Same-day delivery? It’s now possible! Find out more

A research and technology company Gemius Poland has issued a report titled “E-commerce in Poland in 2020” which reveals that the pandemic has strongly accelerated the development of e-commerce. As much as 73% of Poles are shopping online. Therefore, fast deliveries are now more important than ever. Only a few years ago, ordering and receiving packages on the same day was very hard to achieve and today it is often a customer requirement. How can you address this issue and deliver parcels as quickly as a flash?

When every hour matters

Until recently, the “same-day delivery” option was only available in the most developed markets. This isn’t true anymore, as one of the main players of the e-commerce market in Poland announced that they can now deliver products purchased on the same day around several biggest cities in the country. The only requirement is purchasing the product before a certain time of the day. Many customers, seeing that they can receive the package on the same day they make an order, are more willing to make the purchase decision.

Since this new delivery option is now offered by a big company, we can be sure that soon it will become a standard among all e-commerce businesses in Poland, also small online stores. Those that implement this solution first will be in the customers’ favor, so how can you do it?

Same-day delivery at your company

To deliver products to your customers on the day of the purchase, you have to meet a few requirements:

The warehouse should be easily accessible from every part of the city/region
The order confirmation, payment transaction, and packing of the products should be completed right away
Your company has to have an available vehicle fleet and a team of delivery drivers
The entire process should be managed by computer software or an application that supports dispatching orders to different employees, loading the vehicles, and planning optimal routes for delivery drivers

Is that all you need?

Support in planning routes

Let’s suppose that your company has X vehicles which you use for completing Y daily deliveries. It’s 11 am and orders are being processed. Your dispatchers will need to work fast to distribute delivery tasks between vehicles and initiate the process of packing and loading the parcels so that the couriers can hit the road.

Can your dispatchers take the time to plan complicated routes for the drivers? Surely not, when the customer awaits the package on the same day. However, if the dispatchers plan the routes in a very short time, they can easily make mistakes and the result isn’t too efficient. Additionally, we should remember that employees perform their tasks in different ways.

How can you tackle this daunting challenge? Here’s a tip: use an app that supports scheduling and planning routes. Automating these processes eliminates the risk of mistakes and saves time.

Let’s take a closer look at such a system in practice. What’s the value for the person responsible for planning routes? The app provides:

Address geocoding. Every package has its destination, which is a point on a map. You need the right tool to turn an address into a specific point. If you’re thinking about Google Maps, you’re right! This service prides itself on one of the best address geocoding databases. Modern systems use Google Maps’ possibilities to support the delivery process. But if Google Maps incorrectly mark a point, a good system will find the mistake before planning the route.
Instant planning of delivery tasks, e.g. 600 tasks in a little over 25 minutes.
Option to distribute tasks within different regions.
Option to evenly distribute tasks among the drivers. Each courier gets a specified amount of work every day. This allows you to maintain a larger fleet of vehicles and use it to the fullest during times of intensified demand, e.g. before Christmas.
Option to assign tasks that require specific features to the right drivers, for example, some delivery drivers have a payment terminal and accept card payments. In case the terminal malfunctions before the driver starts their journey, the system will instantly distribute tasks considering this situation.

Did you know that a good system plans routes for each driver in a way that the last destination is also the closest one to their own home? The system shows a starting point (such as a central warehouse) and the finish point (their place of living). It’s very convenient for the drivers, especially in the same-day delivery model when the process can last until the late evening.

Support for the couriers

Every courier/delivery driver performs their work in a slightly different way. Some are more efficient (because of greater experience), some are a bit slower. The right system can make the work easier for each one of them, no matter what’s their experience or road conditions. This is because such a system has a mobile app installed on a special device or a smartphone. It shortens each parcel delivery thanks to:

Easy selection of the next delivery address. The courier only needs to click the next point in the app and they are navigated to the next destination. They don’t need to enter any data or street names. They save a minute on each task like this and if we multiply this by the number of tasks, they save about 30 minutes a day.
Automated or half-automated reporting, which removed the responsibility of reporting the completed tasks from the couriers. This saves another 15 minutes of their work a day.
Confirming the completed delivery by the system. This minimizes or even eliminates the complaints.
Automatically notifying the customer that the courier is on the way. The courier doesn’t need to do it and the customer can be ready to meet them or contact the courier to inform them about their availability. This means more saved time.

Did you know that each courier spends some specific time at the delivery destination and this time is averaged in advance? The best delivery drivers spend about 1 minute 40 seconds at the destination and less experienced drivers need 2 minutes 30 seconds on average.

GeoTraxx, the “have-it-all” system

All of the features described above are part of our scheduling and planning system, GeoTraxx. It allows the logisticians to automatically plan the deliveries based on maps and navigational data from Google Maps. GeoTraxx algorithms are created in a way that makes the planned routes realistic, accurate, and effective. GeoTraxx considers many parameters, such as: