The most notable competitors in the space are Amazon’s Project Wing that has a drone capable of flying 50 miles per hour with a weight capacity of 5lb and Alphabet’s X lab project.  The United Kingdom and Australia have been test markets for these drone delivery companies.

United States Government Prepares to Approve “Beyond-Line-Of-Sight” Drone Flights

Recently, there has been some chatter about the United States government preparing to approve a drone program that will allow drones to fly “beyond-line-of-sight”.  Looser restrictions like this is helpful for the drone delivery space and much needed for totally autonomous flying delivery drones.

Zipline has flown over 4,000 flights in Rwanda since 2016 with plans on increasing their efforts.  Plans to increase daily flight operations from 50 flights per day to 500 flights per day is underway.  Using new methods such as computer-vision technology will help with pre-flight checks and allow Zipline to increase the number of flights.  More on Zipline’s medial supply deliveries in Rwanda.

The Future of Automation

Automation is exciting and can lead to a future full of delivery drones flying around in the sky and making deliveries within minutes of an order being placed; however, as we’ve learned from the recent incident in Arizona where Uber’s self driving car allegedly ran over a pedestrian and shortly after the company announced a pullback on it’s testing operations may suggest that many hurdles still exist.  This could cause a step backwards for totally autonomous delivery drones in the air and on the ground.

Available Delivery Software for Delivery Companies

Delivery software companies like Zippykind put the automation into the workflow between an order being placed and a driver arriving with the order by empowering drivers and dispatch operators with advanced logistics technology.

Door to door package theft has been a growing problem ever since home delivery has been in existence. I’m sure you’ve seen a Youtube video or two of a home surveillance camera catching a thief in the act. Most people aren’t home during the normal delivery business hours which seems to have led to massive door theft. The solution up until this point has been for delivery drivers to leave the package at the door.

Alternative Delivery Solutions

Many courier companies and startups have tried to solve this issue.  There once was a new startup on Shark Tank that tried to solve this problem by placing a secure box outside the recipients home and drivers would then be charged with the task to leave the package within the secure box.  While this is a creative idea, convincing millions of home owners to buy a box is quite a feat to overcome.

Amazon’s Delivery Solutions

Amazon aims to resolve this problem by offering in-home deliveries. The program is called Amazon Key and is available only to Amazon Prime members. It’s important to note that in order to enroll in this program, you will need to purchase a kit for $250 which includes a surveillance camera and a key.  The surveillance camera will be triggered and will notify the home owner when the delivery driver arrives to your door with the package.  The customer can then watch the delivery driver drop off the package.  The delivery driver will use the key provided by Amazon to enter the customers residence.

What’s Next For Home Delivery and Delivery Software

For years Amazon has led the way in home deliveries and it will be exciting to see what they come up with next.  Perhaps a flying drone or driver-less car is in the works.

Automation is a key component to quicker and more efficient delivery transactions.  Amazon may have solved the issue of door theft and improved key factors on the frontend of the transaction, but have they solved the problem of automation and route optimization which are backend problems?  After all, a human will need to deliver the package to the door which drives up the delivery cost because the humans’ wages need to be accounted for.

Sophisticated delivery software can help improve communication between the customer and the driver and can increase the route optimization for dispatch and the driver.  Zippykind has created a delivery management software that offers dispatch operators total oversight over their fleet of drivers and offers drivers advanced route optimization tools so that each driver can get to where they need to go quickly and can update customers and dispatch throughout the delivery process.  If you operate a delivery business and are wondering how you can keep up with titans like Amazon, then consider Zippykind as your delivery management software.

We have now made it easier than ever to import your data into your Zippykind account.  Introducing Uploader Templates, an easy to use drag and drop data field mapping feature.  Easily import your data into your Zippykind account without changing the CSV/Excel column structure using our new Uploader Templates feature. Drag and drop the data fields that you want to import and your done, it’s that easy!

Let’s say you process your orders through your POS (Point of Sale) software program or you use an ecommerce store that isn’t able to connect to our API, using our Uploader feature makes it really easy to import your daily, weekly and monthly deliveries.  Just pick which data fields you want to import and save the template, now you are set and wont need to change anything about your CSV/Excel file.

How Compatible is the Uploader with other Zippykind Features?

