News & Insights | Jitsu

Why Does the Tech that Enables Last-Mile Delivery Matter?

Written by Jitsu | Sep 10, 2024 3:00:00 PM

Apart from our size and reach, there is a fundamental difference between legacy national logistics carriers and tech-based delivery providers like Jitsu. The legacy carriers built business models based primarily on B2B deliveries and then, over time, looked for ways to apply technology to automate existing practices. Jitsu took a completely different approach, starting with a clean sheet and building a technology platform explicitly designed to solve the complexities of modern e-commerce residential delivery.

Legacy carriers are delivery companies tied to investments in legacy technology. At its core, Jitsu is a technology company leveraging cutting-edge proprietary technology to disrupt B2C package delivery.

Thinking differently about technology

Typically, when we talk about technology, we talk about features. We might discuss our proprietary dynamic routing algorithms that match packages to routes and vehicles more efficiently than traditional routing. Or we might highlight our address verification intelligence, combining public and proprietary data, machine learning, and predictive analytics to reduce the number of undeliverable addresses before packages leave our warehouse. Or maybe we'd point to our driver app, which allows drivers to communicate directly with the end customer by SMS to help resolve delivery issues in real time. But being technology-driven goes beyond these features; it's a mindset that empowers our delivery professionals to perform their jobs more effectively daily.

Our technology workers view the world as a mathematical logic problem with a series of "if X, then Y" reasoning statements. The ultimate goal is to get your package to your customer's doorstep efficiently and reliably, and the vast number of potential variables and moving parts make this exponentially challenging. The key thing to understand is that the problem is never really solved. Some things can always be done better—some innovative idea or new approach that makes the service more flexible, responsive, or efficient.

Jitsu doesn't have the weight of decades of legacy systems and processes holding us back, which allows us to adjust to changing business conditions dynamically and swiftly. We roll out new features and upgrades weekly in response to feedback from our drivers, warehouse teams, tech leaders, and customers. We're constantly improving and innovating based on feedback and technology trends to improve our processes. The service you sign up for today delivers more functionality and value every month.

Taming the chaos

Last-mile logistics is challenging and, at times, chaotic. First and middle-mile logistics are straightforward by comparison—a thousand or more packages leave your warehouse on a single truck going from Point A (your warehouse) to Point B (the last-mile carrier sortation center). While there may be obstacles along that path—weather events, road closures, mechanical failures—those are relatively rare and often predictable.

What happens once the packages reach the last mile is a different story. Instead of a single endpoint, those packages now have a thousand different endpoints and a web of complexities. Each endpoint can be affected by traffic congestion, road construction, address errors, missing or incorrect security codes, special delivery instructions, and other unpredictable variables that complicate getting the package to your customer's front door.

Extensible and flexible technology, properly applied, brings structure, rules, and logic to the chaos, driving consistency and more predictable outcomes. That can include a solution that provides workarounds for traffic congestion on the fly, algorithms that match historical delivery data against incoming package labels to improve routing or a dedicated Slack channel that keeps you connected with dispatchers and drivers in real-time while your packages are out for delivery. The result is fewer undeliverable returns, shorter delivery windows, transparent tracking statuses, more accurate delivery times, and happier customers.

The right technology—built from scratch and continually evolving to meet the changing needs of residential e-commerce delivery—gives warehouse teams, dispatchers, and drivers the flexibility to deal with the never-ending complexities of moving each package over the last mile to your customer's doorstep and the transparency to track every package through every step along the way.

Why does all of this matter?

The quality and speed of each delivery experience can be the difference between repeat sales and churn; that quality depends on a carrier's technology. While legacy companies (you know who they are) often resist change, tech-forward companies like Jitsu drive it. That's our DNA—it's who we are as a company. Our technology allows your brand to be at the leading edge in providing innovative and reliable delivery services for your customers.

As a brand owner, your experience will continually improve. More importantly, your customers' experience will improve, strengthening your brand and keeping them returning for more. Connect with one of our logistics professionals to learn how to leverage Jitsu's technology to enhance your brand experience.