What is ETA & ETD? What’s the Difference?

Nobody wants to wait for things without knowing how long they have to wait, right? 

So making your customers aware of the time duration they can expect to wait can enhance their user experience. 

How?

ETA (estimated time of arrival) or ETD (estimated time of delivery) can help you deliver business, employees, and customers a holistic overview of the delivery process and a better experience.

But what is ETA & ETD? And why are these two terms important for deciding the success of your business?

Let’s dive deep into the nitty-gritty elements of understanding the importance of ETA and ETD and figure out how you can calculate these two for your business.

What Is Estimated Time of Arrival and Why Is it Important?

Estimated time of arrival is the expected time and date the shipment can take to arrive at the destination from the day your customers place the order. It’s the calculation of the packaging and delivery process, and it helps the customers get a brief idea of when they can expect their order to arrive.

ETA can help you get a buffer time if something unfortunate happens in the packaging or delivery process that delays the shipment. You don’t want to consistently update the ETA for your customers and team for a poor experience, so calculate your delivery supply chain using the right tools and strategy.
If you can include ETA while the potential prospect is making the purchase, it can help them complete the transaction and increase the conversion rate of your business because 50% of the customers transact with a business viewing the delivery conditions.

The importance of ETA is rising day by day in the delivery business because of the changing customer behavior and rise in competition in the industry.

With the attention span of customers and patience level decreasing, ETA helps to hook the audience to make the transaction and get an idea about their delivery arrival.

But if you miss out on your ETA, you might lose the customer for their future transaction. You need to align your delivery process with the ETA promised to the customer and have robust technology in place for accurate calculation.

What Is Estimated Time of Delivery and Why Is it Important?

On the other hand, estimated departure time is the estimated time and date that an order will be delivered to the customer or its final destination. It plays a vital role in the last-mile delivery and is calculated by the last-mile carriers.

When the package leaves the storage facility of your business till the time it’s handed over to the consignee, the time it takes to complete this action is called the estimated delivery time.

It ensures that the successful delivery of the product takes place to avoid any miscalculations by the driver or other issues with the delivery segment.

You can update your ETD at any given time using a powerful route planner and notify your customer or employees if any change is required.

Now that you understand both the terms, let’s break down and spot the difference between the two.

The Key Difference Between ETA & ETD

It’s essential for you to understand these terms to avoid confusion or miscalculation in your dispatch management process.

ETA is the critical term you can use to help customers get a delivery time window or an estimated idea of when they expect their order to reach their doorsteps. ETA is necessary for the service industry to deliver a quality experience to its customers.

ETD is vital for the delivery team and the fleet managers to remain on track and avoid any miscalculations or delayed deliveries.

Specifying estimated delivery time can help the drivers to deliver time-sensitive packages on time and hit the road on time to deliver at multiple stops in a single shift.

But calculating both the estimated timings is essential for the smooth functioning of your delivery business. You want your driver to remain on track and avoid missed deliveries for your customers.

So how can you calculate ETA and ETD with no hassles and manual calculations?

Use a Route Planner to Calculate Accurate ETA & ETD

The simplest and error-free way to calculate the ETA and ETD is to use dedicated software. It helps you attain higher accuracy, minimal errors, and minimal effort to finalize the timings.

Using a route planning tool with live tracking and planning functionalities can help you with the following:

1. Calculate timing in advance

You can calculate the timings in advance by planning and scheduling your delivery process. Early planning can help you streamline the flow and share the information with your internal team and customers in advance for better management and a great customer experience.

You can seamlessly upload the order details from your Excel sheet in the route planner and plan the delivery route to avoid any miscalculations and human errors within a few clicks.

If your logistics or transportation process faces any hiccups, you can update the timings in no time and inform everyone involved in the network about the change.

2. Real-time tracking

You can use the real-time tracking feature to check the package’s delivery process and live location. It can help your customers get real-time updates and brief ideas about the arrival timings and experience a quality customer experience.

The GPS tracking removes the manual guesswork. Real-time visibility helps your fleet managers pass on the proper instructions and guidance to the delivery drivers to complete an optimized delivery process.

If anything goes downhill during the delivery process, you can take informed actions to remove the roadblocks to the packages’ smooth flow quickly. You can even get the detailed performance reports of the delivery drivers to analyze the weak points and help them polish their work rate for enhanced productivity for the upcoming shifts.

3. Quick notifications

Using a route planner can help you give quick notifications to the customers about the timings of their arrival. It can help your drivers remain on track with the ETD to avoid delays and failed deliveries.

The route planning and optimization tools can deliver the notifications via text, emails, or mobile notification to enhance real-time visibility.

With 88% of consumers expecting a real-time tracking feature in the modern-day eCommerce industry, it becomes necessary for you to use the latest and advanced tools for a quality experience.

You can update the estimated arrival time and the delivery time window to avoid poor customer experience if the situation demands a change in the delivery process.

Informing your customers is better than keeping them in the dark, right?

4. Agile route planning

Within a few clicks, you get detailed and optimized delivery routes for the last mile delivery. You can create multiple delivery paths for different drivers and dispatch them within no time.

You can bypass the hurdles of manual route planning and handle bulk delivery orders with finesse. You won’t face trouble with the clash of timings. The tool considers a delivery priority, locations, weather, and traffic conditions, among other critical factors, to deliver an optimized delivery path.

Your drivers can maximize efficiency and minimize the delivery time and operational cost.

5. Reduce time wastage

The most significant advantage of route planning and optimization software is to avoid any human errors, troubles, or other roadblocks resulting in delayed or failed deliveries.

With the help of automation, you remove the redundancies in the delivery process and enable your workforce to remain on track with the estimated delivery time.

Also optimized route planning and accurate prediction can help logistics companies minimize the delivery cost per package delivery timings and cut fuel costs.

But not all route planning and optimization software can deliver these results. So how can you filter out a complete package route planner for your delivery business?

We researched on your behalf and selected one of the leading route planning and optimization software you can choose for your business.

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