Can delivery intuition do better than algorithm intention?
The at home delivery experience has two sides. The customer side and the courier side. Most everyone can relate to the customer side. That is the side that has all the fun. The other side is the courier side, and for the courier, fun is a timely delivery completion. Or a short and well paying, delivery stack. The courier has a chance to boost the earnings when stacks are at play.
With this in mind, delivery stacks are more than just random pairings. There is an intention behind them. In fact, they come from the queue in specific ways. This isn’t surprising for the experienced courier. Furthermore, the pickup locations will be close in proximity. If not the pickup locations, then the drop-off locations will be close to each other. It is much more than random.
In a crew environment, there is an expediter. This is usually a member of the merchant’s staff. For example, a manager, or inside driver. Decisions about stacks, or doubled up deliveries, are the expediter’s job. Furthermore, the expediter needs basic knowledge of the delivery area. In fact, an in-depth knowledge of the delivery area is best for an expediter.
Delivery Intuition
It’s the expediter that combines delivery opportunities. Particularly in a crew environment. The expediter needs an in-depth knowledge of the delivery area. And some experience with the same. That particular combination is one of the best for the growth of intuition. Especially delivery intuition. Experienced couriers develop this as a skill. It’s the reason why they are seldom sitting in traffic.
An experienced courier tries to anticipate the unexpected. Avoiding the chance of a traffic jam is the same as avoiding the jam. If it were to happen. This might be intuition. Or maybe it’s luck. However, it is not an algorithm. There is a difference. One is intuition, the other is intent. Along those lines, a courier knows whether a stack is profitable. Or not. Experienced couriers know it quicker.
It’s the experience that fuels the intuition. Similarly, experience can be written down. Then, converted to code. And finally, written into the algorithm. Next, the machine will compute. From there the queue is checked and the best stack is pulled. Chances are it looks good to the algorithm because of the proximity of the pickup locations. However, the courier sees a different story.
Algorithm Intention
The courier sees a different story. It is a tale of the melting ice cream cone. Let’s take a closer look at those two pickup locations. One is an Ice Cream store. The courier is to pick up ice cream of some kind. The other pickup location is a well known Sushi restaurant. The Sushi restaurant is notorious for long waits for the pickup. Therefore, the courier will likely have to go to the Ice Cream pickup first.
The Ice Cream pickup is geographically closer than the Sushi place. Therefore it’s ice cream first. Additionally, and ironically, it’s one of the hottest days of the year. If that ice cream has to sit and wait, it doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell. That algorithm’s intent is to pair a couple of close by deliveries. The sun’s intent is to melt that ice cream. The courier’s delivery intuition says pump the brakes.
For the experienced courier, all of that takes place in a split second. It might be faster for the algorithm, but at least an ice cream was saved from a horrible melting experience. Furthermore, delivery intuition wins again. More intuition examples in upcoming articles. Until then, stay safe out there.
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