“What’s your ETA?” is a comtháng question. We use it khổng lồ find out when a friend will arrive at a restaurant or when a maintenance professional will show up lớn repair an appliance. When you ask for an ETA, you’re asking when your frikết thúc or repairman will knock on your door, right? Not exactly.
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As you will learn in this article, estimated time of arrival is actually a lot more complicated than it seems, and it is often used incorrectly. Businesses và consumers rely on arrival and delivery estimates for planning, scheduling, & much more, but sometimes it feels lượt thích notoàn thân is speaking the same language.
In this article, we’ll simplify the most commonly requested logistics estimates that shippers need to know và break down which of your customers needs which one (even if they’re using the wrong shipping term). Plus, we’ll show you how khổng lồ use balkanpoliticalclub.net to lớn deliver highly accurate order updates with almost no effort.
What Exactly Is ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival)?
In the logistics industry, ETA (estimated time of arrival) indicates when a vehicle, cargo ship, or other modes of transportation will arrive at its final destination. Arrival estimates are used to give sầu customers an approximation of when the vehicle carrying their goods will arrive at their location. ETA is also used lớn let customers know the expected time that a service professional will arrive khổng lồ bởi a job (such as a repairman fixing an air conditioner).
ETA vs ETD: What’s the difference?
The difference between ETA vs. ETD is that ETA is the estimated time of arrival and ETD is the estimated time of departure or the estimated time of delivery. ETA always refers lớn the time a transportation vehicle or vessel will arrive at its final destination, but as shown above, ETD can mean one of two different things:
Estimated time of delivery, which refers to the final point in a logistics supply chain, or the moment a sản phẩm is handed over khổng lồ the consignee. Estimated time of delivery is most frequently used by couriers and package/hàng hóa delivery companies. It is important to note that delivery estimates are different from arrival estimates. For example, if a delivery truông chồng arrives at a high-rise office building at 1 pm, packages may not actually be delivered to lớn certain floors or businesses within that building until 1:30 pm.If you’ve sầu ever encountered a miscommunication, thanks to the dual meaning of “ETD,” you’re not alone. This is why it’s a best practice to lớn write out the full term for ETD instead of using the acronym when you’re speaking lớn anyone outside of your own company.
The final estimate your customers may want is the ECT or estimated completion time. ECT is technically the same as an estimated time of delivery, but it is typically used in the service industry and not by couriers. ECT, lượt thích estimated time of delivery, refers to the moment when a transaction is completed.
ECT is important for service and maintenance professionals where an individual appointment may take several hours. For example, a pool maintenance professional may have an ETA of 2 pm for a job that is anticipated lớn take two hours. In this case, the ECT for the same job would be 4 pm.
Finally, it’s useful lớn remember that the estimated time of arrival isn’t necessarily the actual time of arrival (ATD), nor is the estimated time of departure the actual time of departure. These estimates are often incorrect, so make sure to lớn clarify to lớn customers that the ETA or ETD isn’t a guarantee that their goods will arrive at that time.
Use balkanpoliticalclub.net to Provide the Most Accurate ETA, ETD, và ECT
The easiest way to lớn calculate logistics estimates và avoid any confusion caused by ETA, ETD, & ECT is lớn use software. Here’s how to lớn use the live-tracking & planning features in balkanpoliticalclub.net lớn calculate every estimate both you & your customer need with a high degree of accuracy—and very little effort.
Calculate departure time with advance planning
Advance planning is literally planning and scheduling as early as possible (days, weeks, or even a month in advance). Dispatchers can use early planning to figure out exactly when a new order will depart a warehouse or storage facility. They can then chia sẻ that information with customers và internal teams.
All a dispatcher needs khổng lồ bởi vì is upload orders from an Excel sheet or other document, đầu vào the driver constraints (which can be saved for future planning), và cliông chồng “Plan routes.” In a matter of seconds, you’ll have sầu optimized routes và schedules, và you’ll be able khổng lồ let customers know precisely when their order is going khổng lồ depart your warehouse or storage facility. You can also make manual adjustments to routes at any time. You can plan up lớn five weeks in advance and replan as many times as you want when new orders come in.
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See arrival times with live sầu tracking
Live tracking, or real-time tracking, is a feature that lets you (& your customers) see where a delivery driver is along their route.
Live GPS tracking takes the guesswork out of ETAs for dispatchers and fleet managers. Real-time visibility doesn’t guarantee your drivers won’t run inlớn traffic or get a flat tire while they’re en route, but it does ensure that if anything goes wrong, dispatchers will know immediately. Live tracking helps dispatchers troubleshoot unavoidable delays & keep on-time delivery rates as high as possible.
balkanpoliticalclub.net shows dispatchers planned routes using a straight line, with different colors for each driver. When a driver departs, dispatchers see a trail of “bread crumbs,” or a dotted line, that indicates where that driver is in real time.
balkanpoliticalclub.net clearly shows when a driver is expected to arrive sầu at upcoming stops, how long they took lớn complete deliveries at previous stops, & whether they are running early, late, or on time. This information is accessible later in easy-to-understand analytics, too, so dispatchers can adjust schedules or routing in the future based on hard data.
Show customers when to expect delivery with real-time tracking notifications
balkanpoliticalclub.net’s real-time tracking notifications are the customer-facing part of the live sầu tracking we just mentioned. Real-time tracking lets customers see where drivers are along their route with a bản đồ view and provides text or gmail updates when the driver departs, is getting cthua thảm, & has completed a delivery.
Surveys have shown that 88% of consumers want real-time tracking. Notoàn thân appreciates looking at the same “out for delivery” notification for six straight hours when they’re anticipating an important delivery. The best estimate you can give customers is one that’s highly accurate, và real-time tracking is as accurate as it gets.
You can customize messages in balkanpoliticalclub.net and then phối them to automatically be sent to customers when a package or service professional is on the way. Your customers will know the minute their order is expected khổng lồ arrive sầu based on current conditions, & if anything changes, they’ll be able khổng lồ see it right away.
Easily monitor estimated completion time with live tracking
As we mentioned, estimated completion time refers to the time a service request is expected khổng lồ be finished. Field service và maintenance companies can easily monitor these times using live sầu tracking. The screenshot below shows a dispatcher’s view of service professionals’ live status. Using balkanpoliticalclub.net, a dispatcher can quickly và clearly see who is on time and which jobs are taking longer than expected.
If a repairman shows up for a job that was anticipated to lớn take 30 minutes to lớn find that the problem is much larger than expected, the dispatcher can use dynamic replanning to reassign their next appointment to lớn another repairman, if needed. Service windows can be customized lớn the type of job being performed & even to lớn individual employees, if some tover to work more efficiently than others. Dispatchers can also access these timetables in a condensed analytics view later on lớn see if service window times need to be adjusted for the whole team going forward. Analytics will help managers see if certain types of repairs routinely take 90 minutes as opposed lớn 60 minutes.
Additionally, balkanpoliticalclub.net streamlines customer updates, so dispatchers can focus on keeping their team on trachồng & on time. Since you can set up your balkanpoliticalclub.net account for customers to lớn get real-time tracking updates, your dispatcher won’t have khổng lồ worry as much about notifying customers when their repairman is running late. Although, you can always go the figurative sầu extra mile và give them a Call if you deem it appropriate.