Optimizing last-mile delivery with intelligent orchestration

The last mile has become one of the most critical—and most unforgiving—stages of the modern supply chain. It’s where customer expectations, competitive pressures and daily delivery challenges collide, making it difficult to ensure accuracy and meet delivery deadlines while managing labor, efficiency and costs. 

However, with the right automated and intelligent capabilities in route planning, delivery execution and fleet management, last-mile delivery can shift from an operational headache to a strategic advantage. Instead of struggling with delivery as an operational concern, you can make it a key differentiator that sets your business apart, exceeds customer expectations and achieve it all with greater efficiency and cost control. 

The first step is understanding the challenges and limitations you’ll need to overcome—and how last-mile delivery optimization can help you do it. 

The role of automation and intelligence in orchestrating last-mile delivery

As last-mile delivery requirements have evolved, so have the technologies that make orchestration possible. Software applications,  mobile computing and real-time tracking technologies now enable smarter management of routes, drivers, vehicles and customer expectations.

This evolution inspired Infios to develop an intelligent last-mile delivery execution platform that combines dynamic route planning, optimization and orchestration with Zebra mobile computers and tracking technologies—delivering efficient, cost-effective and intelligent orchestration for Infios and Zebra’s mutual customers.

Manual processes simply cannot keep pace with the scale and speed of modern last-mile delivery, making automation essential. Infios software leverages real-word constraints to minimize miles driven, maximize stop density and ensure on-time performance, all while enabling dynamic route adjustments throughout the day. That means organizations can capture additional revenue opportunities without sacrificing reliability.

Driver workflows are guided through mobile applications that standardize processes, reduce administrative overhead and replace paper-based documentation. Automated timestamping and electronic proof of delivery are also provided, to further improve accuracy while reducing disputes and billing delays.

Importantly, automation doesn’t replace human expertise; it amplifies it. Dispatchers and planners are freed from manual planning and constant manual adjustments, enabling them to work strategically with real-time data and intelligence.  They can focus on exception handling, service recovery and proactive customer communication—with fewer disruptions that get in the way of ensuring on-time, accurate delivery performance. 

How real-time delivery visibility is necessary and achievable

Intelligent last-mile delivery orchestration is only as good as the visibility behind it. And visibility depends on accurate, timely data from the field. This is where Zebra’s mobile computing and tracking technologies come in.  

Our mobile computers and tablets provide drivers with intuitive, real-time tools to execute routes, capture delivery events and stay connected throughout the day. Integrated scanning, data capture and communication capabilities ensure every stop, task and exception is recorded accurately the moment it happens.

From receiving routes and manifests digitally to scanning and capturing critical data along the way, the right technologies in your drivers’ hands can make all the difference. But they’re also hugely important in capturing and sharing the data that your planners and dispatchers need.

When paired with Infios execution software, these devices become a real-time extension of your entire team and delivery network. Route progress, driver activities and delivery status are continuously updated, enabling accurate ETAs and proactive notifications for both internal teams and customers. 

By closing visibility gaps, tracking and data capture technologies provide a trustworthy operational picture—one that depicts real-time reality, not assumptions or blind spots. 

Turning execution data into continuous optimization  

Every route, stop, delay and delivery captured through Infios software and Zebra solutions contributes to a growing data foundation. Accurate timestamps reveal true service times. Route execution data exposes where assumptions break down. Driver activity insights uncover opportunities for training, process improvements or capacity expansion.

This is ultimately one of the most powerful outcomes of last-mile orchestration and optimization, which is the operational intelligence it generates.

At Zebra, our logistics and fleet management teams see firsthand how Infios’s analytics tools help our mutual customers transform delivery data into actionable insights. Using clear analytics and reports, they can identify trends, measure performance across their fleet and specific markets, vehicles and drivers, and identify areas for improvement and evaluate the impact of process changes with confidence. Over time, this enables continuous optimization and improvement rather than one-time improvement efforts.

Instead of asking why a delivery failed, organizations can ask how routes, workflows, or customer commitments should be adjusted to prevent similar issues in the future. Multiply that across your entire fleet, all drivers and all routes, and you can quickly implement changes that make orchestration smarter, faster and more effective every day. 

Controlling costs without sacrificing service

Last-mile delivery optimization and orchestration doesn’t just improve performance, it helps control costs in an environment of fluctuating fuel prices and constrained labor. Better delivery orchestration and optimization allows fleets and companies to manage these pressures intelligently, rather than reactively.

Automated, intelligent route planning and adjustments powered by Infios software reduce unnecessary miles, improve stop density and eliminate manual re-routing. The result: lower variable costs, higher fuel and driver efficiency and consistent service levels.

Infios’s real-time disruption management further minimizes financial impact by enabling proactive rerouting instead of absorbing the cost of missed delivery windows or failed attempts.

Zebra mobile technologies support these outcomes with real-time data collection and faster, more efficient mobile delivery management that streamlines the process and helps drivers execute deliveries more efficiently and accurately, with less time spent on administrative tasks. The result is higher productivity without increasing workload.

These are all key cost benefits that make last-mile delivery orchestration not just a performance improvement, but a strategic, cost-smart solution.