If you are wondering whether you will still be able to use the Map Zones feature with the new Uploader, the answer is Yes.  As you will see in the demonstration video below, all deliveries that are imported into Zippykind are run through our Map Zones feature.  So whether you want to automatically assign your delivery drivers based on their respective zone, proximity to the delivery destination or availability, all is possible with our new uploader feature.

Zippykind’s Delivery Software Uploader Video Demonstration

If you are a health nut or just enjoy the convenience of having healthy food delivered to your doorstep then you’ve probably heard of HelloFresh.  HelloFresh, a Berlin-based meal delivery company operating out of the United States has recently announced its plans to take the company public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

A few factors could help shape the way we look at the potential success of failure of HelloFresh as a public company.  A rival of HelloFresh, Blue Apron took its company public last June and has seen a bearish response from investors.  Another important factor to consider is Amazons recent acquisition of Whole Foods.  Whole Foods as a healthy food delivery alternative to HelloFresh could threaten the market share of HelloFresh.  Additionally, Albertsons, another potential competitor of HelloFresh recently acquired Plated, a “chef prepared” meal delivery service for $200 million dollars.  The meal delivery space is getting crowded, but does HelloFresh still have a fighting chance?

There is no doubting the United States fascination with healthy food and meal delivery is definitely on the rise, but I think HelloFresh will need to expand into more foreign markets to see a bullish response from investors.  HelloFresh says that it wants to raise 250 million to 300 million euros from its offering.  The raise could be used by HelloFresh to enter new markets and establish itself as the go-to healthy meal delivery service in these markets.

Fast Growing Demand for Home Delivery

CEO Dominik Richter has said that taking the company public is the next logical step and I would have to agree.  HelloFresh has been increasingly burning through money the past few years on marketing to new customers.  HelloFresh is just one of many meal delivery services in the United States and their fate as a public company is still undecided, but there is no doubting the fast growing demand of home delivery.  Zippykind, a Saas delivery software company operating out of the United States provides a software platform for delivery drivers, dispatch operators and customers to communicate effectively and for deliveries to be dispatch automatically and with ease.  Learn more about the Zippykind Delivery Software platform.

Every delivery business needs a delivery software that caters to the needs of the delivery business.  With that, requires tools that allows seamless communication between dispatch operators, drivers and customers.   Using our notifications manager, you can autonomously send your customers notifications with status updates on their delivery.  Now we offer direct messaging to your drivers through our interactive dashboard which makes it easier than ever for your dispatch operators to get a quick note out to your delivery drivers.

Send an Instant Message to an Entire Delivery Team

We make it easy to send your delivery drivers or an entire team of drivers a message.  Dispatch operators can select a driver on the dashboard map and with the click of a button send a message to a delivery driver.  Running a a delivery company can be hectic and good communication can make the difference between a 1 hour delivery and a 2 hour delivery.  Your drivers will instantly receive the message through a push notification.

Perhaps you want to send an entire team the same message, simply click on Group Messages from the main menu, then select the team and type in a message and your done.  This option makes it very easy to send a message to a lot of delivery drivers at once.

Delivery Software Built to Drastically Improve Communication In Your Delivery Business

You can track the delivery status of each group message and single message sent out by your dispatch operators through our Logs Manager.  The Zippykind Delivery Software is packed with helpful features that will drastically improve you delivery business’s communication and automate your entire delivery logistical process.

Shopify

Delivery Roots and Direction

For years delivery companies used large bulky GPS units and spreadsheets to track their delivery orders, but with new innovations in technology, services like Zippykind have taken billion dollar technology and have offered it to small and medium sized businesses.  You don’t need to be a Pizza Hut, Edible Arrangements, FedEx or Uber to run your business with top industry technology.  From order processing, dispatching to driver tracking and customer notifications, Zippykind has bundled all of the most important parts of the delivery process and is offering it to all sized businesses.

A Hands-Free Delivery Process

Imagine a totally hands-free process.  Normally when your store receives an order online, someone from your store has to copy and paste the order information into a GPS unit or a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) and then provide that information to the delivery driver.  With Zippykind, you can easily connect your Shopify store to your Zippykind account, so that every order that your store receives, will automatically send all the delivery information to your delivery driver and can also notify your customer.  The easiest way to connect your Shopify store to your Zippykind account is through Zapier.  After a lot of contemplation, you may ask yourself, “but what if I don’t know which driver I want to assign the delivery ticket to?”.  That is a good question and we have an answer.

