Best Apps for Delivery Drivers With GPS and Mileage Tracking
Samson Kiarie
Last update on:
October 25, 2024 6:11 AM
Published on:
There’s no doubt that timely deliveries are the way to your customer’s heart. But to deliver products quickly, the delivery must be tracked from the moment it leaves the warehouse to the time it reaches the customer’s hands. If you want to be known for quick and efficient delivery, start using the best app for delivery drivers during your workday.
Delivery apps help drivers plan and optimize routes to sidestep traffic and other situations that may cause delays. The ideal app’s GPS tracking capability adds visibility and transparency to delivery operations, allowing you to better monitor driver behavior and pinpoint a driver’s location in real-time. By using a delivery app, drivers are better able to expedite deliveries and keep customers updated on a delivery’s expected time of arrival (ETA).
Finding a suitable delivery app for drivers can be time-consuming and tedious because the process requires extensive testing. Fortunately, we did the testing for you and narrowed down the options to the top four software solutions.
In this review, we will help you find a solution to ease the drop-off service process, boost your brand’s reputation, and grow your company’s bottom line.
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What Features Should the Best App for Delivery Drivers Include?
The best app for delivery drivers should include route planning or optimization tools to help you create efficient routes. The app should also offer real-time location tracking for accurate delivery tracking and efficient driver dispatching. Mileage tracking is also indispensable for fair driver reimbursement and tax compliance. Here’s a sneak peek into apps that tick these boxes:
Timeero — Overall Best App For Delivery Drivers
Routific — Best Delivery App with an Intelligent Route Optimizer
Everlance — Best Delivery App With Expense Management Module
Zeo Route Planner — Best App For Delivery Drivers With Efficient Route Planner
Note: Changes in app features or designs that occurred after April 2024 were not taken into account when this article was written.
Handson With The Apps
We rigorously tested the four apps listed above in April 2024. We created two mock delivery locations for testing purposes and used each app to plan and optimize routes. We also tracked mileage and monitored our test driver’s real-time location during the delivery.
During the test trip, our vehicle odometer recorded 6.8 miles. We compared the mileage each app tracked with the odometer figure to determine tracking accuracy.
Top 4 GPS and Mileage Tracking Apps for Delivery Drivers
Whether you own a courier, e-commerce, food, grocery, or alcohol delivery company, the following apps will help you manage your delivery fleet. If you’re an independent contractor or rideshare driver, these apps will help you manage your side hustle and focus on making money with ease.
Timeero — Overall Best App For Delivery Drivers
Timeero’s clean interface is easy to navigate on iPhone and Android devices.
Pros:
Real-time location tracking
Accurate mileage tracking
Easy-to-use segmented tracking
Reduce fuel costs with suggested mileage
California break tracker
Offline mode
Cons:
No route optimizer
Timeero pricing: 14-day free trial. No base pay; pricing starts at $4 per user each month
Timeero is an easy-to-use GPS location and mileage tracking app for companies managing multiple delivery drivers. The app enables you to stay on top of your drivers’ field activities and suggests the shortest driving route to each destination to reduce fuel costs.
While Timeero doesn’t offer a route optimizer, the suggested mileage feature is a worthwhile alternative. This feature analyzes previous trips to a destination to create the shortest and most efficient route for each delivery. This encourages delivery drivers to spend less time on the road, expediting delivery and reducing fuel costs.
Suggested mileage and real-time location tracking make Timeero ideal for food and alcohol delivery businesses. The dispatcher can use the “who’s working” tab to pinpoint the nearest driver to deliver an urgent order, and use the suggested mileage feature to create the shortest route. This ensures the delivery arrives at the customer’s address in record time, keeping products fresh.
Timeero tracks mileage through motion detection and a minimum speed threshold. The app tracked 6.76 miles during our testing, proving to be the most accurate. Thanks to Timeero’s robust offline mode, when drivers are in areas with poor network coverage, tracking doesn’t stop during any part of the trip.
Accurate Multi-Stop Route Tracking with Segmented Tracking
Timeero’s segmented tracking feature makes it the best app for business owners looking to track multi-stop delivery trips.
Segmented tracking monitors driving routes of multi-stop deliveries. This tool is beneficial if you want to track the time a driver spends at drop-off and pickup locations. Traditionally, these in-depth details were tracked by asking drivers to clock in and out at each location, which was tedious and error-prone.
