A new route planning technology to help optimise deliveries and meet unprecedented customer demand is now available to SMEs in Australia for free for a limited time, thanks to HERE, a global leader in location intelligence.
HERE WeGo Deliver enables businesses with a small fleet to operate their own efficient delivery service. By applying complex routing algorithms the fleet optimisation tool simplifies the process for multiple orders and drivers and helps reduce customer wait times while improving operational efficiency.
Christoph Herzig, Head of Fleet Applications at HERE said: “Manually organising and sequencing multiple delivery stops and drivers is time consuming, and the margin for human error is significant. HERE WeGo Deliver makes it simple for both the business owner and driver by enabling the uploading, optimising, viewing and dispatching of routes all through a web dashboard.”
Powered by the HERE WeGo mobile app, drivers receive their personalised delivery tour plan by clicking on a link issued by the delivery manager via email. They are then directed on their journey by voice-enabled navigation.
With no sign up or subscription fees at all, this free to use software has been created specifically by HERE as a way to give back to society and businesses, in response to the continued pandemic restrictions which have resulted in low or non-existent footfall for many SMEs, notes Daniel Antonello, Head of Oceania at HERE.
“Across the globe, businesses are being hamstrung by the economic impact of coronavirus and lack of foot traffic into store fronts, all of which means they are struggling to keep casual staff employed. At the same time, high service delivery fees and the limited availability of drivers is choking the system and making it as tough as it gets to meet this new consumer demand.”
With customers now seeking reliable and quick delivery of essential items, including food, medicine and work equipment, switching to delivery is a lifeline for smaller retail and hospitality businesses. However, many are struggling to meet this new demand and effectively serve their customers from their houses, apartments and offices, without bringing on delivery partners that take a sizeable cut.
“HERE WeGo Deliver gives SMEs the opportunity to meet the challenges of switching to a delivery model,” added Antonello. “This is something we hope will ultimately contribute to more small businesses coming out the other side of this crisis and keeping more staff on the books.”
SMEs in Australia are first in the world to gain access to the premium, enterprise-grade capability at no cost until the end of 2020, with the initiative set to roll out across various markets come May. To access HERE WeGo Deliver visit: www.here.com/wegodeliver
Owner of Sydney based café, Casual Mondays, and one of the pilot testers of HERE WeGo Deliver, Robert Reid said; “Before using the app, we were manually copying and sorting every delivery in our new grocery home delivery service. Since using HERE WeGo Deliver the admin involved for loading and organising our deliveries decreased significantly! From what took over 2 hours, now takes only 15 minutes.
The simplicity of exporting the orders from our online store straight to the mapping software has made the move to a delivery service so much easier for our business. The technology provides me an alternative solution to save on third party costs, and more time to focus on other business priorities that ensures I can get our meals out to more customers each delivery day.”
