ALC - Dispatch

For a lot of businesses, the challenges of the upcoming holiday season are already upon us—and as a recent opinion piece in Supply & Demand Chain Executive noted, businesses that “invest in clear, real-time supply chain visibility will not only survive the rush — they’ll turn it into a strategic advantage.” It’s hard to argue with that sentiment, but it can also be challenging to see exactly how to put it into practice.

 

At the end of the day, AI’s not really that different from any other new technology—it has to work for the people in your operation who are actually using it. If you want to unlock the transformative powers of some of the newest applications of AI in logistics, you’ve got to make sure that your team is ready to adopt these tools and get the most out of them.

If you’re reading this article, the odds are pretty good that you already know how important leveraging a digital dispatch platform is for powering smarter delivery and logistics management. Nearly anyone who deals with last mile deliveries—in other ones, anyone who has to dispatch orders to drivers in order to keep their operations running—needs technology for managing that process within the larger context of logistics management.

Updated 2/4/2026

When you picture a dispatcher hard at work, what comes to mind? Is it someone behind a desk strewn with slips of paper, picking up a landline phone to call a driver and find out where a customer’s order is? Or do you picture someone who’s able to do their job with just a few clicks and then step back and take a more strategic role in helping to improve your logistics processes?

In most industries, repeat business is the holy grail, and that includes the post purchase customer experience. Whether you’re delivering couches to end consumers or distributing cases of chips to minimarts and grocery stores, the difference between successful and unsuccessful businesses often comes down to how effectively you can make sure your customers want to work with you again and again. The cost of customer acquisition for most businesses can be pretty steep—it’s much more cost effective to keep your current customers happy. That’s why it’s critical to focus on the post purchase customer experience—especially in the final stage of the journey, where the last mile delivery moment defines customer loyalty and brand perception.

Satish Natarajan is CEO and Co-Founder of DispatchTrack, a global leader in last mile delivery technology and customer experience. This article originally appeared for the Forbes Technology Council here.

International Women’s Day is one of my very favorite days. It gives all of us —  women and men — a chance to reflect not just on how much progress we’ve made on women’s issues and where we’re going next, but on how we treat each other, how we boost and empower everyone around us.