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Contactless Delivery in a Delivery Business

by Troy Searle,
Jun 20, 2022
An employee in a logistics setting scans a new package for tracking and processing, demonstrating efficient warehouse operations
An employee in a logistics setting scans a new package for tracking and processing, demonstrating efficient warehouse operations

Improve driver and consumer safety with contactless deliveries.

COVID-19 has become a major risk to driver and consumer safety, hasn’t it? 

The trouble is, it also led us all into a delivery boom which requires more drivers to be at more doors every single day.

You’re responsible for your staff’s safety, as well as making sure your business isn’t contributing to the wider spread of disease. So how can you do that?

Let’s look closely at how you can use an automated TMS to go contactless and improve driver and consumer safety. 

The icing on top?

You’ll speed up your deliveries, they’ll feel less stressful and you’ll lower costs all round. 

What is contactless delivery?

Contactless delivery is pretty self explanatory. It’s a form of delivery where the driver and consumer have no physical contact at the doorstep.

What started in response to safety concerns over COVID-19 transmission is quickly becoming the new standard in delivery. According to Deloitte, the demand for contactless (and on-time) deliveries is expected to stick around long after lockdowns have lifted.

So, to improve safety during COVID-19 and to win repeat business in a post-Covid world, you should make contactless delivery a priority.

The good news? When you use a trusted software provider and have the right setup for your business, going contactless is actually pretty simple day to day. Let’s dive in.

4 reasons to make your deliveries contactless

There are significant benefits to be felt in your business when you implement an automated TMS. In a nutshell: you’ll save time, lower costs and move your freight faster. Let’s look closely at the four major reasons to go contactless and have a COVID-safe plan for deliveries.

Improve driver and consumer safety

We all know about social distancing by now. Even with vaccinations and public health measures, we’ll be dealing with COVID-19 for a long time to come. Australian health experts estimate it will be years before things look a bit more like they did pre-Covid. 

Eliminating physical contact is the safest possible thing you can do. It will protect your drivers, the consumers and your business. Contactless delivery also lowers the risk of temporarily closing parts of your business due to exposure to COVID-19.

Deliver faster and lower your costs

Body: Seeing delays creep into your run because someone isn’t home is really common. Instead of backtracking to drop the parcel somewhere else, you can simply upload photo proof of delivery and off you go. 

So long as you’ve communicated properly with the receiver and given an accurate ETA, it mostly doesn’t matter whether the person is at home or not.

This has proven really popular, with 70% of Americans wanting a contactless alternative to proof of delivery signatures according to a recent survey by Anyline.

It means your run will be faster, the buyer has more flexibility and your business can make more deliveries.

You can go paperless too

Imagine… No more lost paperwork and no more waiting for it to be returned to know what’s happening.

What used to take hours or sometimes even days, is now a matter of taking a photo and adding it to the app. Your delivery management software will then automatically send the photo and GPS coordinates as proof of delivery.

Digitise and automate your operations

When you leave paper POD behind and track delivery digitally, you improve efficiency and customer confidence. It’s seamless, paperless and gives real-time updates on delivery progress over the whole delivery cycle.

But even more than that, it gives you complete control of your delivery operations.

It means you can streamline and automate your back-end processes, and give your operational staff the tools they need to get the job done efficiently and accurately. 100% visibility is a reality.

Reporting and future planning becomes easy too, with sophisticated data at your fingertips. Use it to inform your decisions.

Impressive, isn’t it? Now let’s look at how you can make all of this possible.

How to implement contactless deliveries using an automated TMS (it’s as simple as 1, 2, 3…)

The only real way to achieve fully contactless deliveries is to use an automated TMS like TransVirtual. So how does it actually work? 

Let’s go through the processes involved. 

We’re going to start at the beginning so you can see how everything is interconnected. 

1. Scan the day’s deliveries into the system and optimise your routes

Once you’ve scanned your deliveries into the app, just press one button and the software will build your run for you. You can be reassured knowing your drivers are taking the most efficient route possible. 

Make sure you find a TMS that can also re-optimise on the run. (We all know how often things change in a typical day.)

2. Use real-time tracking

Once your drivers are on the road, track their progress in real time. Not only does this mean you always have up-to-date ETAs, but also that you don’t need to interrupt your driver to answer customer enquiries. It’s all there at a glance for your entire team. You can even set up automatic notifications to go out to the consumer based on how the driver is tracking.

3. Send photo proof and electronic POD

Now comes the contactless part. Your driver simply delivers the parcel to the door and takes a photo of it there. 

As soon as your driver has uploaded the photo proof into their mobile app, the customer is automatically notified of proof of delivery by email. And again, every step is instantly visible to your dispatch team and other staff who need to know.

You can see this is only possible when you have your system set up so that it’s all connected electronically.

Of course, nothing goes to plan 100% of the time. Sometimes there’ll be mistakes made when loading, or the goods are damaged. Make sure your TMS allows drivers to make notes and take photos of damage or other issues.

Final thoughts

When the pandemic started, going contactless was mostly motivated by safety to avoid transmission. But it’s fast becoming the new standard, so even ignoring COVID-19 concerns, it’s worthwhile getting this set up.

Not only will you improve driver and consumer safety, you’ll deliver faster, lower your costs and enjoy your business more.

We know that choosing the right TMS for your business can be tough. And you know what? Implementing it can be even more stressful. That’s why we wrote the essential guide to implementing a TMS.

We hope this guide to contactless delivery has given you clarity, helping you to see that although it’s a lot of change, once done, it’s all very smooth. If you have questions or want to talk about how it might work for you, get in touch. Our friendly local support team are here to help.