Blackbay partners with what3words
Addressing system specialist what3words and Blackbay, a provider of mobility-enabled solutions for the transport and logistics industry, have announced a partnership to provide “personalised delivery to any location”. what3words is a global location reference system that has divided the world into 57 trillion three metre by three metre squares and pre-assigned each of them a unique three-word address. The three-word address system can then be used to pinpoint any location on the planet.
By working with what3words, Blackbay can offer its e-commerce customers a delivery solution which sends items to an individual’s current location, as opposed to address.
what3words is integrated into Blackbay’s Delivery Connect. The solution gives instant visibility of all in-depot and driver activity to the logistics operator and allows items to be tracked and traced. Information captured throughout this process is then made available to consumers in real-time, enabling them to monitor progress, manage their preferences, update the carrier and ensure successful delivery.
Commenting on the new partnership with what3words, Nigel Doust, the CEO of Blackbay, said: “We’ve gone from waiting by the post-box for weeks, to getting pizzas on moving trains. Delivery companies are no longer delivering to an address, but to an individual. Delivery has become vastly more personal and more responsive, but consumer expectations continue to rise. With online shopping now second nature, we’re moving to an on-demand economy where a delivery could be required whilst shopping, or whilst visiting the park.
“With W3W, Blackbay is able to provide far greater delivery accuracy inside of post codes and to an individual on the beach, at a concert in the park but in all cases: to the individual.
“Using Blackbay, a merchant can offer rapid-fire delivery of an item direct to a buyer’s location – even pinpointing the individual’s location at the beach or park. With what3words we can pinpoint that person’s exact location and navigate to it using any additional delivery instructions the buyer might share based on their surroundings or movements.”
Chris Sheldrick, CEO, what3words, added: “Poor addressing costs delivery companies millions a year in last mile and address validation inefficiencies. In the UK 0.5% of deliveries fail due to poor addressing – which means 4.5m attempts per year fail. Street addressing is often inadequate and whilst coordinates are accurate they are prone to errors in transcription and communication. We knew that our ability to help improve this accuracy would be an ideal fit for Blackbay’s innovation brief, but also for improving first-time delivery rates across the industry.”