With segmented tracking, the delivery driver clocks in at the start of their shift. Timeero tracks and segments the trip based on the stops the driver makes. Managers are able to view vital details, such as when a driver entered and left the warehouse or customer location.
You can use these details to create benchmarks to streamline operations. For example, if segmented tracking reveals that drivers spend too much time in the warehouse, you could deduct that there could be an underlying problem with the vehicle loading process. With these insights, you can fine-tune your business operations accordingly to increase productivity and profitability.
Learn more about Timeero’s features that can increase your company’s success in our full Timeero review.
Routific — Best Delivery App with an Intelligent Route Optimizer
Routific is a courier, e-commerce, and grocery delivery service.
Pros:
Efficient route optimization
Driver’s live location tracking
Robust notification system
Cons:
Confusing web dashboards and mobile apps
No mileage tracker
Routific pricing: 7-day free trial. No base pay — pricing starts at $49 per vehicle each month
Routific is one of the best delivery assistance apps with a route optimizer that can be easily paired with Grubhub, Eaze, Saucey, Uber Eats, and Doordash.
Routific offers a live GPS tracker that enables you to track driver progress in real-time, reassign stops based on proximity, and provide customers with accurate ETAs. The powerful email notification system keeps customers informed during every step of the delivery process.
For example, if you estimate a delivery to occur at 11:00 a.m., you can tell Routific to notify the customer to expect their delivery between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. This keeps the customer in the loop, ensuring they are there to receive the delivery when it arrives.
Intelligent Route Optimizer
Routific’s route optimizer stands out as a star feature because it automatically arranges numerous stops to create an efficient route for each driver. The route optimizer eliminates overlapping or crisscrossing routes and allows you to add stops or drop-off points manually. You can add as many addresses to a route as the driver can handle.
The most exciting tool is the zone selector. This feature allows you to draw a polygon over a territory with delivery addresses. Routific then takes all the addresses within the zone and uses them to automatically create an optimal route.
One issue we found with Routific is the confusion surrounding the two mobile apps offered on Google Play and Apple App Store: Routific and Routific Driver. If the driver downloads the wrong mobile app, they cannot log in, let alone see their assigned routes.
Another issue we ran across, is that Routific computes mileage based on the optimized routes. The mileage driven doesn’t change even if the driver deviates from the assigned route. During our testing, the app’s optimized route mileage was 3.5 miles, but our odometer reading recorded 6.8 miles. **
Incorrect mileage estimates can cause drivers to underestimate the time they need to complete a delivery task, leading to missed ETAs and decreased customer satisfaction. False mileage estimates can also lead to erroneous calculation of travel expenses and unfair compensation, which negatively impacts a driver’s morale.
Everlance — Best Delivery App With Expense Management Module
Everlance enables full-time and part-time drivers to stay on top of their expenses and earnings.
Pros:
Accurate mileage tracking
Easy drive classification
Expense tracking
Auto insurance verification
Set up direct deposit for easy reimbursement
Driver checkup to ensure valid driver’s license
Cons:
No route planning feature
Battery drain
Everlance pricing: Free plan with 30 trips per month, No base pay — pricing starts at $10 per user each month
Everlance is the best app for self-employed and gig delivery drivers looking to streamline their operations and track expenses. Unlike Timeero, which only tracks mileage when the driver is clocked in, Everlance tracks all mileage as long as the app’s automatic drive detection is on.
The advantage to this is that drivers don't have to lift a finger to track mileage. The app logs mileage as soon as the vehicle moves, and it does so accurately. During our testing, the app tracked three trips totaling 6.8 miles, so accuracy is on par with Timeero — the best mileage tracker.
On the flip side, Everlance's automatic drive detection tracks all trips, whether business or personal. While this doesn’t pose a serious concern for part-time gig drivers with Lyft, Postmates, or Amazon Flex, it does infringe on the privacy of full-time drivers outside of business hours.
To mitigate this privacy concern, we recommend turning off automatic drive detection once you are done with your shift for the day. This way, Everlance won't track your movement during private hours.
If you’re looking to maximize payout from a delivery side hustle, it helps to minimize expenses. This is where Everlance comes in handy. The app automates expense tracking by providing customizable expense categories. You can upload and sort receipts into different buckets and link your credit card or bank account for automatic expense tracking.