Setup Map Zones to Automatically Assign New Delivery Tickets To Drivers

Another step towards totally automating your delivery business is to setup Map Zones.  Map Zones is a feature offered through Zippykind that lets you draw zones on a map once and assign drivers and/or fees to those zones so that all future deliveries are automatically either assigned to a new driver and/or imposed a delivery fee.

Watch our demonstration video below to see how easy it is to go from spending 30 minutes or more dispatching deliveries to a totally hands-free dispatching experience.  Learn more about all of our amazing features or sign up for a free account.

• On-Demand Delivery
• Route Delivery

On-Demand Delivery

Let’s say your delivery company deliveries ice cream and you have 4 delivery trucks driving around in the field waiting for their next delivery destination from dispatch.  Additionally, let’s say your dispatch operator just received a phone call and an order was placed so your dispatch operator sends the delivery details to the delivery driver through Zippykind’s Manual Dispatch form.  This is an example of an on-demand delivery scenario and is very common for on-hand products that don’t need to be tailored toward the end consumer.

Route Delivery

Alternatively, let’s say your company receives 20 orders and each order has an assortment of products that need to be delivered to the end consumer.  Or let’s say, you own a water delivery company and your customers are setup on recurring delivery, these are common scenarios of a route delivery business modal.  If your company has customers who need items/products delivered on a recurring basis, you should really check out our Recurring Subscriptions feature which lets you easily setup recurring deliveries very easily.  If your company needs route planning tools to help your dispatch operators find the shortest route for your delivery drivers, please watch the video below.  You will see how easy it is to create new routes by simply clicking on the markers on the map.  Your delivery drivers can also find the best route by using our route optimization feature within the drivers application.

Zippykind’s Delivery Software Route Planner

As you can see from the below screenshot, Zippykind’s delivery software offers a html editor to make customizing your notification templates as easy as possible, while offering you flexibility in how you would like to style your notification messages.

By using “tags” within the notification template boxes, you can include customer specific information which gives each message sent out to your customers, a nice personal touch.  You shouldn’t have to worry about calling each customer with updates on their delivery or even worse, leaving it up to the driver who is already busy enough with the delivery.  Zippykind takes care of all that communication for you without you ever having to touch your keyboard or make a call.

Zippykind Offers A Variety of Communication Options

• SMS text messsaging
• Email
• Push notifications

In response to the increasingly growing demand for home delivery, Zippykind has created a software that offers smaller companies the ability to run their business like FedEx and offer their customers an “Uber-like” experience.  There is no reason why billion dollar technology should only be reserved for large corporations.

Take a look at the array of features offered by Zippykind.  Zippykind offers an easy to use solution for dispatch operators, drivers and consumers.  Improving communication between the consumer and your company along with creating as much automation as possible has been a priority of Zippykind since day one.  Consumers can receive SMS text messages and driver’s can call or text the consumer with delivery details.  Dispatch operators can send delivery driver’s push notifications to the Zippykind driver’s app with details about the delivery.  The Zippykind platform offers a ton of flexibility and options.  Zippykind is built to handle On-demand and Route Delivery.

If your company currently offers delivery services and you are struggling to keep your routes, drivers and orders organized, then Zippykind is definitely right for you.  Much of the Zippykind platform is automated to make assigning new delivery tickets and communicating with customers as easy as possible.  Zippykind offers a free account which gives you 50 free deliveries per month.  You can see more on the Zippykind pricing and the paid account options by clicking here!

• Create team account.
• Create driver account.
• Add products through the CSV Uploader.
• Add products manually.
• Create delivery ticket.
• Track delivery driver.
• Driver delivery load.
• Change dashboard map calendar day.
• Login to driver’s app.
• Update dispatch operator and customer with delivery progress.
• Find driver’s GPS positing during status update of delivery ticket.
• Export delivery ticket and order information as a PDF.

You will be taken through the Setup Account module at the beginning of the video.  When you log into your Zippykind account for the first time, you will see the Setup Account module.  If you close the Setup Account module, you can re-open it by going to the settings page.