Why do home delivery?
Home delivery is an option that will help increase membership sales because it’s easier for people to commit to a farm share when its being delivered right to their door. Home delivery is prevalent in the marketplace now with the emergence of grocery store and meal kit deliveries. Food based companies are doing it to build sales by achieving customer expectations and conveniences.
You can also look into increasing your product line by sourcing from other local producers. This will give you the opportunity to fill more of a grocery order for each member, making the cost of delivery more worthwhile for the member. Fill their pantry with more local food!
More info here - https://www.harvie.farm/blog/home-delivery-is-the-future-of-local-food/
Cost of home delivery
- $10 is a good place to start for delivery fee, but this can be adjusted based on the true cost of delivering for a specific zone
- Delivery fees can be included in the share price, so the member doesn’t see the charge.
- To keep the delivery fees down, you can concentrate on signing up a higher number of customers in a smaller area.
Defined Delivery Zone
- Choose a defined delivery zone, probably in a higher density urban area or in a region where a good collection of your members already reside, is the best bet.
- You can also pilot home delivery in one zone to see if it will be manageable to expand.
- Once you choose that area, we will need to see the exact parameters of that region. For assistance with defining that region, read on: https://harvie.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001702513-How-to-define-a-Home-Delivery-polygon-for-a-location
Who is doing delivery?
- DIY
- Hire a courier - we have contacts with a national network of couriers, let us know if you need a suggestion.
Signup
- Set home delivery polygon area
- Members will be prompted to enter home delivery instructions, if applicable, through their profile page. (Ex. Gate code is…or Leave share on back porch). Home delivery instructions will follow through to delivery reporting.
Reporting / Routing
- Driver’s report will illustrate each home location, in order according to your delivery route, as well as home delivery instructions provided by the member to assist with ease of delivery.
- Labels for each share will show the member's address.
- Addresses for each home delivery day can be exported to Road Warrior (https://roadwarrior.app/) to design the most efficient route.
- Delivery vehicles can be packed in the order of the delivery route to maintain organization.
- Look at the route to calculate the amount of time it will take to make these deliveries. This will help with managing labor time spent and analyzing whether you need to adjust the time frame you've promoted for deliveries based on number stops.
Logistics
- Encourage members to leave out a cooler if they are not going to be home that day. Give them suggested dimensions of the cooler so their share will fit appropriately. Transfer the share via a plastic bag to maintain good moisture levels and because it fits well in the cooler.
- If the member doesn't leave a cooler out, be prepared with a box and potentially ice packs, if necessary.
- If needed, you can send a text message when share is dropped off to alert your member. Their phone number is on their label.
- For portable GPS devices with turn by turn instructions, make sure to mount the device to a secure location in your vehicle to maintain safety on the road.