Saia Successfully Rolls Out the New RouteMax Driver App for LTL First and Last Mile Operations

The HaulSuite RouteMax Solution and New Mobile App Deliver Route Optimization That Lowers Mileage and Improves Driver and Customer Experiences

HaulSuite™, a leader in LTL optimization solutions, announces that Saia, Inc. has completed a successful deployment of the new RouteMax Mobile App to over 3,000 city drivers across the United States. The RouteMax Mobile App improves the overall driver experience and service levels for Saia and helps streamline communications and management for dispatchers.

“With this new mobile application, our city drivers have a tool that makes it easy to manage their tasks and follow an optimized route based on customer constraints while keeping customers and dispatchers updated. This allows our drivers to spend less time planning their route and focus on driving safely instead,” said Rohit Lal, Chief Information Officer, Saia, Inc.

The new RouteMax Mobile App acts as a driver assistant. It tallies expected and total mileage, visually displays daily pickups and deliveries on a map, notifies drivers of updates or if appointments will be missed, and calculates delivery and route completion times. Equipped with traffic-aware maps, the new mobile app suggests the quickest routes throughout the day based on changing conditions with turn-by-turn directions to navigate on the road. The app also includes intuitive and powerful workflows that provide step-by-step instructions with automation and document digitization tools that save time and reduce errors throughout the day.

“Prior to this, drivers had been handling many of these functions by themselves, from a variety of different mobile applications or, in some cases, just a printout, pen and pad,” said Rambabu Yadlapalli, RouteMax’s Senior Product Manager, HaulSuite. “RouteMax’s mobile driver app puts all this information into a single, driver-friendly mobile application.”

RouteMax debuted in mid-2020 to focus on the unique challenges of less-than-truckload (LTL) pickup and delivery. At launch, the solution focused primarily on the planner and dispatcher, allowing carriers to streamline and speed pickup and delivery operations by optimizing routes planning and simplifying resource assignments and daily management. The addition of the mobile app provides RouteMax customers with a true end-to-end system for scheduling, managing, and reporting on deliveries and pickups.

“When the driver completes a step, the dispatcher is updated simultaneously so everyone involved knows exactly what’s happening, and what is next. It’s about as seamless as you can get when coordinating activity between dispatchers, drivers, and the customer,” said Rohit Lal.

The RouteMax team spent a significant amount of time working with carriers and drivers to ensure ease of use and right functionality, which includes an intuitive driver workflow and hands-free/text-to-speech capabilities. This has significantly impacted drivers from a productivity and safety standpoint as they don’t have to touch the device anymore or pull over to read the notifications. Understanding that drivers would rather be driving than entering data, the RouteMax mobile driver app allows data entry via drop-down lists, instead of manual inputs. A scanning function allows drivers to scan photos and documents, which will allow processes to be digitized.

“This new application makes it much easier for our drivers to find and service our customers efficiently,” said Patrick Sugar, Saia’s EVP of Operations. “Every step is laid out for the driver and is documented electronically when it’s completed. The software will continually optimize route assignments and automatically update drivers as the day progresses.”

Route optimization, when done right, results in multiple benefits including reduced fuel and labor costs, lower carbon footprint, and most importantly, improved customer experience.

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