We drove our own first delivery: 54 minutes from order to signature

Software looks finished at a desk. The road is where you find out.

So on Friday, November 6, I put Cargoat through its first real delivery. It's the delivery tracking product we build and run at BotLogix, and it's in private beta.

I created an order for a lunch spot in Burlington and ran the checklist. Then I drove it myself and completed it from my own phone, as the driver. Order to signature: 54 minutes.

Here's how those minutes went, what the customer received, and the email that taught me the most.

The whole run, start to finish. Times are Toronto time.

1. 11:44 am

   The order goes in

   I created the order, and the “We have your order” email went out the same minute.

2. 11:46 am

   Checklist done, out for delivery

   The five-step checklist was done two minutes after the order went in, and the out for delivery email went out.

3. 11:47 am

   Within 10 km

   A minute later I was within 10 km of the stop, and the arriving email went out.

4. 12:37 pm

   Checked in at the stop

   I checked in from my phone, 50 minutes after the heads-up.

5. 12:38 pm

   Delivered

   Completed with a photo, a signature and an ID check. The delivered email and the office confirmation went out together.

The order went in at 11:44 am. The five-step checklist was done at 11:46 am. Two minutes.

Don't read much into that number. I was the office, the warehouse and the driver that day, so nobody was waiting on anybody. On a normal day a checklist takes as long as the work behind it.

What matters is the sequence. The checklist was finished first, and the out for delivery email followed in the same minute. If a truck can leave your yard with half the checklist undone, or with no checklist at all, that's the gap to close first, whatever software you use.

At 11:47 am, a minute after the order left, I was within 10 km of the stop, and the customer's heads-up went out: “Your delivery is close”.

The phone held up its end for the whole drive: a position every 45 seconds, accurate to 5 metres.

I checked in at the stop at 12:37 pm, 50 minutes after that heads-up.

The email wasn't wrong. I was inside 10 km. But inside 10 km and about to arrive are two different things, and that day they were 50 minutes apart.

Distance tells you where the driver is, not when they'll get there. On some routes the two line up. That day they didn't.

That gap is why a distributor can set the heads-up on drive time instead of distance. Someone waiting on a delivery isn't thinking in kilometres. They're thinking in minutes.

If you already send customers a heads-up, here's a cheap test. For a week, note the minute it goes out and the minute your driver actually arrives. If the gap is often longer than your customers will wait before they pick up the phone, change the trigger.

The door took about a minute. I checked in at 12:37 pm, and at 12:38 pm the delivery was complete, with a photo, a signature and an ID check.

That minute is the number I'd watch on your own test run. Proof only helps if it gets captured at every stop, so it has to be quick enough to do at every stop.

The delivered email and the office confirmation went out at 12:38 pm. That made five emails for the delivery, four for the customer and one for the office, and every one went out on the first attempt.

Four emails can sound like a lot. Each one marks a step the customer would otherwise call to ask about: the order is in, it's on the road, it's close, it's delivered. Why those four and no more is its own article: how to stop “where's my order?” calls.

If you're checking these numbers against Cargoat today: positions came in every 45 seconds on that drive, which was the interval then. Today it's once a minute.

Whatever you end up using, ask any tracking tool two plain questions. How often does the driver's position update? And how accurate is it? “Live” can mean every few seconds or every few minutes. Ask for the number, and ask whether it holds for a whole drive, the way 5 metres did on mine.

If you run your own trucks and you're looking at delivery tracking, here's what I took from that drive.

• Drive one yourself. Before a new delivery tool goes anywhere near your drivers, run one real delivery through it, end to end, on your own phone. A desk test shows you what's supposed to happen. A real drive shows you what does.
• Be your own customer. Put your own email address on that test order. Every message lands in your inbox at the minute your customer would get it, and you'll know fast whether the timing feels right.
• Write down the minutes. Order in, checklist done, heads-up, check-in, delivered. Five timestamps say more about a delivery than a feature list does. Look for the gap that surprises you. Mine was 50 minutes long.

If you're earlier than that and still working out what your customers should see in the first place, start with delivery tracking for distributors, explained.

Cargoat is in private beta. Book a demo if you run your own trucks and want to see it for yourself. Happy to point you in the right direction either way.