customers.

It also opens the door to boosting your customer experience and hence, repeat business. Therefore, it is high time you evaluated your courier delivery requirements and implemented the most suitable software to streamline your courier operations.