What is Self-Delivery: The Complete Guide to In-House Delivery 2024

In 2020, over 15.05 billion deliveries were made globally. The online food delivery industry is expected to reach over $220 billion by 2025.

With the increase in customer demand during the global coronavirus pandemic, businesses have suffered a strong hit in their supply chain and delivery processing.

Multiple businesses are adapting to an in-house or self-delivery process to ensure on-time and reliable delivery processing.

It also helps you to minimize the dependency on third-party delivery partners and ensures an excellent customer experience. 

But to integrate a self-delivery ecosystem, you must be clear about the nitty-gritty aspects to achieve desired business growth.

Here, let’s look at the in-depth details about self-delivery for your business. 

Understanding Self-Delivery: Definition and Core Concepts

What is Self-Delivery or In-House Delivery?

Self or in-house delivery refers to the transportation handled solely using business resources. It means you can control customer communication, drivers, vehicle tracking, proof of delivery, and other different delivery operations to improve the quality of customer experience. 

You can integrate professional delivery management software to automate your delivery operations. It can help you minimize manual management and scale your overall business. 

Self-delivery shifts the control of delivery operations and customer quality into your hands. You can become more responsible for the output of your delivery to your clients.

If you outsource your delivery operations to third-party service providers, the chances of miscommunication and poor delivery experience can hinder your overall business growth.

Even if the order volume is hard to handle, that should be enough motivation to switch to self-delivery.

Key Components of Self-Delivery Systems

To successfully manage self-delivery, you need several key components in place.

• Delivery team: Hire and train drivers who can handle deliveries efficiently while maintaining a positive customer experience.
• Vehicles: Invest in reliable vehicles suited for your delivery needs. This could include cars, bikes, or vans depending on your business size and type.
• Delivery management software: Use software to streamline operations like route optimization, tracking, and proof of delivery. It helps reduce manual work and ensures timely deliveries.
• Customer communication tools: Provide updates like estimated delivery times and notifications. This keeps your customers informed and satisfied.
• Clear policies: Set up guidelines for delivery timelines, returns, and issues. A clear system helps avoid confusion for both your team and customers.

These components work together to give you full control over your delivery process.

Self-Delivery vs Third-Party Delivery

Let’s compare these two delivery methods to help you understand which might work better for your business:

Aspect	Self-Delivery	Third-Party Delivery
Cost	Higher initial investment but better long-term value	Pay-per-delivery model with additional fees
Control	Complete control over the delivery process and quality	Limited control over delivery operations
Customer Experience	Direct communication with customers; consistent brand experience	Indirect communication; varied customer experience
Flexibility	Can adjust delivery times and areas based on business needs	Dependent on third-party availability and coverage
Data Ownership	Full access to delivery and customer data	Limited access to delivery insights
Scaling	Requires significant investment to scale	Easier to scale during peak periods
Training	Can train drivers to match your service standards	No control over driver training
Brand Representation	Drivers represent your brand directly	Drivers represent multiple brands
Operational Complexity	Higher (need to manage entire operation)	Lower (outsourced management)
Customer Feedback	Direct feedback loop for improvements	Limited feedback control

How Does Self-Delivery Help You Grow Business?

Self-delivery can help you save the additional delivery cost you need to pay to third-party delivery providers. Top third-party delivery companies can charge you between 17% and 40.5% of the total order cost for successfully delivering the product to your customers.

You can utilize the funds and increase delivery profits to scale your business operations. You can also increase the overall customer experience by tailoring your delivery operations to your target market. 

Customized delivery operations can improve the quality and experience of your customers. It can result in a strong bond between your brand and the customers. You can increase your loyal customer base by providing them with an in-house delivery service.

Let’s look at a few companies that grew using the self-delivery ecosystem to get more clarity on the topic.

Real-World Success Stories in Self-Delivery

We have compiled a list of a few companies that transitioned from third-party delivery services to handling their delivery operations in-house.

Portillo’s

Fast casual chain Portillo’s wanted to stop draining a large part of its delivery order profits to third-party services as delivery fees. They wanted to start their own delivery service and create a delivery fleet with professional drivers.

Once the company launched its own delivery app, it saved money on third-party delivery services and helped improve customer relationships. 

The company offers personalized deals and coupons to its customers and provides all the benefits to keep its customers happy. While it’s a starting phase, and Portillo’s is witnessing results, the restaurant chain is still actively dependent on third-party delivery partners. 

The associations help them to fulfill the customer demand till their delivery app starts seeing more usage in the coming years. It’s a great example of slowly transitioning towards the self-delivery ecosystem to avoid poor customer experience with a sudden switch.