Easy Drive Classification
Classifying trips is as easy as swiping the drive card right for work and left for personal trips. You can also automatically classify trips as “work” if they fall within predefined work hours. The Favorite Trips enables you to classify frequent trips between the pickup location to customer address as business. Learn more about expense tracking in the full Everlance review.
Zeo Route Planner — Best App For Delivery Drivers with Efficient Route Planner
Zeo Route Planner indicates the real-time location of delivery drivers on a map (Google Maps) with a green dot.
Pros:
Easy to upload addresses
Reliable route planner
Driver navigation assistance
Driver screening and background check
Cons:
Mileage tracking isn’t accurate
Zeo Route Planner pricing: 7-day free trial, No base pay — pricing starts at $29 per user each month
Zeo Route Planner is a reliable route planner for retailers and gig economy drivers looking to reduce time on the road and save on fuel costs. The web and mobile apps are super easy to navigate for all users . You can manually add delivery and pickup addresses into the app or upload numerous stops from Excel or Google Sheets.
The app keeps you updated on the driver’s location and field activity. For example, when a driver completes a delivery gig, the app automatically syncs the details to the dashboard. You can see when the driver picks up the delivery, where they are currently located, where they are headed, and when they make the delivery.
Remember that the timestamps represent when a driver marked the task complete on the app. If the driver picks up a delivery at 10:00 AM but completes the pickup task at 10:30 AM, the app records that the delivery was picked up at 10:30 AM.
When the Zeo Route Planner optimizes a route, it automatically computes drive time and distance. The mileage of the optimized route is presumed to be the distance the driver covered, which is okay as long as the driver strictly follows the assigned route. However, if the driver deviates from the route, the distance that was actually covered may not be reflected.
Reliable Route Optimization
Unlike Routific, Zeo Route Planner doesn’t have a zone selector. To plan and optimize the route, you have to select addresses as well as the driver’s starting location. You can navigate the stops as they are presented or click “optimize” to create a more efficient route.
Zeo Route Planner’s algorithm analyzes the address data, stop duration, driver’s break time, and delivery windows. It uses this information to generate a route that reduces the time and distance required to complete the delivery task.
When you assign a route to a driver, they will receive a notification and be able to view the route on their mobile app. The driver must start the trip manually but can use the assigned route for navigational purposes to reduce errors and delays.
Pick The Best GPS App for Delivery Drivers
There’s no doubt that Timeero is the best mileage tracking app for delivery drivers. The app ticks the right boxes, from mileage tracking and real-time GPS tracking to suggested mileage and route replays. It works best for couriers, food, e-commerce, and other delivery businesses that want to reduce drive time and eliminate delays for quick delivery.
It’s easy to use and, most importantly, integrates nicely with QuickBooks Online and other payment software systems. You can generate IRS-compliant mileage reports for tax filing purposes and export them to your payment system for fair reimbursement.
Start a 14-day free trial today to get a first-hand feel of Timeero’s features . No card is required; just create an account and use the app immediately. While you’re at it, book a free consultation call to learn how to customize the app to your specific business needs.
Best Apps For Delivery Drivers: FAQs
What Are the Best Apps for Delivery Drivers?
The best apps for delivery drivers are Timeero, Routific, Everlance, and Zeo Route Planner. These apps are ideal for businesses and gig economy delivery drivers like Doordash and Uber Eats drivers.
How Do These Delivery Driver Apps Work?
The best app for delivery drivers optimizes routes to reduce driving time and distance. This improves your delivery business’ profitability without raising the delivery fee.
What Are the Top-Rated Apps for Managing Multiple Delivery Routes?
The top-rated apps for managing multiple delivery routes are Timeero, Routific, Everlance, and Zeo Route Planner.
Which App Is Best for Delivery Jobs?
The best app for delivery jobs is Timeero, thanks to its suggested mileage feature, which helps you minimize fuel costs to save extra money.
Timeero uses real-time GPS
Always know where your delivery drivers are while on the clock
Samson is a mathematician turned content marketer specializing in SaaS and Tech content. He focuses on the practical aspects of software systems while keeping abreast of the industry’s cutting-edge principles to create informative and engaging content. When he’s not writing, Samson spends time playing or watching soccer.
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