Last Mile Delivery Logistics Explained: Problems & Solutions

With passing time, more people are looking towards e-commerce in place of visiting the physical stores. Consumers are now smart and they do not just want online shopping. But they also wish to have other benefits too such as faster delivery and delivery at extreme locations too. While a few years ago, Amazon was dominating the e-commerce market, today, there are also many others coming up in the race. 

While the number of such service providers is increasing, new technologies are also coming up to help these service providers to please the customers. But one major problem that is still haunting many of the e-commerce service providers. This is the challenge of offering last mile delivery. This challenge of delivering items to the doorstep of the customers and that on the same day is a major factor in this race. 

Last Mile Delivery Explained

So, what happens when a customer places an order with an eCommerce vendor? 

The vendor or the client contacts the logistics department and then dispatches the item for the customer. The product covers a journey of several miles through different means of transport. Also, it may land up in different warehouses in transit. Finally, it reaches the final destination that is the doorstep of the customer. So, this process where the products reach the customer’s doorstep from the warehouse is the last mile delivery. 

Often this process is time-consuming because the delivery person has to individually visit the customer’s house to deliver the item. Also, this is the reason that this particular process also is cost-consuming too. 

Problems in Last Mile Delivery

When you see the notification appeared of Out for Delivery, you start expecting the delivery quite soon. But this does not happen always. There are a number of times when you receive the delivery faster while there are other times when you may receive the package after several hours of the notification. 

So, why does this happen? 

This is because when the delivery person is out for delivery, he is not just out with your single package. He has got several packages with him that he delivers en-route. If your destination appears first, then you get your package soon and vice versa. 

Thus, this process incurs not just time but also a high cost. Thus, there are many times when you have to pay for delivery also. If you are paying for high for delivery, one reason here is that the person comes straight from teh warehouse with your package, without stopping anywhere else. 

But now maximum customers wish to have faster last mile delivery India and that too without paying charges for delivery. This is a major problem that many of the eCommerce brands are tackling. Hence, the pressure is on the logistics companies too. 

What is the Solution?

Technology is advancing with each passing day. Hence, experts are continuously in the process of finding a solution to several issues and situations. One such solution is available for the problem of last mile delivery too. It is the process of crowdsourcing.

So, what is crowdsourcing?

It is basically a process in which more than one local services providers come together to fulfill a single goal. Professionals have found that this is one of the most cost-efficient and also lesser time-consuming methods in logistics. For example, the brands can tie-up with the local logistics partners who can use their own vehicles to deliver items from one common warehouse to different customers in an area. There has been also news lately of where the logistics companies may partner with the cab services such as Uber and others to complete the delivery on time and without spending much money. 

When the customer is not ready to pay the delivery charges and they also wish to get the delivery faster, the entire cost burden comes on the logistics and the eCommerce company. It is not always possible to bear this cost, especially when the item to be delivered is not of much expense. Hence, the companies need to find out some alternatives through which they can deliver the items as per the convenience of the customers without bearing the cost burden. 

By now there are already many such logistics companies that are offering the option of on-demand delivery. The integration of such features helps in saving time and effort as this removes the option of delivery attempts. Also, this eliminates the risks of theft or fraudulence. 

Conclusion

Technology is evolving and there are more options paving their way to provide an even smarter lifestyle to humans. The introduction of robots for the delivery of items has already made the news. Though it is still in the vision, it will be soon enough when customers will actually see robots bringing in their products. So, while the last mile delivery India is noticing some issues, the new technologies have already started plating solutions for such problems.