11 Best Delivery Management Software in 2024

Juggling deliveries like a pro? Or dropping the ball?

In the highly competitive world of logistics, your delivery management can make or break your entire delivery business. But here’s the kicker: the right software can turn your delivery chaos into a well-oiled machine.

With the delivery management software market set to reach a whopping $4.9 billion by 2031, it’s clear: the future of logistics is digital. But with countless options out there, how do you choose? Don’t sweat it. We’ve done the heavy lifting for you.

In this guide, we’ll unveil the 11 best last-mile delivery management solutions that help revolutionize your operations. So, here you go.

How We Evaluated and Selected the Best Delivery Management Software?

We took a multifaceted approach to selecting the top delivery management software. To begin with, we reviewed different online forums, social media platforms, and review sites like Capterra and G2 to determine the most preferred software. Our five in-house delivery industry experts compiled a list of 16 such software and tested them for routing capabilities (indispensable for any delivery business). 

The other criteria on which they evaluated the software include ease of setup and use,  customer support, order tracking, proof of delivery, and import/export. After a deep analysis coupled with reviews from our customers who switched from different software to ours, we eventually narrowed down this list to the best 11 that ticked the boxes for most delivery needs.

11 Top Delivery Management Software

1. Upper

Ideal for delivery businesses of all sizes and types

User rating: 4.5/5 (37)

Available on: Android, iOS, Mac

Pricing: Starts at $40 per user per month (billed annually)

Upper is your end-to-end route management software that handles all the delivery aspects, from importing delivery addresses to optimizing routes and verifying deliveries digitally.

One important delivery routing requirement is managing multiple delivery constraints. Upper caters to this need by providing advanced route optimization algorithms that optimize routes based on time windows, delivery distances, traffic constraints, or driver availability. 

These optimal routes ensure timely deliveries while reducing time and fuel usage, reducing delivery costs, and increasing productivity.

In fact, one of our clients has been able to increase their daily delivery capacity by 300% with the power of efficient routing.

Last-mile visibility and drivers’ accountability are also crucial for delivery management. Upper’s GPS tracking helps ensure it by tracking drivers’ live locations and determining whether a delivery attempt is fake or genuine. 

For customer satisfaction, you’ve got adaptive delivery notifications to notify customers of real-time delivery progress, enhancing their trust and loyalty.

Here’s some more that Upper brings to the table.

1. Import spreadsheet: This enables importing multiple delivery addresses from XLS or CSV files while avoiding duplication or errors through address validation capabilities. 
2. One-click dispatch: Facilitates sending your optimized routes for delivery tickets to multiple drivers in one go via email, text, or directly to the driver’s app.
3. Driver app: It lets delivery drivers view daily delivery schedules and automatic updates on schedules on mobile and navigate planned routes to enable hands-free navigation.
4. In-transit route edits: Allows you to add or delete stops and reoptimize routes to accommodate urgent new deliveries or cancellations flexibly.
5. Proof of delivery (POD): Allows you to capture your customers’ digital signatures, photos of delivered items, and notes for delivery confirmation. It helps enhance transparency, reduce lost parcel liabilities, and minimize fake delivery attempts.
6. Vehicle capacity constraints: This allows you to define your vehicle’s constraints, including area or weight, to schedule loads matching those specifications and send them on routes to maximize their capacity utilization. 
7. Delivery zones: Lets you define and assign delivery zones to specific drivers based on start/end points, driving preferences, and familiarity with an area for better management.

2. Shipday

Ideal for local delivery businesses, quick-service restaurants, and pizzerias.

Pricing: The paid versions start at $29 per month (the free version supports only 10 drivers)

With over 2000 businesses as clients across over 80 countries, Shipday is an integrated delivery management platform that simplifies local deliveries. Its extensive integration capabilities enable seamless integration with leading eCommerce platforms, like Shopify or WooCommerce. 

Shipday stands out for its AI-powered reporting. Our team could input human-like prompts to get insights into our daily performance, including total orders completed, percentage of on-time deliveries, and average customers’ ratings.

However, if your business involves pickups, Shipday may not be a good fit. Further, you may need to pay an extra amount for the SMS service in their two pricing plans, making them slightly expensive.

