Minimize Your Delivery Day Disasters
As an Independent Farmer, building a delivery empire can feel like a logistical nightmare. To ease this burden, successful Farmers are scaling their businesses and saving time by outsourcing doorstep delivery to a reliable third-party service. Before launching your next delivery route, learn how to navigate common third-party challenges to streamline your fulfillment process and protect your profit margins.
Why Offer Doorstep Delivery From Your Farm?
Most Farms initially offer their products for pick-up at local markets or a handful of drop-off points to aggregate distribution and minimize delivery time to Buyers. While many loyal Buyers are willing to make the “trek” to a pick-up location, the vast majority of consumers (99%) will opt for what is most convenient.
Direct Delivery is one of the secrets to satiating Buyer demand for convenience when purchasing food from local Farmers. Farms earn 2x+ more in average monthly revenue when they offer direct delivery. Buyers are creatures of convenience, and the ease of delivery is a winning strategy for many Farmers.
Why Delivery-as-a-Service?
With average drivers completing 5 deliveries per hour — excluding travel time — balancing Farm management and order fulfillment logistics can be extremely difficult. As a result, many Farmers opt to either: (a) acquire their own vehicles and hire drivers on the payroll (the most expensive) or (b) outsource their deliveries to a third-party logistics carrier.
“I didn’t get into Farming to become a delivery driver 3 days per week.” - Texas Rancher.
Barn2Door offers Delivery-as-a-Service to help Farmers move products directly to the doorstep of local Buyers. With a network of professional drivers who pick up from your Farm and deliver directly to the Buyer’s doorstep, you can shift your time and energy from the delivery van to improving outcomes for your Farm business.
Highlighted benefits of using Delivery-as-a-Service:
24/7 Delivery: With hundreds of trained drivers, your Farm can confidently offer same-day delivery. This maximizes product freshness for Buyers and significantly reduces storage upkeep costs for your products.
Delivery Schedule: Specify your own delivery windows and times that align with your production schedule to reduce overall fulfillment time. Determine precise pickup and delivery nuances for drivers to follow, ensuring a hassle-free process.
Order Reminders: Buyers specify delivery directions and receive automated SMS notifications for a friction-free delivery experience. Tailor your SMS messaging to your Farm Brand to keep current and future Buyer relationships strong.
Real-time Tracking: Buyers receive proactive communication with real-time visibility (on an interactive map) and photo-delivery confirmation of their Farm products. Additionally, in-app data tracking allows you to analyze customer ordering habits, return rates, and product volume.
Do Third-Party Delivery Partners Provide Insurance and Support?
Yes. All of Barn2Door’s delivery partners provide commercial driver insurance and product insurance to cover any unforeseen issues (which will happen). That’s why insurance exists: to cover your losses and provide a backstop when accidents happen.
Barn2Door’s delivery partners provide support to ensure all your questions are answered. Your Farm can log in to its delivery account dashboard to track the status of every delivery — including photo confirmation of the delivery receipt.
What Challenges to Expect When Using a Delivery Partner?
Many things can go wrong when getting started with delivery using a third-party solution. However, don’t let this dissuade you from offering direct delivery. Remember, 3 out of 4 Local Food Buyers already order groceries for pickup or delivery!
The key to avoiding these challenges is to plan ahead and set your expectations accordingly. Common troubles typically fall into the following areas:
Driver Challenges
Timeliness of Drivers. Drivers may be either late or a no-show, which can readily affect the “start time” of the delivery window (and trickle down to late arrivals at your Buyers' doorsteps).
Driver Appearance or Attitude. A poor, unkempt appearance or an abrasive attitude may be inconsistent with your Farm brand and affect Buyers' perceptions.
Vehicle Concerns or Issues. A driver’s vehicle is dirty, damaged, or simply too small to carry a given load. Vehicle temperature controls may be malfunctioning, impacting your products.
Delays en route to Buyers. Traffic, mechanical issues, or an accident can affect the timeliness and delivery of your products to Buyers' doorsteps.
Buyer Challenges
Timeliness. Buyers have busy lifestyles, so they may not be present at the time of delivery.
Incorrect Order. Wrong products may be delivered to the wrong home.
Damaged / Lost Order. Products could be broken, spilled, thawed, or lost in transit.
No Cooler on the Doorstep. Buyers fail to leave a cooler on their doorstep for temperature-sensitive, perishable products.
Skeptical Buyers. Getting your Buyers accustomed to a new delivery experience typically takes 1 to 2 months.
How to Ensure a Smooth Delivery Partner Experience?
While some delivery hiccups are beyond your control, you can also easily mitigate most third-party delivery challenges. From packaging preparation to organizing route details, your Farm can address these common user errors in advance to ensure a seamless experience using Delivery-as-a-Service.
Common User Errors
Packaging Issues. Package your products in easy-to-handle bags or boxes. Insulated tote bags are preferred for product freshness and ease of packing.
Poor Labels / Lack of Buyer Details. Ensure each delivery label includes the item and Buyer details that are clearly visible for the driver (including contact details).
Routing Error / Sync. Farms may attempt to upload or sync their pack list data with the delivery partner app, resulting in errors or partial sync (missing information). If this occurs, check for special characters (such as unusual symbols), missing required fields (such as zip codes, phone numbers, or weights), or formatting errors.
Order Edits after Routing Sync. Farms may update order details for an upcoming delivery after uploading pack list data to the delivery partner app. To avoid this, double-check your delivery partner app details before each delivery to ensure Buyers receive their products.
Finding and Training the Right Drivers. Farmers are encouraged to start with one delivery route with 25-50 orders per delivery day, before scaling up to manage multiple drivers and routes. This allows you to find the perfect driver(s) for your Farm.
Farmers should take a crawl, walk, run approach to ensure their processes are smooth and streamlined every step of the way — navigating unexpected challenges, troubleshooting issues, and learning tactics to make delivery hassle-free.
Why Overcome Challenges with a Third-Party Delivery Partner?
Many Farmers choose to “own” their fulfillment, vehicles, and employees from Farm to consumer, cognizant of the time, expense, assets, and management effort required to scale as their delivery business grows.
Read: The Real Cost of Farm Delivery
More Farmers are choosing to offload order-fulfillment stress with Barn2Door’s Delivery-as-a-Service to get time back on the Farm and save time and money with a third-party delivery partner that can also expand their available service area.
Ultimately, choosing to work with a third-party delivery partner is a business decision for your Farm to consider, based on your available resources and priorities. When you get started, expect the unexpected, set expectations for your Buyers, and solicit feedback to ensure you make adjustments that improve your operations and save time.
Conclusion: Save Time and Money With a Delivery Partner
Getting started with a third-party delivery service will likely entail some initial challenges for your Farm and Buyers. However, if your Farm manages expectations and makes adjustments based on lessons learned during roll-out, a third-party delivery partner can help your Farm scale more effectively to meet Buyers' demands for doorstep delivery.
Barn2Door provides Independent Farmers with the software to make more money, ditch the office work, and look like a pro. If you’re curious to learn more, watch this 5-minute video.