Filling out this information as completely as possible will help reduce the number of delayed and/or failed deliveries. The information as inputted here is what is passed on to the fleet.
The fields on the pick-up and drop-off fields are relatively self-explanatory, though it may help to be aware that pick-up and drop-off instructions are what the courier on that given order will see at the point of pick-up and drop-off. As such, it is helpful to input information that will aid the courier in completing the delivery quickly (“The pick-up point is inside the warehouse. Please enter door number 177 and turn right.”).
Schedule defines when a package is to be picked up and delivered. For orders created with the schedule as ‘Urgent’, this will mean the courier company the job is booked with will get the requested vehicle to the pickup point as soon as possible.
For scheduled orders, this is more nuanced. We allow input of four points in time:
- Pick Up window Start: the start time at which the courier may arrive at pick up
- Pick Up window End: the end time at which the courier may arrive at pick up
- Drop Off window Start: the start time of the drop off window given to customers
- Drop Off window End: the end time of the drop off window given to customers
We recommend when creating an order to define the scheduled time as follows:
- Equal customer slots: We recommend having the Drop Off windows mirroring the slot that has been provided to the end customer at the time of booking/purchase.
- Travel time: The driving time between stops shall be found using the Google Maps API. If not available, we recommend factoring in 8 minutes of drive time per mile.
- Safety margin: We recommend adding a safety margin of 10 minutes per stop (Pick Up + Drop Off = 20 minutes) to account for parking time, loading time, and traffic.
- Minimum slot: We recommend having slots of a minimum length of 30 minutes as driver precision frequently fluctuates.
Please note that not all of our fleet partners receive all 4 timestamps, please see a summary below:
- Receive all timestamps: Delivery Mates, Absolutely, Supper, Ecofleet, Pedivan, Genii, Brisqq, Gophr, Green Courier
- Receive Pick Up window Start and Drop Off window Start: GLH
- Receive Pick Up window Start only: Stuart, Ryde, Addison Lee, Crawfords