The transport business in Ireland is a very cut throat game today and has been for some years now due to the recession and competition,and i myself is involved in this business around 20 years now along with mobile tech.
The days of using an atlas is long gone and i remember them so well and its now moved to a digital era.
We now have sat navs,and mobile phones which can offer us turn by turn navigation at ease but even today these are still not 100% fully efficient although they are a great benefit for the consumer,personally myself i dont really use them much as i have my own sat nav mind with 2 decades of hard real time travelling and seeing probably every road there is,but i do like to test maps and products to see how far we have come.
We now have come into an era where on-line shopping is king,its killing retail (bricks and mortar stores) mainly due to less cost,less overheads,but people still like to go and physically shop,i like to myself but been honest i buy mostly from the internet.But there will always be people that like a hands on experience,again i like this but tend to avoid ques and shop online.
Open website-shop-click on buy-pay-deliver…
Yes that’s how it works but what happens after this?
We get a tracking number in most cases,some don’t offer,some charge extra for this and some companies more expensive than others but going forward tracking is king we want information that we can keep an eye on.
After this we can log onto the respective couriers website and get some info,again some can provide more than others but we are not certain as to what time the package arrives at,this can be an issue for some and not for others,but Xpreso is here to alleviate this,How?
What is Xpreso?
Xpreso solves the “sorry we missed you” problem by connecting couriers and consumers in real-time; putting consumers in control with precise delivery alerts, rescheduling and re-routing options.This saves courier companies money while providing a Hailo-like delivery experience for on-line consumers.
We are the first in Ireland to test this new product and had CEO Eamon Keane with us and gave us a full demonstration on how it works and i myself have been putting Xpreso to the test and it just works..
- An app for couriers
- A mobile optimised website and eventual app for consumers
- A dashboard for the ops team and call centre.
How does it benefit the customer ?
You are given a time window,this is a great way for you to organise things in advance and you can talk to the courier.
Track the courier in real time.
How does it all happen?
Most if not all courier company’s now use handheld terminals which run again mostly windows mobile embedded which i dont know why as its clunky and can be slow,Xpreso runs on Android and have also mentioned they are not ruling out windows products(tabs) yet,there is just no product that’s commercially viable yet to use and cost effective in the tablet range for just yet.
The courier scans the packages as per schedule and The Xpreso servers pull the information and it syncs to your tablet,this gives an identical list as per the drivers physical hard copy that he needs for a P.O.D (Proof of delivery)
As pictured above is an example of what the driver sees on the screen.A time window,distance and directions,also the option to call the customer from the tablet by tapping one icon.
Also what happens here the Xpreso app gives you the location of the next delivery and also a suggested route to take if you need so,Also you can call the customer from the tablet which will be in your vehicle placed in where suits you best,of course it runs via a sim card and data to work.
Naturally when it comes to properties in the countryside there may not be a location provided due to our current postcode system,or simply not mapped, this is an anomaly any maps based app struggles to provide but you can get an estimation.
So this is where geo tagging comes into place,when the courier has located the customer its saved in the system,this is huge benefit to the customer and courier company alike,for an example if you have a regular driver on the run and he is out sick or on holidays this data is there already saved building up a data base of customers for the future.
Another thing is if you need to change route you simply continue on as is and select next delivery on screen and it will continue on as normal so you just can not go wrong here,i have personally put this to test and tried to trick it,it didn’t work im pleased to say,it beat me.
So that’s how Xpreso works and its a great idea and i think this can be a success with other possibilities down the line.
Who runs Xpreso.? You can click the image to see LinkedIn profile.
Xpreso solves the last mile problem in eCommerce by delivering to people, not places. Xpreso’s SaaS solution allows delivery companies to increase first-time success rate by offering online customers dynamic tracking and accurate arrival times. This is complemented by re-direction options to fit parcel delivery around consumers’ busy lives. Xpreso’s communication platform uses an intuitive Android tablet interface for the parcel delivery driver and requires no upfront capital to deploy. Xpreso’s solution also works across courier companies, allowing consumers to have one place to track all their parcels and store their preferences.
We would like to thank Eamon for his time and giving us the opportunity to be part of testing this app and also giving suggestions over the last few months and wish Xpreso the best in the future.Its also worth a note that Xpreso have now also brought HERE maps on board this app which is excellent for offline use..
Congratulations on winning the #IBYE award too..
Check out Xpreso