Get carried away with deliveries on demand or be content with scheduled deliveries?

It might seem that in logistics there is only one path and that this is as simple as programming-deliver. Nothing could be further from reality, logistics encompasses a lot and since “a lot” is understood a multitude of types of operations, each with its own different requirements.

Next, we'll take an in-depth look at two of the most popular operations: on-demand deliveries and scheduled deliveries.

On-Demand Deliveries

On-demand deliveries, in English known as On Demand, are one of the most demanding operations in recent years, further boosting and strengthening the last mile.

On-demand deliveries cannot be planned, since they are operational and require a minimum of time from the time the order is placed until the delivery is made.

It's Friday night and you want to treat yourself with food Fast food. You call the restaurant and place the order. As soon as the food is ready, the delivery person will take your order home. This is an example of on-demand delivery.

With the example mentioned above, it is easy to see that at certain times when the restaurant has peak times when receiving orders, it will be difficult to cope with the growing demand, since making several deliveries on demand simultaneously is really complex.

Therefore, when delivering on demand, certain metrics should be taken into account, such as hours or days of the week if we follow the example of the restaurant (it will be essential to observe if orders increase on weekends and after 8:00 p.m.) and, on the other hand, on Mondays at noon they decrease). These metrics will help us manage our own resources, since this way we can predict if we will need to increase the number of delivery people hired on weekend evenings and decrease it during the week.

Scheduled deliveries

Scheduled deliveries are shipments scheduled in advance for a specific time interval.

In this case, and as an example, we could transport ourselves to our wedding day. We get in touch with a tailor to make us a tailor-made suit. After several tests our suit is ready. Now, we only have to tell our tailor what day and at what time we will pick up the suit so that it is ready for the link.

As seen with the example, in scheduled deliveries, a service is offered in advance with the customer so that the order arrives on a specific day and in a specific time slot. The customer selects the date and time interval in which he wants to receive his order.

This mode of delivery allows customers to monitor their shipment in real time, so they will feel connected at all times and will be able to control both the status of the order, its location and the exact time of delivery.

According to the portal Ibertransit, scheduled deliveries are an increasingly common service in large cities where deliveries are made within a maximum period of 48 hours and with a zero delivery cost for the customer. Despite the increase in on-demand deliveries, it should be noted that it is not yet an extended service, since they represent 20% of total deliveries.

Make deliveries on demand vs. scheduled deliveries

The way in which we operate on demand and scheduled deliveries is completely different. In fact, so much so, that it is very difficult for companies to be able to carry out both operations simultaneously, since the requirements are very different.

The main difference between on-demand deliveries and scheduled deliveries is that the latter allow you to add different customers in the same vehicle and, therefore, be more efficient in optimizing time and resources. On the other hand, in on-demand deliveries, it is so dynamic that it is very difficult to be able to add several deliveries on the same route.

As mentioned above, in on-demand deliveries, the planning process requires a predictive pretext on which to base these demand predictions with data from previous dates. With these predictions, an approximate number of vehicles needed or the minimum inventory level required will be established.

In the case of scheduled deliveries, companies give customers the flexibility to schedule their own deliveries. In this sense, the predictive element ceases to make sense, since the number of deliveries to be made is known in advance. In scheduled deliveries, the inputs that must be planned are the number of vehicles needed to carry out the deliveries, which orders to group (batch deliveries) or in what order the orders should be delivered (make optimized routes).

At SmartMonkey, we are constantly developing to empower the last mile. Our customers can more effectively determine where, when and how they want to receive their shipments. Decide for yourself with our free trial period.

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