Logistics provider Nightfreight is riding the wave of the demand for home delivery services, particularly with its two-man courier offering. However, as the director of its Deliver2Home division attests, there are plenty of issues that, if dealt with, could make the option even more tempting for consumers …
The momentum towards home delivery is rapidly gathering pace, fuelled by easier and faster internet access, a willingness to trust the security on branded sites, and busy lives which make shopping from home in the evening more attractive and practical than going out at weekends, or late-night shopping.
The issue still remains on how to receive that delivery, when you are at work all week.
Having time off is an option, but waiting in all day wondering if the delivery will turn up can be tedious. The answer has to be in better use of technology for both retailer and carrier, and applying that technology to product groups rather than across the board.
What do I mean? Take products which are low in value – is it really necessary to have a signature, particularly when the customer is willing to suggest a safe place to leave the parcel? It should be a simple matter to transfer instructions taken on a web page, direct to the carrier, and on to the driver. With hand-held devices, or even mobile phones, it's possible to take a photo of the consignment in the safe place and email it back to the supplier as proof.
Higher value items need a different approach. Retailers need to be more sophisticated in offering a choice on day of delivery rather than blindly despatching on a next-day or standard service. This of course necessitates allocation of stock to the order, and release of pick data on the correct day for delivery via an overnight carrier. In this way, at least the customer knows which date it is due to arrive.
Planning packages are now available to allow the day's deliveries to be scheduled in route order. For home delivery this requires driver discipline to follow the route plan.
Given a route, it's a simple matter to automate SMS text messages to advise the customer of a time window for delivery – so no more need to wait in all day.
Of course, the next advance is to give the customer a choice of time window. This is relatively easy for supermarkets with high volumes in groceries delivered from a local store, but much harder for a national carrier with higher stem mileages from the depot.
Routing a vehicle in a particular way carries a cost, since it may restrict the number of deliveries possible on the route, and that carries a cost in lost productivity.
Is the customer prepared to pay extra for this? In my view they are rarely given the choice or asked. Retailers, whilst searching for better services, are not willing to dilute their margins, and don't want to appear more expensive than their competition. Yet I'm sure customers, given the choice, would be prepared to pay a little more for that convenience.
So why doesn't this happen? Being in the carrier business you get to know carrier charges, and too often retailers are charging excessive premiums over their costs, rather than simply recovering them. In the meantime the carrier rates are driven to the bone, and this allows insufficient margin for investment in leading-edge services.
The answer, it seems to me, is for all parties in the supply chain to genuinely want to work together to offer better service to the customer, and in doing so give the customer the choice. The supply chains willing to embrace this will see benefits in more satisfied customers who will shop again.
What about those larger furniture deliveries? Generally they need a two-man carrier to manhandle the product into the room of choice in the home. In general these will be considered purchases of higher value.
The customer is excited by the arrival of their purchase, and all should be done to continue the shopping experience by offering the best in customer care in the home. This requires friendly and sensitive crews who are able to pamper the customer whilst making a fast and efficient delivery.
The technologies already mentioned are as appropriate on two-man delivery as on courier deliveries – provided the customer is allowed the options in the first place!
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