The receiver and the sender: satisfying parcel delivery’s parallel customers

THE RECEIVER AND THE SENDER

satisfying parcel delivery’s parallel customers

Consumer expectations have been reset by best-in-class experiences. Logistics providers that want to win retailer contracts must meet these expectations and that means embracing new technology, to deliver the real-time tracking, personalised delivery experiences and seamless returns that are the benchmark of modern parcel delivery.

These expectations are even more heightened when it comes to food delivery, with Rollo Jarvis, Director of Strategy & PMO Logistics at Just Eat Takeaway, saying the hardest types of deliveries are when someone is hungry and wants their pizza straightaway.

Achieving a typical delivery time of just 30 minutes, from receiving an order to the food being in the customer’s hands, requires a lot of data and computational power.

You need a lot of signals to achieve a 30-minute delivery time and keep the customer informed throughout.

ROLLO JARVIS
Director of Strategy & PMO Logistics,
Just Eat Takeaway

‘You need a lot of signals to achieve that and keep the customer informed throughout the delivery,’ says Jarvis, saying technology helps match the order to the right courier, increases efficiency through order batching and ensures the courier network has the right supply levels to flex up and down with fluctuations in demand.

Indeed, these hyper-efficient delivery services, be they sending out parcels or food, have to understand and meet the expectations of different stakeholders: the end consumer, the couriers and their customer, which may be a retailer or a food business. This means pulling together a lot of data from different sources who may not all have the same motivations or urgency to share that information. A hungry consumer may be happy to drop a pin to overcome ‘last metre issues’ so the pizza arrives hot at their doorstep, but retailers or couriers may not have the capability to share data in a timely or compatible manner.

Alignment strategies which align those sometimes-competing interests between retailer and recipient are key, be they flexible delivery options to serve business efficiency and recipient convenience or technology solutions optimising for both customer types simultaneously. At the heart of delivering for both customer types, though, is trust and transparent communication.

‘You need trust between partners, couriers and end consumers,’ says Jarvis, ‘and that means making sure the communications are really clear.’

Seb Robert, Chief Executive Officer of Gophr, agrees that getting the right information from the customer to shape an efficient workflow for the courier is essential. 'We need to make sure the courier has the right equipment, the right vehicle and the right capacity in the vehicle,’ says Robert. ‘The consignment piece is the biggest challenge as last mile delivery operators don’t treat consignments like air travel, so around 60% of vehicles travel with 75% free capacity.’

This means there’s huge scope to build in more efficiency, which is the kind of opportunity that can only be mined at speed by having more data and analytics. Gophr is in the process of rolling out a generative AI solution to package up customer data and additional contextual information about the job to improve efficiencies and customer experience.

‘It can deal with 90% of customer issues before they get sent up to the operations team,’ says Seb Robert of Gophr. ‘It puts us in a really strong position to start extending hours and offering 24/7.’

Technology can make a real impact at every stage of the journey, starting with the point of sale and selecting a delivery option.

‘You have to make the choice as easy as possible,’ says Paul Doble, Chief Executive Officer of Parcel2Go, pointing out that only 52% of people in the UK have access to a printer, for example. ‘So having a no-label option and using a QR code instead is very important.’

This ease-of-use then needs to cascade throughout the experience, with real-time updates for the end consumer and efficient matching and route precision for the couriers.

Mapping and routing systems better now than they were 12 months ago, and they will be better again in another 12 months.

KEVIN SAVAGE
Chief Operating Officer,
Delivery Mates

‘This is all about data, with mapping and routing systems better now than they were 12 months ago, and they will be better again in another 12 months,’ says Kevin Savage, Chief Operations Officer at Delivery Mates, adding that the main blind spot is cycle lanes for bike couriers. ‘We can pick up late and still deliver on time, which tells us that the delivery data on bikes is wrong.’

Support also needs to be there when things go wrong, and here technology can play a huge role.

‘Sixty-five per cent of contacts can be resolved first time via AI in the bot so, because of the volume of inbound contacts, we have to maximise that channel,’ says Doble of Parcel2Go, adding that this frees up contact centre staff on live chat and phones to handle more complex cases. ‘The single biggest differentiator we have is service and support, especially when things go wrong.’

Human plus machine, working together to deliver a better experience for customers, be it warehouse pick up or the final metre to the doorstep.