Scandit – driver recruitment biggest issue for carriers

E-commerce deliveries are hampered by a lack of drivers according to international research from retail and shipping technology company Scandit.

Scandit surveyed 188 stakeholders in retail, parcels and logistics across 23 countries. In the US the research showed that 37.8% of carriers said that finding qualified drivers was their biggest concern, with reducing inefficiencies being the second biggest issue according to 24.4% respondents.

The report, “Is Your Last Mile Technology Fit for Purpose’ showed that larger fleets had the biggest driver recruitment problems with 47.7% ranking the problem first, with 33.3% smaller fleets ranking the problem first. Smaller fleets had more of a capacity problem while larger fleets had less so.

“This focus on employee satisfaction is potentially linked to the makeup of the workforce with a high proportion of permanent staff,” the report said, noting that 75% of respondent businesses used mostly full-time (51.1%) or only full-time (24.4%) employees.

“The pandemic has made the need to be able to scale up delivery capacity and put more drivers on the road to meet the increased volume even more acute,” said Samuel Mueller, CEO of Scandit. “With an intuitive, computer-vision-enabled app that can be quickly downloaded onto a smartphone, drivers benefit from having a range of features at their fingertips that allow them to manage their workflow more comfortably all from one device. Getting it right the first time for the end customer also helps avoid the additional costs and inefficiencies involved in making multiple delivery attempts.

“As we move beyond the pandemic, e-commerce is likely to stay a dominant feature of last mile delivery,” he added. “The technology investment decisions that companies make now will give them a decisive advantage over the competition in being able to seamlessly onboard new recruits, scale and adapt quickly to peaks in demand.”

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