Milk float delivery?

According to a report that landed on my desk recently, it will be excellence in fulfilment which determines the future winners and losers in online retailing. Most online retailers are currently failing to satisfy consumers, the
report claims, and goes on to argue that a significant investment in delivery functions is required if the electronic retailers are ever to make a return. E-customers, we are told, expect a higher level of speed and service. And this expectation is extended to order fulfilment. Delivery must be right first time, but getting it right first time does not necessarily mean within 48 hours; delivery as promised is more important than speed.
So given the current debate concerning this “delivery conun-drum”, it came as no surprise to learn this month that Unigate and Express Dairies, the two largest milk groups in Britain, are both working on plans to provideadoorstepdeliveryservicefor e-commerce companies. Unigate, with an estimated 2,300 floats, is said to be in talks with potential partners to deliver small volumes of compact, high-value packages such as cloth-ing. Express Dairies, with around 2,400 floats, is said to have been in negotiations with e-commerce companies about fulfil-ment partnerships.
Neither company would comment, but industry sources say it would be surprising if both are not running some sort of e-deliv-ery service by the end of this year.
The advantages appear to outweigh the potential drawbacks. After all, milk floats could solve the problem of e-commerce cus-tomers not being in, as most milk rounds are made while peo-ple are still at home. Since most floats normally stand idle once the milk rounds are completed, the dairy companies could also explore the possibility of later package deliveries in the after-noon and early evening. The dairy companies possess a well-established “hub and spoke” distribution network: Unigate, for example, has around 18 wholesale depots and 100 local cen-tres from which it can serve 1 .3 million customers.
However, there are one or two minor problems with this view:
not least of which is that, amid all this speculation over e-deliv-ery, Unigate has agreed to sell its dairy business to rival opera-tor Dairy Crest in a deal worth £250 million. Then there is secu-rity, since the service still has to avoid the situation whereby high-value items are left on the doorstep.
Nevertheless, it is a strong indication that online companies are looking to tackle the “delivery conundrum”, and are willing to develop new partnerships—even with the milkman.