Key Features:

1. Live tracking: Tracks your local delivery drivers in real time to know their whereabouts to identify and address issues promptly.
2. Proof of delivery: Lets you collect photos of items delivered or customers’ digital signatures to maintain verifiable evidence of successful deliveries and minimize fraud refund claims. 
3. Codeless automation: Provides no-code automation to minimize manual intervention and make your delivery management faster and more efficient.
4. Customer review management: Allows you to collect Google reviews from customers to evaluate and manage their experience.

3. Elite EXTRA

Ideal for streamlining your last-mile delivery logistics

Pricing: Custom, not publicly available

Since its inception in 2008, Elite EXTRA has been a leading provider of routing and dispatch solutions for last-mile delivery companies. It provides an advanced route optimization engine to create efficient routes for your drivers. 

Having been in the last-mile delivery industry for over 25 years, Elite EXTRA also helps you handle returns automatically. We also liked the EXTRA Driver mobile app, which offers the flexibility of collecting photos and digital signatures from your drivers.

However, our in-house testing team found issues with prioritizing stops and found the user interface cluttered and confusing.

Key Features:

1. Routing & dispatch: Lets you control your deliveries seamlessly through optimized routes and real-time tracking of drivers.
2. Business analytics & reports: Provide insights into driver performance, order details, and financial information to get full visibility of your overall logistics performance.
3. Quick route adjustments: Enables you to adjust your already created routes to fit your specific requirements them, improving agility and adaptability.
4. Advanced route scheduling: Allows you to schedule your delivery routes weeks ahead of time to prevent last-minute scheduling hassles and expedite route dispatching.

4. Cigo

Ideal for tracking your last-mile deliveries

Pricing: Not publicly available

Designed to elevate delivery efficiency, Cigo is one of the leading cloud-based multi-stop route planning software solutions. Using this software, you can not only optimize your routes but also coordinate your fleet operations from a single unified dashboard. What we found interesting is the multi-industry support it provides. Cigo started by helping furniture businesses but expanded to serve multiple industries, including medical, hardware and construction, retail, and automotive. However, testing revealed that reports don’t show the miles covered for each delivery. You may also not be able to view paths your drivers follow if they go offline, unlike Upper, which keeps saving GPS coordinates every 10 seconds even when they are offline.

Key Features:

1. Multi-constrained route optimization: Analyzes real-time traffic and priorities to optimize routes for your last-mile carriers and drivers.
2. AI-powered auto-dispatch: Helps assign each delivery task to the most suitable driver based on their skills and availability to enhance delivery efficiency.
3. Offline access: Empowers your designers to access important delivery-related information even if they are in an area with poor network coverage to prevent interruptions.
4. Delivery personnel profiles: Lets you create your delivery staff members’ profiles, containing names, delivery zones, and skills to allocate deliveries efficiently.

5. Detrack

Ideal for electronic proof of delivery and contactless deliveries

Pricing: Starts at $29 per vehicle/month (billed monthly)

Founded in 2013, Detrack bills itself as the “trusted and affordable e-POD solution” that has over 1200 companies use across the globe. Equipped with sophisticated route optimization algorithms, it claims to cut down your driving time by 30% and total mileage by 25%.

What piqued our interest is Detrack’s intuitive interface, which makes adding or removing vehicles from fleets super easy. The freedom it gives your customers to sign for received orders using either SMS or a QR code helps eliminate paperwork and minimizes the chances of infection through any physical contact.

However, what didn’t impress us was the absence of built-in routing capabilities, unlike Upper or Elite EXTRA, on the list. It rather relies on the ElasticRoute tool for route planning and optimization. Testing also revealed backend dashboard settings are a little complex.  

Key Features: 

1. Electronic proof of delivery: This lets you maintain a digital record of delivered shipments by collecting details, such as date, time of delivery, and your customer’s signature.
2. Vehicle tracking: Displays your delivery vehicles on a single live map to help you monitor their movements on the go and make requisite adjustments to ensure on-time deliveries.
3. Instant notifications: Keep your customers informed about the estimated delivery date and estimated times of arrival to help them stay prepared and reduce failed deliveries. attempts.
4. Quick job transfer: Allows you to quickly dispatch another delivery vehicle to execute pending deliveries in case of emergencies for uninterrupted operations.

