\South African consumers are becoming increasingly reliant on home delivery services as a result of social distancing efforts.
This is not expected to fade anytime soon as the country faces the reality of an extended lockdown and probability of further extensions or tiered lockdown efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
“Businesses will have to gear up to provide home delivery, or beef up existing fleets, as it is expected to play a crucial role in the coming months,” says Derick de Vries, head of fleet management at Standard Bank Group. “The impact of the virus is shaping consumer behaviour and we are witnessing a significant increase in e-commerce activity and demand for home delivery.”
More consumers are now purchasing their essential items like groceries, meal kits and medication online as they look to avoid physical contact and reduce the risk of infection. This, De Vries says, is putting pressure on businesses to ensure that they have enough solutions in place to support the evolving consumer demand for online availability and home delivery.
It is hoped that should South Africa be successful at containing the virus, other sectors of the economy currently deemed non-essential will be opened. But with disruptions to future movements in the future, businesses must plan for their products and services to be delivered to customers who can’t get to them physically. It presents either new business opportunity, or an extension of a current business practice or plan.
“The new normal is digital, the events of the last month have proved this. For businesses to remain viable going forward, they will need an online extension of their business, where consumers can view and purchase products, and a fleet of vehicles to carry out deliveries. These systems, which some companies may already have in place, should then be adapted for the current environment.”
A delivery vehicle or a fleet of vehicles is then needed to support deliveries of packages to customers. Vehicles are, however, expensive to buy, equip and maintain. And the risk of virus transmission adds another layer of complexity for business owners managing fleets.
Drivers will be at risk for example, should they need to pay for expenses such as fuel or tolls with cash. The manual reconciliation of expenses is also often mislaid by drivers. But there are technology solutions that do offer the opportunity to ease some of the associated pressure and risk.
“The evolution of technology in the industry means that fleet managers can access customised, in-depth information on a regular, and in certain instances, real-time basis, via online platforms,” explains De Vries. “These include daily, weekly, and monthly reports on fuel cost data, and the ability to use predictive modelling for the outcome of variances to their own fleet and operational data.”
Standard Bank recently acquired a 40% stake in Payment24 to further support fleet owners with digital technology solutions that work to eliminate risk and inefficiencies. The Payment24 platform aims to eliminate the hassle of managing, monitoring and controlling fleet fuelling transactions using real time, cardless RFID, mobile and cloud technologies.
Further to that, Standard Bank offers a fleet management card, issued per vehicle rather than driver, which eliminates the need to deal with cash and offers convenience in paying for, monitoring and controlling vehicle running costs. This also helps facilitate savings on diesel with a number of oil company partnerships to choose from.
The impact of Covid-19 is changing payment behaviours. This has largely come on the back of the rise in e-commerce activity. With concerns around transmission via cash, consumers will want to the option to make a contactless payment. Business owners can consider a contactless payments provider like SnapScan, which removes the need to withdraw and exchange cash.