Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

By Rosana Beechum

When building a fleet for your food delivery service, it’s essential to remember that the first human contact many of your customers will have with your brand is through your delivery driver. Keeping your drivers goes a long way to ensuring the customer experience is a positive one, and is vital when building a fleet. Not only will you see the long-term benefits of retaining valuable employees, but your will also experience more repeat customers. We’ve compiled the best tips for how to build your fleet and offer the best customer experience while keeping your drivers happy.

Management

A fantastic way to effectively build a fleet for your food delivery service is to use the bespoke services of a fleet management solution company like Chevin. They will ensure all the needs for your fleet are met so that your operation can run as smoothly as possible, which will free up your time and allow you to work with other areas of your business that need your attention.

Training

Ensuring your food delivery drivers are properly trained will help to create a positive experience with your customers. Providing regular training will help keep your driver up to speed with any changes in the business or policies, as well as removing the risk of bad habits forming as they’re on the road so often. This training can cover multiple areas of a driver’s job depending on how much they will be handling food or communicating with customers. Include training on how to handle food safely, hygiene standards and how to communicate effectively with customers; this will give everyone involved a satisfactory outcome.

Personal protective equipment

With the challenges that the world faced during the height of Covid-19, it’s worth remembering that delivery drivers are also key frontline workers. Provide your drivers with the resources they need to stay safe and healthy, as the virus is still a significant threat to both drivers and customers. Supplying your drivers with free personal protective equipment, also referred to as PPE, such as gloves and makes will help to ensure that all health and safety standards are met when your company makes a delivery. It will also show your drivers that you care about their health and wellbeing, improving the overall satisfaction they have when working for you.

Delivery equipment

There’s nothing worse for a delivery driver than when they don’t have the proper equipment for handling the orders. Make sure your drivers are sporting the right equipment by providing delivery bags that will keep the food your customers order at the right temperature. That way, if your driver is having trouble finding an address due to the order coming from a new build development, the food will still be piping hot, and the desserts won’t have melted.

Have your drivers proudly show off your brand by supplying them with a full uniform. Give them branded jackets and jumpers for the winter months and t-shirts or caps for when the weather is warmer. Having your drivers wear branded clothing will show off your company to everyone they interact with and give your business a more professional finish when your customers interact with your drivers.

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Rosana Beechum is a business and marketing undergraduate from Nottingham Trent University in the UK; she is attempting to share her knowledge through writing articles for small business owners.