2.0 Logistics management
Timely delivery is a key stage of the entire order processing cycle. Dots Platform has all the necessary tools for flexible logistics configuration.
General information
Setting tariff zones and delivery areas
Set up the key logistics parameters
Setting working distances for couriers
Determination of customer addresses
Different types of couriers are able to use the system, while the use of foot couriers, bicycles, and ground robots (in the future) can significantly reduce the cost of delivery.
Orders are distributed depending on the distance (from the location of the courier to the company location and from the company location to the customer).
car couriers
bike couriers
foot couriers
All orders are distributed among the couriers online.
The system determines whether it’s possible to “merge” an order with one of the current courier orders. If it’s possible, and automatic merging is activated in the city settings, then merged orders will have a priority.
If merging is not possible, the courier must be free to deliver the current order (other orders do not overlap with the time parameters of the current one).
A pedestrian courier receives a priority to deliver an order if the distance from his current location to the company location and the distance from the company location to the customer does not exceed 2 km (each).
The same applies to the distances between the company locations / receiving points in merged orders.
A bicycle courier has a priority in delivering an order if the distance from its current location to the company location and the distance from the company location to the customer does not exceed 4 km (each).
The car courier, the least distant from the company location, receives priority, with all others being equal.
In the case of peak loads, your service can use reserve couriers. Orders that cannot be delivered by couriers on the line can be automatically transferred by the system to third-party courier services and taxi services. Such procedure allows you to deliver orders without delay, just in time, guaranteeing customers high-quality delivery.
Each courier works via the Dots Delivery app. Logistics optimization algorithms allow to effectively use couriers on the line, adding orders into the route of the drivers.
The partner hires foot couriers or drivers with their own fuel-efficient cars (bicycles/scooters), conducts their training, and forms a schedule for going online.
Use city settings in the Control Panel to set up tariff zones and tariffs.
When choosing a configurable cost of delivery, you can set tariffs for different distances from the company location to the customer. Thus, you can, for example, set up a surcharge for distant areas.
Additionally, you can enable doorstep delivery and the additional price of this option.
All information about delivery costs, tariffs, and surcharges for distant areas is available on the website and in mobile apps in the Delivery cost tab.
If the customer's address is not in the delivery area, at the stage of ordering via the website or app, they will see the following warning:
In addition, in the Company's promotions settings , you can set the conditions for getting free delivery under certain conditions (when ordering from a certain amount, at certain hours, when ordering certain products).
You can also set delivery areas at the level of city and company location in a form of any figure outlined on the map.
To set the city delivery area, go to Settings > City management > Delivery > Delivery areas in the Control Panel.
To set the delivery area for a particular company location, go to the Delivery areas tab in the company`s address settings. . The Use the city delivery area option is activated by default. This means that the delivery area of the location is the same as the delivery area of the city. Unselect the checkbox to specify the area manually using a map.
If several company locations are located in the same city delivery area, then the distribution of the order will depend on the maximum speed of delivery to the customer. It takes into account traffic and the presence of one-way streets.
In the case of a pre-order, the system selects the company location based on the traffic conditions at the time of confirming the order.
If the address is not in the delivery area, the customer will receive a corresponding notification.
If the address is not in the delivery area, but the delivery distance exceeds the maximum value specified in the tariff zones, the customer will receive a notification about delivery unavailability.
If the address is in the delivery area and the delivery distance is within the tariff zones, then the delivery cost will be calculated based on the tariffs.
The system's algorithms let achieve more efficient use of the courier fleet in the city. The following are the main ways to optimize logistics.
All logistics parameters are available in the city settings in the Delivery => General tab.
Also, key logistics settings are available in the Monitoring Panel in the Fleet tab.
Min. time for order readiness . Minimum time for the preparation and packaging of the order, after which it can be picked up by the courier. This parameter affects the list of available time options, which is displayed upon the order confirmation in the Dots Business app.
Maximum delivery time . Delivery time for cases when it’s not possible to determine the exact distance to the customer. This delivery time will also be applied to all pre-orders, as in such cases the system can’t analyze road conditions and the courier fleet workload.
Max. estimated pickup time shift . The maximum time for which the estimated pickup time can be shifted in cases of couriers’ inaccessibility.
Time correction factor and Maximum delivery delay time . These settings allow you to more accurately calculate the actual time needed to deliver an order from the company location to the customer.
For each new order, our system calculates the distance between the company location and the customer, depending on the type of courier, and then determines the delivery time.
