Amid the current epidemic resurgence, citizens’ booming online orders of daily necessities have posed a challenge to deliverers’ capacity. To tackle the issues coming along, ‘unmanned delivery’ is the answer of Dada Group (Nasdaq: DADA), China’s leading local on-demand delivery and retail platform, which has deployed its unmanned delivery services to the roads and markets in cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hefei, with JD Logistics and autonomous delivery vehicle developers White Rhino.
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Autonomous delivery vehicles can be seen working in Yonghui’s Shanghai Anting branch and SEVEN FRESH’s chain stores in Futian of Shenzhen and Daxing of Beijing. Operated through Dada’s unmanned delivery open platform, the vehicles can process orders, pick packages, and wait to be dispatched to drive to delivery spots in communities nearby before delivery staff pick up the packages at the spots – ensuring a thoroughly contactless store-to-home process, to minimize infection risks. In addition, the unmanned vehicles are disinfected multiple times a day to ensure the safety during the whole delivery process.
Developed in collaboration with JD Logistics and the autonomous delivery vehicle developer White Rhino, Dada’s unmanned delivery platform was launched in July 2021. It bears the company’s vision of building up an unmanned delivery ecosystem within the on-demand supermarket consumption scenario, to provide smarter delivery services to merchant partners such as SEVEN FRESH, Sam’s Club and Yonghui.
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Based on Dada’s years of cumulation in delivery algorithms and its rich experience in operation, the unmanned delivery platform can equip its connected unmanned delivery partners with a large number of on-demand delivery orders and standardized operational tools, making efficient unmanned vehicle delivery a dream come true. As of March 2022, the platform has managed to support more than 30,000 supermarket delivery orders.
From a practical point of view, unmanned delivery, if applicated in large scale, is characterized by higher load capacity, stronger stability and higher safety, which make it an ideal solution to the pain points of daily goods delivery. Taking supermarkets’ on-demand retailing scenario as an example, unmanned delivery goes through various steps such as picking, loading, driving, and fulfillment. Through Dada’s operation tools, a deep human-machine synergy can be created, and even in bad weather, orders can still be fulfilled at a high level, making the entire delivery process safer and more efficient, helping merchants reduce costs, and improving consumers’ shopping experience.
During the Spring Festival period (Jan 31 ~ Feb 6) this year, Dada’s unmanned delivery platform played an important role as a strong complementary work force – data shows the average fulfillment rate of the unmanned delivery platform is over 95%.
The on-demand delivery industry is becoming more open and collaborative as an ecosystem. Technology is playing a core role to help partners collaborate through digital platforms, and to optimize operational efficiency. Positioned to be the establisher of the unmanned delivery ecosystem, Dada also aims to link its upstream and downstream partners, and scale up the R&D of the software and infrastructure for unmanned delivery services as part of its latest efforts to empower retailing with smarter delivery solutions.