LOGISTICS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS
Corona pandemic promotes digitisation among transport service providers
Bordesholm, October 1, 2019
CHAPTER 4
Same-day delivery – Convenience service with huge hurdles for providers
E-commerce providers like Amazon have long been pushing ahead with expanding their own infrastructure, especially in the vicinity of metropolitan areas, in order to realise ordering and guaranteed same-day delivery across the board in these regions. In this way, the customer should be won over even with the strongest argument of brick-and-mortar retail - receiving the goods almost immediately. If this succeeds, there is no longer the need to leave the comfort of your home and physically go to the store, especially since a much greater variety of products can be offered on the Internet than in a brick-and-mortar retail store.
The projects of “Liefery” and “Tiramizoo” show that the demand for this service is definitely out there.
The Corona crisis is currently also fueling the trend towards online grocery shopping, where freshness and quick availability of goods are crucial. This is one of the reasons why it can be expected that the concept of same-day delivery will play an increasingly important role in the future.
If online retail doesn't want to give this domain back to the brick-and-mortar stores after the crisis has ended, it is forced to strengthen the biggest incentive for ordering food online: just as quickly as from the corner store, only more convenient because delivered. And it is not just grocery shopping that is increasing online. Almost every type of shopping is moving to the internet.
For same-day delivery, goods must be distributed across widely spread, close-knit networks of regional transshipment warehouses and depots. Fast last-mile delivery can only be successfully implemented if the goods to be delivered are already stored close to the customer.
The process is so finely tuned today that in some cases even the capacities in the swap bodies of trucks are used as temporary storage space. This way even the street becomes a warehouse.
Ultimately, availability, seamless structures with accurately timed organization, adherence to deadlines and detailed communication will become more and more important in the future. This means that digitisation is also gaining ground. Even futuristic-sounding means, such as the use of drones or other fully automated delivery systems, are already being intensively researched and tested, because at the moment same-day delivery on a large scale is still characterised by one core problem: It is labor-intensive and therefore comparatively expensive.
[...] Large-scale same-day delivery [is] still characterised by one core problem: It is labor-intensive and therefore comparatively expensive.
Software-based management systems are already supporting at various points in the supply chain and ensuring both faster processes and cost efficiency.
Software-based management systems are already supporting and relieving providers at various points in the supply chain and ensure both faster processes and cost efficiency.
Since time is a central part of the service with same-day delivery, the situation becomes particularly critical within this supply chain if, for example, individual items cannot be found among thousands of moving packages. This is where video management systems in the transshipment warehouse and in the parcel depot develop their full potential. With their integrated, software-controlled data management and the ability to interpret data along the entire transport route, these solutions make the supply chain transparent. The intelligent software provides faster search results and saves valuable time, because with its help you can start your search for time-critical packages immediately. Information on the status and whereabouts of a shipment or parcel is available in real time. This is what enables the tracking for deliveries with tight time windows as well as the almost precise prediction of the delivery time even in the first place.
Today one can therefore assume that process automation through management systems will play an increasingly important role in the future not only in organisation and scheduling, but especially in the area of same-day delivery and optimisations on the last mile.
DIVIS solutions are already part of pilot projects involving the fast delivery concept.
More information on this topic
The following article is also part of our reports on the effects of the corona crisis on logistics:
CORONA CRISIS ACCELERATES STRUCTURAL CHANGE
Digital solutions support logistics companies in the competition for e-commerce partnerships
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