That’s a really good point. However, there is still something about that concern that I don’t understand and I might be missing something. If the caller gives you an address with the intention of robbing you, and you go to that address like the order says, naturally they will be waiting to rob you, regardless of whether you can be seen on a map or not. So I’m not sure what difference it makes for the customer to see the driver’s accurate location as long as it’s only the customer seeing it, which it will be. I hope you didn’t think that I was thinking of making these locations public to all. That would be really really stupid.
I think what I keep failing to mention is that with this idea I am pondering. nobody can see this webpage that shows the driver’s location except for the customer, and the customer can only see it, or get a text message with a link in it that has the right secret code in the link address, when the driver decides he is definitely going to their house next. And after driver marks the order as delivered, the customer can no longer see the driver’s location page and instead they get redirected to a feedback page. But nobody else is ever supposed to see the driver’s location. Only the restaurant and the customer of the current delivery.
I might not bother to do this because the price would have to be so cheap in order to sell (maybe 10 cent flat rate per delivery), that it would take a few thousand customers before any worthwhile money could be made. And I can’t afford a national sales force. I was hoping to try direct mail or something to just get people to the web site and hopefully it will be clear to them. But it’s looking like there is no way anybody is going to use something like this unless someone calls them and explains everything to them. There’s just too much room for misunderstanding when you are not talking directly to a person in person or on the phone and answering individual questions they may have.
Hi Rob, thanks for the info. Is this part of the FoodTech POS?
How much is the FoodTech POS? I was thinking about offering this sort of delivery enhancement that I’m talking about for a 10 cent flat rate per delivery, no upfront costs, no signup fees, no subscriptions. So if someone didn’t feel like paying money for a new or upgraded POS and going through the change pains, but they wanted delivery tracking and notification, this would be a cheap and easy alternative. No upfront costs, commitments, installations etc…
Also, now I know why they will only show a radius. Because anybody can go to their site and enter a phone number and see that number’s order info and delivery arrival time. This is actually a pretty bad mistake. Sure robbers don’t know where the driver is at, but they know the driver is coming, where he is coming to and when the driver is going to arrive, and it’s not their order. They could pick any number from their area, see if they have an order coming, and then go near the customers house, down the street, and wait. So this is actually even more risky and hiding the exact location of the driver doesn’t make things much safer, it only make things less clear for the customer. It’s the ETA that counts, and that is quite public as far as I could tell from the Delivery IQ system.
The way I am thinking, is that only the phone number associated with the order gets a text message, and in that message they see a url with a secret code just for their order that they can tap to go to their private order page and it would be nearly impossible for someone else to just so happen to guess the right random code in the short window of opportunity that the order is being tracked. And after the order is delivered, that page with that info can never be seen again by anyone. The page shows a “this order ID is not active” message.
I don’t like the idea of the customers knowing the location of the driver. In a situation where the driver is on a multiple order run and the oldest order is the furthest from the shop the next customer may feel wronged if the driver is coming from a different direction than where the shop is.
If there is a multiple run: the orders that will be delivered 2nd and 3rd and so on will get “the order is on the way” with no time frame . When the order is within 5 minutes from reaching the destination the order tracker then gives a radius of where the driver is. (Which ever order is being delivered in the drivers queue gets the eta) .
The technology is new. It’s been severely improved since it went live .
Overall, it’s a great feature that most pos companies don’t offer and best of all, it was free!
Delivery IQ is not public info. Only the customer who placed the order has access to it. It isn’t linked to phone number or order number. It’s simply a link to the specific order the customer placed. The link is actually very long with numbers and letters and symbols. I highly doubt someone could guess it
I get the part where the 2nd doesn’t see the driver until he is in a radius but if he is coming from the opposite direction of the shop then the customers get the impression their pizza took a tour of the city.
The situation I am thinking of is delivery #1 is a mile away from the store and #2 is 1/2 a mile from the store in the same direction. Delivery #1 is 5 minutes older so needs to be delivered first and then hit #2 on the way back. If the customers sees his driver coming from the wrong direction the impression is not a good one.
Oh, ok, thanks. It sounded to me when I visited their website, that a customer visits a page, and enters in their phone number to see their order status. Yes, all of that info has to be in a private link, so that’s kind of relieving to hear.