Home delivery potential dissappoints

The future of home delivery Internet shopping and home-delivery was heralded as the dawning of a new-age in our retail experience, but it has so far failed to make a significant impact in the market

According to the DTI, this is because we're now too busy to wait at home all day for the goods to arrive.

Services are failing at the most critical point ...

delivery.

But now a team at Cambridge Consultants (CCL), one of Europe's leading technology companies, has combined its expertise in detection and tracking devices, wireless communications and real-time information management to come up with a practical, customer-focused solution to this problem.

Using a range of technologies, CCL has developed a system in which packages are tagged with small radio transmitters, enabling them to be monitored in real-time as they are transported from the warehouse to the customer's front door.

This does away with the need for each item to be manually scanned, and can also ensure that packages are loaded onto the correct vehicle before it leaves the depot.

The goods are then automatically tracked as they progress through each stage of the delivery chain.

A GPS system on the delivery vehicle communicates with a remote server via GSM and its location is fed through predictive software that computes the expected time of arrival based on current location, road conditions, and historical trends for travel in that area at that time of day.

Arrival time estimates are continually updated right up to the point of delivery and customers can easily arrange an 'alert' via their 3G mobile phone or have an SMS text message sent to them at an agreed point prior to the arrival time.

This removes the need for inconvenient morning or afternoon guesswork.

For example, if it takes an hour to travel from work to home, the alert can be pre arranged to inform you when your delivery is seventy minutes away from your home.

"I think anyone who's had to take a day off work to wait for a delivery will have found the experience frustrating - I know I have," explains Alex Blyth, Business Development Manager at CCL.

"Our system solves this problem by strengthening a number of weak points along the whole delivery chain, and by adding in some new links".

"It also shows what CCL does best".

"We are able to bring together experts from a range of disciplines and apply their disparate knowledge to a real business problem".

"In this case, we have a product that enables our clients to add value to their customers' experience, enhance their operational efficiency and ensure that they can deliver on their promises.".

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