What is “avoidable courier wait time”?

Why is “avoidable courier wait time” important?

A perfect order delivery can only happen when all the parties involved collaborate to make that happen.

Our data show that receiving orders fast is important for customers, and that long delivery times often lead to order cancellations, negative ratings and the possibility of customers never ordering from a store again.

When couriers wait for a long time they are not spending this time delivering other orders, which directly affects their earnings. Moreover, when couriers are left waiting for too long, they may decide to reject the assignment and focus on other orders.

Long wait times also reduce the number of couriers available to deliver orders, which in turn affects other stores and has a negative effect on the entire marketplace, since fewer orders can be delivered.

How can I keep “avoidable wait time” low?

Prepare orders on time

• Our algorithm automatically calculates the ideal time for the courier to arrive and sends the courier based on that. Don’t wait for couriers to arrive to start preparing the order. If a courier arrives before the preparation time you agreed on when accepting the order, we don’t count that time as “avoidable wait time”.
• Once you accept the order, you will see a countdown of the time left on the Orders app. That’s the time after which the courier wait time will count as avoidable. You can use that to make sure your order preparation is on track and adjust your kitchen operations accordingly.

If you need more time with an order, increase its preparation time

• When you receive an order, we estimate the preparation time based on past preparation times. Before accepting the order, you can customize the preparation time from the Orders app.
• If you increase the preparation time, we will delay the arrival of the courier and let customers know that you need more time.

Remember that you can change the preparation time before accepting the order, but not after you accept it.

Note: we’re making this feature gradually available to all partners. If it’s not available for you yet, it soon will be.

If your store is too busy, let customers know you need more time

• If you have a high volume of orders and you need time to get your operations back to normal, you can use the Busy Mode option from the Orders app.
• While Busy Mode is active, additional preparation time is added to all new orders, and the predicted delivery time for your store is updated. Our algorithm also adjusts accordingly to delay the arrival of couriers for new orders.

Note: we’re making this feature gradually available to all partners. If it’s not available for you yet, it soon will be.

Finished preparing? Let us know so that we can send the courier sooner

If you happen to finish preparing an order before the preparation time, you can use the [Mark as ready] button in the Orders app. When you use the button, we send the courier sooner to try to shorten the total delivery time.

How can I monitor my “avoidable courier wait time”?

You can go to the Operations section of the Manager Portal to find information about your avoidable courier wait time. “Avoidable courier wait time” also counts towards the achievement of the  status.