6. WorkWave Route Manager

Best for commercial, residential, and special courier deliveries 

Available on: Web, Android, and iOS

Pricing: Starts at $54 per month per vehicle.

This software helps optimize routes and accommodate changes easily, especially for courier delivery services. Using it, you can dispatch planned routes to your delivery team on their mobile phone and get real-time delivery progress updates.

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 loved is route simulations.

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. Scheduling and dispatching: Efficiently schedule appointments and dispatch drivers based on availability, proficiency levels, and location.
2. Route optimization: Optimize routes for your drivers to ensure timely arrivals and efficient deliveries.
3. Work order management: Create, assign, and track work orders for service requests, maintenance tasks, and installations.
4. Route Manager Voice: Enables your drivers to call your customers through their mobile app and notify them of the upcoming or canceled delivery

7. Onfleet

Ideal for managing and planning routes for enterprise businesses

Pricing: Starts at $550 per month

Onfleet bills itself as a “complete last-mile delivery solution” that can handle your end-to-end delivery processes. Testing this claim proved it to be true to an extent. Apart from the standard route optimization that almost all multi-stop route planner apps provide, what impressed us is AI-powered customer notifications and ETAs. 

Trusted by over 1000 customers worldwide, Onfleet supports Proof of Delivery to record every successful delivery you make in the form of photos, signatures, barcodes, or digital notes. Another strength is its versatility and usability across industries. 

However, it may take you some time to familiarize yourself completely with its features. High prices may also be a problem for small delivery business owners with budget restrictions.

Key Features: 

1. Advanced route planning: This allows you to plan routes for multiple weeks ahead of time, especially helpful in planning your daily start and stop if you are a long-haul driver. 
2. Real-time data: It displays up-to-the-moment customer information, order details, and the route for navigation to help you meet delivery expectations.
3. Auto-assign orders: For any unassigned tasks, simply select your preferred method of assignment, and Onfleet will automatically assign tasks to the appropriate driver. 
4. Feedback collection: Provides you with an integrated feedback form to receive your customers’ feedback and incorporate it to improve your service.

If you’re seeking options and want to see how other software compare, check out our blog on Onfleet alternatives.

8. Tookan

Ideal for on-demand delivery businesses and fleet management

Pricing: Starts at $29 per month

Tookan is a delivery and fleet management software solution that enables you to plan and organize your delivery routes. While it focuses on planning, optimizing, and dispatching your routes, it also works to handle your on-demand deliveries.

The primary goal of this software is to empower enterprises, mainly large-scale organizations, to excel in today’s customer-centric era. It achieves this through optimized routes, automation, real-time tracking, and efficient movement of goods, serving both B2C and B2B segments.

The platform offers a centralized dashboard for creating and managing delivery assignments, designating drivers, and monitoring their real-time progress. Businesses can use Tookan to improve their delivery process and increase operational efficiency.

Key features

• Dispatch dashboard: It gives businesses a comprehensive and real-time view of the delivery management process, enabling them to assign jobs more effectively, check order status, and track agent activities. 
• Service app: The service app, designed for field agents, enables efficient work and seamless connectivity with managers and customers, empowering agents with essential tools for effective task performance.
• Customer communication: Send automated notifications to customers regarding order status, estimated time of arrival (ETA), and delivery updates.
• Proof of Delivery: Capture digital signatures, photos, and notes as verifiable evidence of successful deliveries.

9. Track-POD

Ideal for proof of delivery and live tracking

Pricing: Starts at $285

With over 10,000+ companies as customers, Track POD has developed award-winning systems to revolutionize Proof of Delivery (POD), route planning, and live tracking for delivery-based businesses.

Easily accessible both on desktop and mobile devices, it allows you to optimize routes. What we liked, in particular, was that it let us capture geotags and timestamps to know when and where our drivers received ePODs.