The system then multiplies this time by the Time correction factor and adds Maximum delivery delay time (assuming that the courier may be late at the pickup location).
Thus, using the time correction factor, you can adjust the time for delivery in the city, based on the current road conditions (ice, road repairs, traffic jams in the evening, etc.).
Note: In the case of orders for a specific time, the system uses the maximum delivery time for the city as the delivery time, regardless of the distance.
In case of difficult road conditions or other features of urban traffic, use your own factor values. In this case, it is very important to track the real time that delivery takes (in the Monitoring Panel). Avoid giving couriers large delivery gaps, reducing the overall delivery speed and the density of orders per unit of time for each courier.
Orders auto merging . Activates merging of orders in automatic mode. If two orders can be delivered within a single route, the system can merge them together. This optimizes the delivery process, saves time and resources.
Max. delivery time of merged orders and Time buffer between pick-ups. These parameters are relevant if the automatic merging of orders is enabled. They directly affect the merging process.
Max. delivery time of merged orders - 10 min
Time buffer between pick-ups - 20-25 min
The system automatically determines the possibility of merging, based on many factors (estimated pickup time, the coordinates of the company locations and customers, the coordinates and workload of couriers, etc.). If conditions allow merging, the system recommends the pick-up location workers an ideal pick-up time that will allow merging of both orders. Orders will merge if the company location confirms that time. In such a case, the courier receives 2 orders at once, and the order note will contain the optimal route.
In the Monitoring Panel, merged delivery orders are connected with a green line and have a chain icon highlighted in green.
When clicking the paperclip icon, you’ll see the delivery map and other technical info.
Order dispatch time in companies. This feature allows you to select which estimated pick-up time options will be available when accepting a new order in the Dots Business app.
All. When accepting a new order, the most suitable time will be automatically selected depending on the location of the couriers. Earlier options will also remain available, but will be marked as “not recommended”.
Important: The closest estimated pick-up time will depend on the minimum preparation time parameter at the company or at the city level.
Recommended and later (default option). Only recommended and later time options will be available (considering the couriers’ workload). Earlier time options won’t appear in the drop-down list.
Only ideal and later. Available time options will be displayed starting from the ideal (e.g., when two delivery orders can be merged). Earlier options including recommended won’t appear in the drop-down list.
Important: Selecting this option significantly increases the average delivery time. We recommend using it only in cases of peak loads and a shortage of couriers.
Use delivery fleet settings to configure the radius of work for each type of courier separately. To find these settings, go to Control Panel > select a city > Delivery fleets > select a delivery fleet > General.
These settings help to limit the order assignment between couriers by distance. You can set the conditions for the distribution of orders for foot, bicycle, and car couriers, depending on the requirements of your service. Use these parameters to limit the automatic distribution of orders to couriers that are far from the pickup location.
When adding a new delivery fleet, these fields do not appear. They will become available only after you save changes. If you select the Own delivery fleet checkbox when adding the delivery fleet, then the fields will be automatically filled in with standard values for each type of courier:
Car courier - no restrictions;
Bike courier - 4000 meters;
Foot courier - 2000 meters.
The user's coordinates, and accordingly, the distance from the company location to the customer and the delivery time are determined by the system automatically using map services such as Google Maps and Here. These are some of the most reliable and accurate data sources available today. But in the process of determining coordinates and distances, inaccuracies may occur. This is due to the following reasons:
The customer entered an incorrect or non-existent address.
The customer entered an incomplete address and Google Maps did not recognize it correctly (for example, “Lincoln, 34” can be recognized as “34, Lincoln Street” and “34 Lincoln Avenue”, these two addresses located in different parts of the city.
The address is not on Google or Here maps (for example, the street was renamed, or a new house was built, but the maps have not yet been updated).
The system does not use the shortest route from point A to point B, but a longer one, due to the road conditions at the time of data acquisition (traffic jams, accidents, etc.).
When distributing orders between couriers, the system uses information about the location of each of them, based on the GPS coordinates that are transmitted via the courier app. In some cases, the courier may have problems with the Internet, communication, GPS signal, or a smartphone.
The system distributes orders between couriers, based on their workload and the time it takes to get to the pickup location for the next order. These factors also affect distribution.
All these factors can impact the accuracy, causing a certain percentage of errors. If your service processes 100 or more orders per day, we recommend that you hire a logistics manager. He will be able to keep track of orders and respond to force majeure when necessary by redistributing orders manually.
