Articles
5
min read
The Advantages of an On-Demand Courier
Alexia Smith
Published on:
June 7, 2018
Updated on:
Published on:
June 7, 2018
Updated on:
With smartphones in our pockets and apps like Uber, BiteSquad, and Amazon Prime, we’ve come to expect that anything we need or want can be delivered to our doors at a moment’s notice. Takeout, groceries, household essentials like toothpaste and paper towels, books, music, and movies, the list goes on.
As consumers living in the era of instant gratification, these are all deliveries we take for granted. But what about our business deliveries? Most of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about same-day delivery needs for our businesses. Until we need to make a delivery, that is. What happens when you have a technician on a jobsite, and they need a part to finish the job? Or when you need to deliver an important document, and you don’t have time to wait? Or when you want to make a last-minute delivery to a valued client?
Many businesses use traditional courier services for these types of deliveries. But traditional courier services can be slow and often lack transparency. You have to contact the courier company in advance to schedule your delivery, and you never know the location of your driver. There’s no way to know if your technician will be waiting 10 minutes or 10 hours. You can’t be confident that your time-sensitive document will get there in time. Plus, there’s no guarantee that a traditional courier service will even do same-day deliveries (and if they do, what will it cost?).
If you’re ever in a situation like this, you might want to consider partnering with an on-demand delivery service, like Dispatch. Here are just a few of the benefits.
For many businesses, delivery schedules are sporadic and unpredictable. You never know when you’ll need that critical part or document delivered across town. This is one of the biggest courier challenges for businesses. You need the delivery made when you need it. But it can be impossible to predict when the situation will arise.
Traditional courier services can be unreliable and unpredictable in situations like this. Traditional courier services are often low-tech operations, so scheduling deliveries is a slow, manual process, and you usually don’t have a great deal of transparency into the location of your driver, the status of the delivery, or the estimated costs. Because they have a limited number of drivers and delivery vehicles, same-day deliveries can be expensive (if they’re even possible).
But now, there are on-demand courier services borrowing ideas developed for the consumer delivery market and applying them to industrial and business deliveries. These technology-based solutions allow you to quickly and easily request a courier from your smartphone or computer. You can set pickup and drop-off locations, delivery times, vehicle requirements, and more. And because these on-demand courier services employ a pool of reliable and efficient, independent drivers who are already on the road and in your area, you can be sure that your delivery will be made when you need it.
Technology-based on-demand delivery services offer significant benefits when you want to track your driver and the status of your deliveries. These software solutions send your delivery request to nearby drivers the second you make it and utilize GPS to track the driver’s route in real-time.
With this tracking software, you’ll know exactly where your driver is and when you can expect them to pick up and drop off your package. You can share this information with coworkers, clients, or customers who are expecting the delivery, so they know when the package is on the way and don’t need to waste time waiting for the delivery. This is especially important if you do business in locations where drivers might get caught in traffic.
With this level of visibility, you can be confident that your delivery will be delivered on time and will end up at the right location. You can even contact your driver if you have questions, if the job changes, or if you have any special requests.
If deliveries and pickups are a regular part of your business, you might have thought about investing in your own fleet of vehicles. But this can cost you a lot of money and time. By conservative estimates, the yearly Total Cost of Ownership for a fleet vehicle starts at $9,000 and increases from there depending on the type and number of vehicles you need. And this estimate only includes fixed costs like depreciation and insurance and variable costs like maintenance, repairs, and fuel. The cost of employing and training a team of drivers just adds to that cost.
By partnering with an on-demand courier company, you can avoid the expense of maintaining a fleet while still satisfying your delivery needs. And new technology-based on-demand courier services are able to connect you directly to local delivery drivers, so you can work with a large network of independent drivers who can most quickly, efficiently, and economically deliver your packages. These drivers are already on the road and in your area, so you don’t have to invest in additional resources or add to your overhead.
Check out our article on preventive fleet maintenance if you want to know more about the time and money it takes to maintain your own fleet.
Unless you’re a delivery company, you aren’t in the transportation business (and if you are a delivery company you probably won’t need any on-demand courier services!). By focusing your time and energy on the things your business does best, instead of delivery logistics, you’ll be able to grow your business and increase your profits.
If this sounds good to you, you should consider partnering with a technology-based on-demand delivery service like Dispatch.
Dispatch is an easy-to-use, on-demand delivery platform that will enable you to make the deliveries you need — when you need them (including same-day and last-minute deliveries). Our technology solution connects you to delivery drivers in your area, allows you to track the location and status of your delivery in real-time, and provides full visibility to take both the headache and the worry out of the delivery process.
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