A bridge delivery

A courier can count on unusual deliveries after some time on the job. They could happen any time. And do. The experienced courier is familiar with many of the ways any delivery can get sideways. The idea is to stop it before it does.

If this sounds like the wise old saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure¹, it is. In fact, that saying is near and dear to an effective delivery strategy. Well, maybe not dear, however it is near. A delivery strategy is something a courier develops over the course of time. Through experience.

The experience is gained through working an area and learning it. In fact, that is an advantage the courier can use on every delivery. For example, local road construction. When the courier works the same route daily things like road projects are not a surprise. Surprise road construction can cause traffic and therefore delays.

With this in mind, the solo courier that sticks to a regular zone learns that zone. Furthermore, the additional intel goes into saving time. Such as routes with fewer red lights. Or with bridges out. Not every route will have a bridge out. However, most routes have a red light. Or two.

Furthermore, when something as large as a bridge creates a detour the chances are good there will be some miles involved. Especially because of the unknowns. Not the least of which is where the drop-off location is. In relation to one side of the bridge or the other. In the example below the bridge that is out is just before the pin location on the map.

Additionally, the arrow marked with the number ‘1’ is where the actual bridge is out. It isn’t possible to determine this from the GPS map. The arrow marked with the number two is the road from the other side, or the flipside. The long red line with the number three, is the work-around route.

Although the delivery had to be retraced and taken via the work-around route, it was still a completion. Therefore, the delay didn’t become a poor customer experience. Alerting the drop-off location of the delay was the first step in mitigating the effect of the delay.

The right side is the flipside

In this example, the courier selected the closest route for the attempted completion. It was a judgement call. If the bridge delivery had been on the side that was selected first it would have been a quicker completion.

However, it is sometimes on the flipside. And knowing this ahead of time, is a benefit to the courier. Therefore, the more familiar a courier is with a zone, the greater the chances for improved earnings. Stay safe out there.

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A bridge delivery – The right side is the flipside

Quote from Benjamin Franklin ↩︎

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