The problem
A one-van same-day courier can't answer the phone at 60 miles an hour, and a business with an urgent package rings the next courier. If the owner misses 6 booking calls a week and a third of them were $60£45€54A$86C$85 jobs, that's about 8.6 jobs a month (2 x 4.3), around $515£387€461A$743C$728 of work going elsewhere. Typing up the 40 bookings that do get through takes another 2 hours a week.
What the AI does
Shipday is delivery dispatch software. Its pricing page lists customer order forms, SMS or WhatsApp delivery updates, live ETA tracking, photo and signature proof of delivery and route planning on Professional Lite, at $29 (about $29£22€26A$42C$41) a month with 300 orders included. Put the order form link on your website, Google listing and email signature, so regular customers book a collection and drop with all the details in one go. Check in a trial what the form asks for and how bookings appear for you, and add your price list to the page, because the form doesn't price jobs for you.
A worked example
An owner-driver in Reading runs same-day collections for solicitors, print shops and labs, about 40 bookings a week, mostly by phone and text.
Before
6 booking calls a week missed while driving, and about 3 minutes typing up each of 40 bookings
After
Regular customers book through the form; about 2 of the 6 missed calls a week now come in as bookings, and each takes a minute to check
What it's worth
About $306£230€274A$442C$432 a month in profit and time, against about $29£22€26A$42C$41 for Shipday. Two extra jobs a week at $60£45€54A$86C$85 is about $515£387€461A$743C$728 of work a month (2 x $60£45€54A$86C$85 x 4.3), about $154£116€138A$223C$218 in profit at an assumed 30% margin. Saving 2 minutes on each of 40 bookings a week is about 5.7 hours a month (80 x 4.3 minutes), worth about $153£115€137A$221C$216 at an assumed $27£20€24A$38C$38 an hour. At about 172 orders a month, the 300 included orders cover it.
How to set it up
- Start Shipday on Professional Lite and set up your details, vehicle and opening hours.
- Set up the customer order form and test it as a customer: collection address, drop address, contact, item size and deadline.
- Put your same-day prices on the page the form sits on, so customers know the cost before they book.
- Send the link to your regular customers and add it to your website, Google listing and email signature.
- Check new bookings at each stop and confirm any job you can't reach in time by phone straight away.
What goes wrong
- A form booking isn't a confirmed job until you accept it. Make the page say how quickly you confirm, and stick to it.
- Shipday is priced in US dollars and charged at month end on usage; past 300 orders a month, each extra order is $0.06.
- The page doesn't say whether SMS updates cost extra, so check before you turn them on for every job.
- Customers still ring for urgent jobs. Keep the phone on hands-free and return calls at your next stop.