Increasing income through managing a motorcycle courier service
In previous articles, we discussed the importance of managing restaurant couriers. We dissected the food delivery process from the kitchen to the customer's doorstep. In this article, we intend to focus on the main factor in managing restaurant couriers, which is the couriers themselves! Specifically, the motorcycle couriers. First, we want to see why the job of a motorcycle courier is important, and then examine the problems that motorcycle couriers face, the reasons and factors that cause couriers to be dissatisfied with their jobs, and finally, see what solutions exist to improve the conditions for couriers. Stay with us.
The Importance of Motorcycle Couriers
The main advantage that motorcycle couriers and, in general, the use of motor vehicles can have is reducing travel time. In this hectic and overwhelming traffic, everyone is looking for a way to reach their destination as quickly as possible. In these circumstances, motorcycle couriers are the best choice. Thanks to applications like AloPeyk, SnappBox, and others, a motorcycle courier is at your disposal in a fraction of a minute for sending your parcel. According to statistics announced by the police and city council, about 3.5 million motorcycles are in circulation in the capital. Of this number, about 600,000 motorcycles commute daily to District 12 (the Tehran market area). Motorcyclists appear in various forms in the city, alongside busy streets or in front of metro stations for passenger pickup, in the market area for transporting goods, restaurant couriers who deliver food and orders to people, and so on. But, we come to the main topic of this article! What factors exist that cause most couriers working in organizations to be dissatisfied with their jobs? What solutions are there for managing couriers?
Problems of Motorcycle Couriers
Here we outline the problems that couriers face in their work:
- Lack of proper organization
- Lack of insurance services
- Inadequate performance evaluation of couriers
- Problems arising from non-optimized destination routes
- Delayed settlements
Each of the issues mentioned above can individually reduce your organization's productivity. Often, businesses that use couriers in their operations need to deliver a product or order purchased by the customer, such as florists, online stores, restaurants, and so on. Managing couriers in any organization and business is a challenging and difficult process. Many organizations do not have any specific plan or process for this issue. This causes couriers to not feel good about their jobs.
Case Study of Motorcycle Courier Problems
1-Lack of Proper Organization
Motorcycle couriers working as restaurant couriers, florists, and online stores often become troublesome due to the lack of proper organization. To better understand this issue, consider the problems that online stores have recently been grappling with. Couriers' arbitrary behavior with customers, not calling the customer when they arrive at the location, and issues of this kind all reflect the lack of a specific organization for couriers.
2-Lack of Insurance Services
These days, with the increase in healthcare service tariffs, the need for insurance coverage for every individual is necessary and essential. Many couriers working for various organizations and businesses are not covered by insurance. Companies like AloPeyk and SnappBox, which are among the largest online courier applications, do not insure their motorcycle couriers.
3-Inadequate Performance Evaluation of Motorcycle Couriers
Every organization needs to assess its employees' performance by defining indicators to rank its factors. We talked in detail about key indicators and how to define them. To assess the performance of motorcycle couriers and staff working outside our organization, we also need to consider a process to rank our motorcycle couriers. In this way, we can give incentives to the courier with the best score, which increases productivity and encourages our couriers, resulting in better feedback from our customers.
4-Problems Arising from Non-Optimized Destinations
Often, our couriers may not be familiar enough with the destination route. For example, most restaurants in Tehran are ready to send customer orders to all parts of Tehran to increase customer satisfaction. Suppose a restaurant is located in western Tehran and wants to send a customer's order to eastern Tehran. Naturally, the motorcycle courier delivering the customer's order is not sufficiently familiar with the destination route. As a result, when the customer's order is delivered, it no longer has the necessary quality, which causes the customer's perception of us to become negative. To avoid such problems, it is better to use software that allows our couriers to easily have the optimized route on their phones. This not only reduces travel time but also saves on their fuel consumption.
5-Delayed Settlements
Well, we come to the main point. Settling accounts and paying the motorcycle courier. Most businesses dealing with motorcycle couriers choose a fixed and specific process for settling with them. For example, some settle on a commission basis, some on a fixed amount, and others based on the number of orders completed in a day, week, or month. The main problem with each of the mentioned methods is the lack of transparency in payments. For example, a restaurant that settles with its courier based on the number of orders may not have an accurate report of the number of orders delivered. Or consider a florist that settles with its motorcycle courier based on the amount of productive working hours. How can courier management calculate the amount of productive hours the courier was on a mission and settle based on that? The problems mentioned are only a small part of the issues and challenges that couriers and even business managers dealing with motorcycle couriers face. Turning to technology and applications like Logiico can be useful in reducing costs and improving the issues raised.
Conclusion
Managing motorcycle couriers is a difficult and costly task. Managers of various businesses such as restaurants, florists, and online stores that work with motorcycle couriers to deliver their products need to have a specific plan and process to manage and solve the problems they face. Lack of proper organization, lack of insurance, inadequate performance evaluation, insufficient familiarity with routes, and delayed settlements were only a small part of the problems couriers face. Addressing and solving these problems can greatly help increase productivity and boost the sales of our organization's products.