Link to this article: here
Table of contents
General information
Setting tariff zones and delivery areas
Set up the key logistics parameters
Setting working distances for couriers
Determination of customer addresses
General information
Different types of couriers are able to use the system, while the use of foot couriers, bicycles, and ground robots (in the future) can significantly reduce the cost of delivery.
Orders are distributed depending on the distance (from the location of the courier to the company location and from the company location to the customer).
Now the system has three types of couriers:
car couriers
bike couriers
foot couriers
All orders are distributed among the couriers online.
Order distribution features:
The system determines whether it’s possible to “merge” an order with one of the current courier orders. If it’s possible, and automatic merging is activated in the city settings, then merged orders will have a priority.
If merging is not possible, the courier must be free to deliver the current order (other orders do not overlap with the time parameters of the current one).
A pedestrian courier receives a priority to deliver an order if the distance from his current location to the company location and the distance from the company location to the customer does not exceed 2 km (each).
The same applies to the distances between the company locations / receiving points in merged orders.
A bicycle courier has a priority in delivering an order if the distance from its current location to the company location and the distance from the company location to the customer does not exceed 4 km (each).
The car courier, the least distant from the company location, receives priority, with all others being equal.
In the case of peak loads, your service can use reserve couriers. Orders that cannot be delivered by couriers on the line can be automatically transferred by the system to third-party courier services and taxi services. Such procedure allows you to deliver orders without delay, just in time, guaranteeing customers high-quality delivery.
Each courier works via the Dots Delivery app. Logistics optimization algorithms allow to effectively use couriers on the line, adding orders into the route of the drivers.
The partner hires foot couriers or drivers with their own fuel-efficient cars (bicycles/scooters), conducts their training, and forms a schedule for going online.
Setting tariff zones and delivery areas
Use city settings in the Control Panel to set up tariff zones and tariffs.
When choosing a configurable cost of delivery, you can set tariffs for different distances from the company location to the customer. Thus, you can, for example, set up a surcharge for distant areas.
Additionally, you can enable doorstep delivery and the additional price of this option.
All information about delivery costs, tariffs, and surcharges for distant areas is available on the website and in mobile apps in the Delivery cost tab.
If the customer's address is not in the delivery area, at the stage of ordering via the website or app, they will see the following warning:
In addition, in the Company's promotions settings , you can set the conditions for getting free delivery under certain conditions (when ordering from a certain amount, at certain hours, when ordering certain products).
You can also set delivery areas at the level of city and company location in a form of any figure outlined on the map.
To set the city delivery area, go to Settings > City management > Delivery > Delivery areas in the Control Panel.
To set the delivery area for a particular company location, go to the Delivery areas tab in the company`s address settings. . The Use the city delivery area option is activated by default. This means that the delivery area of the location is the same as the delivery area of the city. Unselect the checkbox to specify the area manually using a map.
If several company locations are located in the same city delivery area, then the distribution of the order will depend on the maximum speed of delivery to the customer. It takes into account traffic and the presence of one-way streets.
In the case of a pre-order, the system selects the company location based on the traffic conditions at the time of confirming the order.
The procedure for determining whether a customer is in the delivery area
If the address is not in the delivery area, the customer will receive a corresponding notification.
If the address is not in the delivery area, but the delivery distance exceeds the maximum value specified in the tariff zones, the customer will receive a notification about delivery unavailability.
If the address is in the delivery area and the delivery distance is within the tariff zones, then the delivery cost will be calculated based on the tariffs.
Set up the key logistics parameters
The system's algorithms let achieve more efficient use of the courier fleet in the city. The following are the main ways to optimize logistics.
All logistics parameters are available in the city settings in the Delivery => General tab.
Also, key logistics settings are available in the Monitoring Panel in the Fleet tab.
Min. time for order readiness . Minimum time for the preparation and packaging of the order, after which it can be picked up by the courier. This parameter affects the list of available time options, which is displayed upon the order confirmation in the Dots Business app.
Maximum delivery time . Delivery time for cases when it’s not possible to determine the exact distance to the customer. This delivery time will also be applied to all pre-orders, as in such cases the system can’t analyze road conditions and the courier fleet workload.
Max. estimated pickup time shift . The maximum time for which the estimated pickup time can be shifted in cases of couriers’ inaccessibility.
Time correction factor and Maximum delivery delay time . These settings allow you to more accurately calculate the actual time needed to deliver an order from the company location to the customer.
For each new order, our system calculates the distance between the company location and the customer, depending on the type of courier, and then determines the delivery time.
The system then multiplies this time by the Time correction factor and adds Maximum delivery delay time (assuming that the courier may be late at the pickup location).
