Blockchain and Last Mile Delivery — A New Era
The Blockchain Revolution
Blockchain technology is disrupting every sphere imaginable. Practically every large centralized company is under threat from smaller, more efficient, blockchain based solutions that have new ways of doing things. And this is not mere hyperbole. Everybody is familiar with the most typical use case of cryptocurrency, which is to replace the existing banking infrastructure, credit card networks and payment processors. And there is much activity in this space with many new unique cryptocurrencies being created in mass at the moment.
But it is the niche applications where developments are really being seen. There is a past, present or future ICO for every sector and company you can think of. Healthcare data storage, the tourism industry, flights and hotels, tax returns, asset allocation, taxi services, genetic data upload, product rental services, P2P loans, VPNs, internet privacy, search engine technology, AI, legal rights, social media, online purchases, virtual reality, organic food tracking, spiritual retreats, crowdfunding, asset tokenization, gaming, gambling, sports, dating, medical marijuana, research etc. The list goes on and on and on.
The vast majority of these ICO’s will not make it. But to put it in perspective, Facebook, Google, UpWork, Freelancer, Uber, AirBnB, Booking.com, Amazon, Alibaba, Salesforce, Groupon and more are all under heavy fire. All of these services can be provided for a cheaper price with less invasion than what is typically seen in the centralized model. To go into the details of each would take more time than is practical. But one telling example is the last mile delivery market.
Blockchain and Last Mile Delivery
It should come as a shock to nobody that product delivery is going to be completely disrupted with Blockchain technology. Walmart filed a blockchain based patent to create a delivery drone service, joining the likes of Dominos and Amazon. This could solve a lot of last mile delivery issues for large operations. While blockchain technology is in many ways disrupting the system, big companies are not standing idly by. All of them are busy working on blockchain solutions to optimize their services. There are thousands of eager ICO’s willing to take their place if they are not on top of their game. It is a dangerous time to be a large, centralized company, at least compared to previous decades.
It is no secret that customers want their products immediately and are prepared to pay for it. According to a McKinsey study, a significant proportion of people are willing to pay 25% for same or next day delivery. This is to be expected. In fact, in all spheres of activity people want their product, and they want it now. This is brought on in part by the modern era where anything can be immediately bought online, be it a holiday, financial package or eBook. The difference is that with physical products, it takes some time to be delivered. How long delivery takes will make a huge difference as to whether customers shop on your site or not.
The McKinsey study also predicted that drones will make all deliveries to rural areas, that drones need to become cheaper, that regulation needs to change, that autonomous vehicles will deliver 80% of parcels, that trends seem to be the same in all countries and that same or next day delivery will account for 20–25% of all deliveries. All this will happen by 2026, according to the 2016 study.
VOLT — Centralized Delivery Killers
VOLT are leading the way in disrupting the last mile delivery market, which pertains to the last mile of delivery to a customer. Last mile delivery can frequently account for 50% of the total cost of delivery, and it is a crucial component. The current model is archaic, with huge centralized warehouses processing packages in an extremely inefficient manner, at maximum cost to the customer. VOLT is going to do to DHL, UPS and USPS what other blockchain-based companies are busy doing to Facebook, AirBnB and Uber: Render them obsolete.
VOLT already have a working model in South Korea where delivery times are between 1–5 hours; This can be compared to the 1–3 days offered by DHL. Its name is “Quick Quick” and it has served over 100,000 customers in its ten years of operation. It currently has over 150 business partners. Few ICOs has anywhere near this level of experience.
The reason they can offer this, at lower cost, is because their model is simply better. Local messengers pick up the parcel in a P2P system, in contrast to using a service that sends your package to a giant warehouse in a different state to register the package and send it back to the recipient address, quite possibly returning to the same state or even the same city. In other words, the way things are currently done in the last mile delivery market is, at very best, inefficient. VOLT finds the quickest way to deliver your parcel from point A to point B which increases efficiency, saving you time and money.
Current parcel delivery services are static. They offer a more or less flat rate for their products. VOLT’s business model leverages big data and makes use of smart contracts. It uses an algorithm to calculate the correct price for delivery. This algorithm will be tweaked and optimized, in line with dynamic delivery processes that change and update their services as market variables dictate. 5% of the transaction cost goes to VOLT, whatever the algorithm calculates it to be. The revenue is used either to provide dividends to shareholders or for company maintenance. The VOLT ICO takes place on April 18.
The New Era of Blockchain Technology
Blockchain is set to change the world as we know it. Last mile delivery is just one stark example where the existing model is completely under fire from what seems to be a far superior service. If VOLT can scale, existing delivery services are in trouble. Last mile delivery services are going to change very rapidly, even more rapidly than the previous decade. And the same applies to practically every industry you can think of.
Large corporations are not standing back and are actively pursuing blockchain technology to stay relevant. But the new era, at the very least, will see less centralized control by large companies. It will definitely consist of more nimble, decentralized services powered by AI and blockchain which will ultimately give value to consumers.
