Talking Supply Chain: The last-mile tech advantage

If you’ve didn’t receive an order, or a delivery provider showed up at your home hours after they were scheduled to, it may not be the shipper’s or even the delivery provider’s fault. It may be their technology.

Last-mile delivery technology has come a long way in the past decade but is still imperfect. In fact, it is far from it. A successful last-mile delivery, particularly a big and bulky delivery that may require installation, depends on various technologies working together to make the delivery seamless. It starts with the order platform and ends with the routing system.

“Coordinating these windows with optimized delivery routes is challenging because of traffic, weather conditions, and unforeseen delays. These are all can impact the scheduling and leading to potential dissatisfaction,” explained Srinivas Chakravaram, IT product lead at Hub Group. “And apart from this first challenge [is] the next challenge, which is installation requirements. This is also pretty important because many large items need to be installed or assembled upon delivery. These require a skilled technician at all locations where any service provider offers last-mile services.”

 Chakravaram joined the Talking Supply Chain podcast to discuss why companies should be paying more attention to their technology stack, and what technologies should be part of that stack for successful last-mile operations.

“Installation can take varying amounts of time depending on the complexities of the task, which can affect the scheduling of subsequent deliveries,” he said. “For example, if we are installing a refrigerator and our ISP or technician arrives on the site and realizes that additional plumbing or electric work is needed or specific parts are required. This will extend the installation time and this, in turn, impacts the other scheduled deliveries.”

Chakravaram noted that having the right technologies in place can quickly address these issues, communicate with customers, and adjust scheduling if needed.

To hear more of the conversation, listen to the Talking Supply Chain podcast.

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