Estimated time of arrival: The business benefits of giving ETAs

What’s estimated time of arrival?

ETA is a clever bit of tech that shows when a vehicle, or person, is expected to turn up somewhere.

The estimation for that is worked out on the expected journey time (more on that a bit further below).

ETA can be worked out for vehicles, ships, cargo, planes or emergency services. But it’s been really useful for businesses because it’s now easy to give customers an expected time for when something will turn up.

Think about it. If you’re a taxi service, you can get hyper-specific about delivery times. That’s only ever going to be good for business!

How is estimated time of arrival worked out?

ETA impresses even the pickiest customers! The tech works out turning up times like this:

• Estimated time of departure (ETD) is calculated. This is when the vehicle is set to start moving
• Once the vehicle has set off, the system calculates the speed of the distance travelled
• That’s set next to the remaining distance
• That’s divided by the measured speed
• The previously measured speed then predicts the arrival time

Anyone who’s ever used a food delivery app will know about it. You can follow your delivery driver around on the app. And communicate with them! Things like, “Where’s my order!? I’m starving!!”

While customers love the luxury, it puts more pressure on businesses to be on time. But the pros of that are enormous when you get it right!

The business benefits of estimated time of arrival tech

Right, so it’s obvious there are loads of benefits to ETA tech. So many you’d be mad to miss out on using it with your business. Let’s have a look at some of the key points.

Stay competitive!

First up, it’d be very bad for businesses if you didn’t use this tech. If you think, “Nah, we’ll save money and not use it!” Not a good idea.

Basically, all your competitors will be using tracking tech. And that’ll give them a massive advantage if you’re still relying on compasses, maps and the arc of the Sun across the sky.

Plus, customers just expect this sort of stuff now. And if you’re not using it, they’ll turn to businesses that do. It just makes their lives easier if they know when a parcel is turning up.

Plan better delivery schedules

A massive advantage with ETAs is you can really plan out your schedules. You can easily work out the:

• Fastest delivery routes
• Best delivery times (as in, avoiding rush hours etc.)
• How big your fleet should be

And from all that, as a dispatcher you can send out more deliveries based on how efficient you get. And that means you can raise order amounts… and earn more!

If you want to master fleet management, it’s a big step in the right direction.

Give customers what they want

One of the best ways to grow your business these days? More than ever, it’s about giving customers what they want (and as fast as possible).

If you’re a delivery business, you need to be providing:

• Fast-fulfilment, like with same-day delivery
• On-time deliveries that aren’t late
• Order tracking so they know where their product is
• Delay info in the event the package is slowed
• Immediate feedback options

The key to success? Business transparency. Show your customers what you’re doing and when you’re doing it. There’s nothing to hide!

Ultimately, it’ll keep them happy and it’ll let you hone your craft and get better at what you do.

Save time and money

Obviously, with all the other advantages you’re going to save money in the long run.

And time. With improved efficiency, buying some telematics tracking devices is a great option to make long-term savings.

Plus, it’ll make you more money as customers flock to your super streamlined business!

How to optimise estimated time of arrival

With all this ETA tech flying around, businesses are getting mega competitive about it. So, it’s more important than ever to optimise your times.

Because it’s not just about plug in and play. You should keep track of your data and look at ways you can make your fleet operate as well as possible.

That’s actually easy to do from the data you’ll get.

Traffic is, obviously, going to be a bit of a problem for any business. You can’t ever really tell what it’s going to be like. Except at rush hour. That’s when you know it’ll be very bad!

But with telematics tracking through an ETA system, you’ll get enough to data to know how to deal with unexpected situations. You can:

• Deal with traffic
• Avoid traffic entirely

Fleet management solutions have that set of features these days. With the data points tracked, you can look at the data and find the best times to make your journeys.

Better yet, you’ll even get instant notifications about traffic jams.

With those real-time updates, your driver can make instant decisions that’ll be the decider between something being late… or on time. And it’s all down to ETA tech.

Are there other vehicle tracking features?

There’s much more to telematics than ETA systems. With the right set of gadgets, you can:

• Track your vehicle’s location and driver activity
• Receive instant alerts about bad driving and accidents
• Use your data points to save fuel and lower repair costs
• Install options that limit business disruptions

Basically, it’s smart tech that lets your business work smarter.

The key to success isn’t always slaving away until you drop! It’s about maximising your opportunities with clever tech that keeps you ticking with clever features.

When you’re checking out what to buy, be on the lookout for:

• Providers that have a big range of hardware options
• Adaptable tech that’ll meet your needs
• Providers with great customer support

With that behind you, there’s no reason why your estimated time of arrival won’t skyrocket with success.

And you can compare the market right now to get the best vehicle tracking software at the very best prices.