However, testing revealed issues with tracking the total number of hours drivers work. Moreover, we couldn’t find truck-specific route optimization that considers height and load constraints. 

Key Features

1. Fleet optimization: This lets you maximize your fleet’s delivery capacity alongside creating optimal routes to reduce the number of delivery trips and associated fuel and wear/tear costs.
2. Safety management: This enables you to evaluate your vehicles’ conditions to fix any mechanical issues and ensure they operate optimally on the road. 
3. Multiple POD methods: Track-POD offers multiple POD collection options: e-signatures (allowing recipients to sign for deliveries digitally), COD confirmation (for cash-on-delivery orders), and barcode/QR scanning (to manage and verify items during delivery).
4. QR / barcodes: This allows you to check or input the details of any item or order into your system by scanning printed labels.

Didn’t find a perfect match in Track-POD?

Here’s a detailed guide that explores the best Track-POD alternatives that might better fit your delivery management requirements better.

10. Zippykind

Ideal for local delivery businesses of all types

Pricing: Starts at $0.29 per delivery ticket for up to 300 delivery tickets

Zippykind is a powerful and easy-to-use last-mile delivery logistics software solution for optimizing local delivery routes. Its USP lies in its “Uber-like” interface (as they call it!) that it provides to your customers. When your driver is in route, it sends a tracking page through which customers can view ETAs and GPS positions.

We also liked how it automates sending online orders to delivery drivers by integrating an API. Another feature worth considering is territory management, which allows you to create delivery zones and assign them to specific drivers. 

However, route optimization and SMS notifications are available as paid add-ons, unlike Upper, which offers them within base plans. This makes it slightly expensive compared to other software solutions on the list. 

Key Features: 

1. Dispatch automation: Enables the auto-assignment of newly created orders to drivers in proximity to your delivery destination or to the one who accepts it first.
2. Recurring subscriptions: Lets you set up subscriptions that can run concurrently for your regular customers who place orders on a daily, weekly, or fortnightly basis
3. Spending rewards program: Helps you track how much your customer spends on buying from your store and offers rewards based on the tier they fall under. It helps encourage your customers to buy more and boost your repeat business. 
4. Analytics: Shows past geo delivery trends to evaluate your drivers’ performance to identify high-performing and low-performing delivery executives and make informed decisions accordingly.

11. eLogii

Ideal for field delivery and service companies

Pricing: Not publicly available

eLogii is renowned for its level of customization for delivery route planning. It offers a multitude of parameters and optimization settings to tailor the route plan to your needs. They have three separate plans, though none of their prices are made publicly available.

We liked route simulations that let you change variables to check how it affects your routes in real time and plan delivery schedules accordingly. We also found the same-day route route planning based on routes in progress, ETAs, current time, and driver locations interesting. 

However, testing revealed the integration to be a little complex. There were also some glitches associated with the driver app. Our expert team also found limited user roles that can be expanded to support large organizations with different roles.

Key Features

1. Multi-day routes: eLogii allows you to strategically plan overnight routes, enabling drivers or agents to stay away overnight and continue seamlessly to the next date.
2. Set time windows: Give a specific time window for tasks, considering the open from and open to times. 
3. Traffic-enabled travel times: Make use of historical and live vehicle-type-specific traffic data so that you can plan routes accurately.
4. Vehicle-specific mapping: Optimize routes based on vehicle types, accounting for specific speed constraints and map considerations.

4 Primary Benefits of Delivery Management Software

Delivery management software offers several benefits, ranging from automating manual delivery tasks like dispatching to sending real-time delivery status updates. 

Below are the four key advantages of delivery routing software.

1. Dynamic route adjustments

Delivery management software helps create and adjust routes in real time based on real-time traffic patterns and time—and distance-based constraints. It ensures that all your deliveries are completed on time while reducing fuel costs and mileage.

2. Last-mile visibility

Delivery management software enables you to monitor your drivers in real time. Based on these insights, you can find out whether deliveries are going as planned or if there are any disruptions. Accordingly, you can redistribute your deliveries among drivers or reschedule them to ensure timely order fulfillment. 