Thus, using the time correction factor, you can adjust the time for delivery in the city, based on the current road conditions (ice, road repairs, traffic jams in the evening, etc.).
Note: In the case of orders for a specific time, the system uses the maximum delivery time for the city as the delivery time, regardless of the distance.
In case of difficult road conditions or other features of urban traffic, use your own factor values. In this case, it is very important to track the real time that delivery takes (in the Monitoring Panel). Avoid giving couriers large delivery gaps, reducing the overall delivery speed and the density of orders per unit of time for each courier.
Orders auto merging . Activates merging of orders in automatic mode. If two orders can be delivered within a single route, the system can merge them together. This optimizes the delivery process, saves time and resources.
Max. delivery time of merged orders and Time buffer between pick-ups. These parameters are relevant if the automatic merging of orders is enabled. They directly affect the merging process.
We recommend using these default values:
Max. delivery time of merged orders - 10 min
Time buffer between pick-ups - 20-25 min
The system automatically determines the possibility of merging, based on many factors (estimated pickup time, the coordinates of the company locations and customers, the coordinates and workload of couriers, etc.). If conditions allow merging, the system recommends the pick-up location workers an ideal pick-up time that will allow merging of both orders. Orders will merge if the company location confirms that time. In such a case, the courier receives 2 orders at once, and the order note will contain the optimal route.
In the Monitoring Panel, merged delivery orders are connected with a green line and have a chain icon highlighted in green.
When clicking the paperclip icon, you’ll see the delivery map and other technical info.
Order dispatch time in companies. This feature allows you to select which estimated pick-up time options will be available when accepting a new order in the Dots Business app.
Available options:
All. When accepting a new order, the most suitable time will be automatically selected depending on the location of the couriers. Earlier options will also remain available, but will be marked as “not recommended”.
Important: The closest estimated pick-up time will depend on the minimum preparation time parameter at the company or at the city level.
Recommended and later (default option). Only recommended and later time options will be available (considering the couriers’ workload). Earlier time options won’t appear in the drop-down list.
Only ideal and later. Available time options will be displayed starting from the ideal (e.g., when two delivery orders can be merged). Earlier options including recommended won’t appear in the drop-down list.
Important: Selecting this option significantly increases the average delivery time. We recommend using it only in cases of peak loads and a shortage of couriers.
Setting working distances for couriers
Use delivery fleet settings to configure the radius of work for each type of courier separately. To find these settings, go to Control Panel > select a city > Delivery fleets > select a delivery fleet > General.
These settings help to limit the order assignment between couriers by distance. You can set the conditions for the distribution of orders for foot, bicycle, and car couriers, depending on the requirements of your service. Use these parameters to limit the automatic distribution of orders to couriers that are far from the pickup location.
When adding a new delivery fleet, these fields do not appear. They will become available only after you save changes. If you select the Own delivery fleet checkbox when adding the delivery fleet, then the fields will be automatically filled in with standard values for each type of courier:
Car courier - no restrictions;
Bike courier - 4000 meters;
Foot courier - 2000 meters.
Determination of customer addresses
The user's coordinates, and accordingly, the distance from the company location to the customer and the delivery time are determined by the system automatically using map services such as Google Maps and Here. These are some of the most reliable and accurate data sources available today. But in the process of determining coordinates and distances, inaccuracies may occur. This is due to the following reasons:
The customer entered an incorrect or non-existent address.
The customer entered an incomplete address and Google Maps did not recognize it correctly (for example, “Lincoln, 34” can be recognized as “34, Lincoln Street” and “34 Lincoln Avenue”, these two addresses located in different parts of the city.
The address is not on Google or Here maps (for example, the street was renamed, or a new house was built, but the maps have not yet been updated).
The system does not use the shortest route from point A to point B, but a longer one, due to the road conditions at the time of data acquisition (traffic jams, accidents, etc.).
When distributing orders between couriers, the system uses information about the location of each of them, based on the GPS coordinates that are transmitted via the courier app. In some cases, the courier may have problems with the Internet, communication, GPS signal, or a smartphone.
The system distributes orders between couriers, based on their workload and the time it takes to get to the pickup location for the next order. These factors also affect distribution.
All these factors can impact the accuracy, causing a certain percentage of errors. If your service processes 100 or more orders per day, we recommend that you hire a logistics manager. He will be able to keep track of orders and respond to force majeure when necessary by redistributing orders manually.
Link to this article: here
Updated on: 03/06/2024
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