Don’t be the ‘Parcel-in the Hedge’ story this Christmas – There’s an app for that

Every Christmas we all know that delivery issues will again capture the headlines as companies are accused of failing to deliver on time, or leaving items in bins and hedges.

Not only are customers likely to switch to another retailer following a bad delivery experience, but they increasingly examine not only delivery options, but which delivery companies a retailer uses.

More than a million people view tweets about customer service every week. According to one magazine survey, roughly 80% of those tweets are negative or critical in nature. And that means consumers are becoming very aware of the reputations of some delivery companies.

Professor Richard Wilding is an expert in e-commerce logistics. He says: “You’ve got to make sure they do it well. If they do, it will build loyalty and generate more business. But if you do it badly and use poor couriers it will cost your business an awful lot and customers won’t come back.”

But to use an Apple slogan ‘There’s an app for that!’ – and in other sectors, particularly those such as leisure and hospitality, where compliance is a major issue, we use our own app with great success. And there’s no reason why an app wouldn’t be just as valuable in the logistics sector. See what you think…

A lot of firms use unscreened staff – a remarkable risk but they do it. From Uber to a freelance delivery driver – do you really know who they are? You make one mistake with one particular supplier or driver and you have lost …well, certainly the contract but maybe a whole lot more depending on what they have done.

It works both ways – do selfemployed drivers always know what is required of them? Because of the way the security app works the person would firstly have to register with you when they apply online.

They would then download the app to their phone – so already you know who they are, date, time stamp, GPS location so on. Now that you know a bit about this person you can track them – and then if they start working a 9am you can actually see by tracking them at exactly what time they left, what time they arrived and so on.

It could be geared up to check their licence is valid and their insurance is valid and they are who they say they are… in summary, a fantastic asset for the industry.

Taking this further, with constant updating you can scan barcodes, you can take a picture of an item being delivered, you can even check the driver is OK if they’re in a high-risk area. This works exactly like we use the app to check a guard. If you say to the guard that every half hour he or she checks in to confirm that they are ok, then if they don’t the app automatically starts recording and also starts talking, asking ‘If you’re ok, log in now.’

So from a safety point of view it’s brilliant, for who you are and where you are its brilliant, for integrity it’s brilliant – and it can record as well.

If you run a temporary workforce or a transit work force and you need, say, 100 people to drive tomorrow, then you can’t distribute body cameras fast enough – but downloading apps is dead easy and it’s done in seconds – they’re fully functional and ready to go! The drivers simply look at where they have to go, what they have to pick up or drop off, the distance between… How long it took is right there in the phones and on your system at base.

So for me, for an operator with a very hard job to predict working schedules – where it can change from 1 to 100 in 24 hours – the app is the most practical. Tell me if you agree!

Cusack Gordon, Managing Director of Leisure Sec plc and sister company Global Focus.

LEISURE SEC PLC

www.leisuresec.plc.uk