3. Improved customer satisfaction

By letting you track your drivers’ live locations, delivery management software lets your precise estimated times of arrival (ETAs) to your customers. It helps your customers get real-time visibility into their deliveries which boosts transparency and customer loyalty.

4. Informed decision-making

Delivery software provides insights into different delivery performance metrics to base your delivery scheduling decisions. This data-driven approach not only boosts your organization’s adaptability and agility but also keeps it competitive in the face of changing market dynamics.

6 Features to Look for in Delivery Management Software

Your choice of delivery management software depends on your unique business needs. However, here are the features that every delivery management solution must ideally provide.

1. Route optimization

Route optimization is the first and foremost desired feature for any delivery management software you choose. Your software should enable you to create optimal routes based on multiple constraints, including delivery time windows, distances of delivery locations, traffic, and drivers’ availability. 

2. Delivery scheduling and dispatching

Once you create optimal routes, your software must be able to schedule and assign them to your drivers uniformly. It should also let you send these routes to your multiple drivers in a single click, instead of having you dispatch them individually. 

Did you know that Upper lets you plan delivery routes and schedule their dispatch to drivers for up to 5 weeks in advance to eliminate last-minute scheduling chaos? Take a free trial to know how.

3. Real-time driver tracking

After you are done dispatching your routes, your drivers start following them. Your software should allow you to track deliveries in real time to evaluate their progress and make route adjustments if necessary.

4. Proof of delivery

Once your drivers complete a delivery, they must be able to record it for future reference. So, your software must enable taking photos of items, capturing signatures, and scanning scan barcodes to verify successful deliveries.

5. Customer notifications

Communicating with your drivers and customers is crucial to ensure proactive issue resolution. Your software must let you communicate with your drivers and send accurate ETAs to your customers for enhanced visibility into delivery operations.

6. Reporting and analytics

Tracking your delivery performance is essential to spot and resolve potential issues. Therefore, your delivery software must provide detailed insights into the total stops covered or missed per driver to evaluate and improve their performance.

7. Integration

Integration with existing business systems is pivotal to exchange information seamlessly and managing operations effectively. Your software must let you connect with inventory management, order management, ERP, CRM, and e-commerce platforms.

4 Key Considerations when Picking Delivery Management Software

The following are the primary considerations when selecting delivery management software. 

1. Affordability 

When choosing delivery management software, you should look for transparent prices. It should also offer monthly plans, annual plans, or pay-as-you-go options to increase flexibility. You should also be able to downgrade or upgrade your pricing plans if your business is seasonal in nature.

Seeking affordable plans with annual discounts? Upper’s pricing plans got you covered.

2. Scalability

Determining whether your software can adapt to the rising order volumes as your business grows is important. So, your software must support adding extra vehicles, delivery drivers, and addresses as you scale your entire delivery business.

Upper grows as your business expands. Choose from different pricing plans and customize features to suit your industry or business requirements.

3. Customer service 

Top notch service from the customer support team is undeniably essential to make onboarding smooth and fix issues on a constant basis to minimize downtime. Therefore, check for the communication channels (email, phone, chat, or AI bot) that your support team provides. 

Upper offers 24×7 customer support via multiple options, including live chat, email, technical consulting, and dedicated support.

4. Degree of customization

The freedom of customization helps make your delivery management software suitable to fulfill your unique needs. It should allow you to add or rename specific data fields to record different types of data, such as package details, special instructions, or customers’ notes.

Upper lets you customize features and add custom fields for drivers, contacts, and delivery notifications to suit your industry-specific needs. Try out now for free.

Delivery Management Software: Your Key to Streamlining Your Delivery Operations

Delivery management software is your one-stop solution for all your delivery management needs, including delivery route planning, scheduling, dispatching, real-time tracking, and delivery confirmations.

While there are numerous delivery software options available in the market, your choice of the right software depends on your unique delivery business needs. It is also important to consider some basic functionalities, such as routing efficiency, integration capacities, and scalability. 

Based on a thorough evaluation of all these factors, you can pick a few software solutions that may be appropriate for you. You can then test their features based on your criteria and compare their prices and ease of use against others’. You can also refer to the above list of delivery management software to get a quick reference and can pick the right software for you.