Ep 192: COVID-19 and the last mile with Mike Darchambeau (Urbantz)

Mike Darchambeau, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at last-mile technology company Urbantz, joins me to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the e-commerce last mile: The sudden boom in e-commerce - including grocery delivery E-commerce merchants are capitalising on the boom Creativity in the last mile to cope with the drastic growth Enabling local e-commerce Increasing capacity in response to a surge in orders Longer wait times for deliveries Delivery windows filling How to deliver faster Warehouses and personnel (including drivers) Automation and scaling up operations Coping with staff shortages Fast on-boarding of new drivers How Urbantz helped Red Cross France with the rapid expansion of its COVID-19 home delivery service Carrefour innovating to serve customers who aren't tech-savvy Contactless delivery options for residential delivery Balancing loads across networks Route optimisation Communicating with the customer during delivery (interactive delivery management) and the customer experience Real time notifications and the impact on reducing calls to customer support Preparing for the post-COVID19 world The importance of agility Technology to serve the market The risk of putting projects on hold Will new e-commerce customers stick with e-commerce after the COVID-19 threat recedes? Fast delivery and green delivery trends Changes to the supply chain, including local fulfilment Click here to visit the Urbantz website.