We hear a great deal about artificial intelligence (AI) and the impact that it will have on many aspects of our lives. Many of us are already using AI devices, personal assistants like Amazon Alexa, in our daily lives, but how is AI impacting on the courier business?
AI adoption across the supply chain is increasing for courier companies, and this creates raised expectations, as customers expect to have their goods delivered on time and undamaged.
Meeting expectations
When your same day courier service in Manchester stands or falls by its ability to deliver on time, you need to have contingency plans in place to ensure that you don’t let people down. AI can strengthen the company’s ability to do this by helping to plan routes and order drops in the most efficient way possible.
Customers also want to be able to have their parcels delivered when it’s convenient for them, whether that’s to their workplace during the day or to their homes in the evening. Couriers need to have the flexibility to meet these demands, and again AI can help by being able to predict the habits of regular clients.
More automation
All of this means that we are moving towards a more automated system. There has been talk of drone deliveries, although these are still not entirely practical. We’re some way off driverless vehicles too, but what a same day courier service in Manchester will need to consider is a more automated dispatch system.
This would use a whole range of information, including customer preferences. It would also need to know which drivers are where and how many drops they have remaining, as well as having information about traffic and weather conditions that can influence how quickly they are able to complete their tasks.
This is a complex set of variables and we are, as yet, some way off being able to use AI to completely automate the planning of deliveries. At its heart the courier business is about people, and there will always be a need for staff to soothe angry customers or cope with deliveries that have special requirements. AI therefore is not the whole answer, but it can help to make the task of humans easier by providing key information to help them do their jobs more efficiently.