Baker Miller & True Grain

The self-delivery switch is not limited to large or medium-scale organizations or businesses. Even small business owners are transitioning towards in-house delivery. 

Baker Miller struggled to recoup its investment in establishing its own delivery fleet and hiring its own delivery drivers. But then, the company partnered with True Grain to offer flour and baking materials apart from its pastries, bread, and cakes.

The partnership helped to drive great revenue that could easily support the delivery drivers. They have now established a strong in-house fleet and food delivery ecosystem. The business model helped them to keep the prices and overhead cost low.

The company has quickly attracted new Chicago customers and helped them maintain a healthy profit margin to scale their business with limited resources. 

If you don’t have a strong delivery ecosystem like DoorDash self-delivery, you can collaborate with local partners who aren’t direct competitors to make in-house delivery viable.

Mutual Trading Company 

A Japanese food product wholesaler, Mutual Trading Company was only focused on B2B clients. The company pivoted during limited restaurant demand and started offering home deliveries in select cities.

Mutual Trading Company has also developed a new online store focused on home shoppers. Consumers can order required products that were previously sold exclusively to businesses. The self-delivery work for new customers transformed the condition of the business. 

The effective changes helped them tap into a new market and scale their business numbers during tough times.

These examples showcase different strategies followed by companies to manage their own delivery orders.

Benefits and Implementation of Self-Delivery Systems

The self-delivery system offers different advantages and disadvantages. Let us have a look at them.

Cost benefits and ROI analysis

Self-delivery has significant cost advantages over third-party delivery services like DoorDash and GrubHub.

1. Lower delivery costs

Self-delivery may require investment in staff and vehicles, but it eliminates the high fees charged by third-party platforms. These platforms often take a percentage of your profits or add a service fee that increases costs for your customers. 

By managing delivery in-house, you can keep your prices competitive and avoid losing customers to competitors offering lower prices.

2. Better long-term ROI

While self-delivery requires upfront investment, long-term savings can lead to better returns. Owning the delivery process reduces dependency on external providers, helping your business maintain better financial stability.

Customer experience improvements

When you handle delivery in-house, you control the quality of the experience your customers receive.

1. Streamlined communication

Direct communication with your delivery team allows you to address customer concerns quickly. You can ensure timely updates on order statuses without relying on third-party intermediaries.

2. Enhanced personalization

You can offer tailored services like exclusive deals, free extras, or discounts to build loyalty. This creates a stronger bond with your customers and improves satisfaction rates.

3. Delivery time optimization

Hiring your own drivers allows you to set clear expectations for delivery times and routes. With delivery management software, you can optimize routes for faster and more efficient deliveries. This ensures orders arrive on time, reducing customer frustration.

4. Quality control measures

In-house delivery means you oversee every aspect of the delivery process. You can train drivers to handle goods carefully and provide proof of delivery to maintain accountability. This level of quality control minimizes issues like damaged goods or late deliveries.

By implementing self-delivery, you can provide a seamless, reliable service that benefits both your business and your customers.

Overcoming Self-Delivery Challenges

Apart from all the positives, there are also a few negatives about self-delivery management. 

1. Limited scalability options

The scale of your in-house delivery operation is limited because of your capital. You also have different expenses like materials, cars, insurance, and additional wages to handle that can shrink your profits and restrict your business growth. 

2. Lack of prior experience

Running an in-house delivery operation requires thorough experience to handle the deliveries and ensure streamlined business processing. Starting a new delivery segment can expose you to difficulties and issues that might cause business troubles.

But you can choose a professional route planner to minimize your troubles and save your delivery route planning time. You can also minimize your operational costs by providing your drivers with the shortest delivery routes.

A right route scheduling software like Upper can help you deal with route planning and delivery chaos. Let’s explore how Upper route planner can help you boost delivery efficiencies regardless of your prior experience.

Utilize Upper for Self-Delivery and Achieve Desired Business Growth

Upper Route Planner is a well-developed  route planning and optimization software for managing your delivery operations and providing the best routes.

You can bypass the complexities in starting self-delivery operations and get rid of manual route planning and optimization process. 

You can get optimized delivery routes for multiple delivery orders within no time and extract detailed performance reports for optimization. Upper can help you minimize your time and effort in route planning to boost your productivity and efficiency, much like how Trader Joe’s delivery streamlines its operations for maximum customer satisfaction.

Access a 7 days FREE trial to streamline your delivery operations and achieve desired business goals.

Final Thoughts

Self-delivery operations are becoming popular among businesses during the post-pandemic times. Integrating self-delivery into your business is a high time to increase profits, minimize delivery costs, and deliver a quality customer experience.

In this process, you may require assistance from online tools. So, we recommend you choose Upper Route Planner to automize  delivery route planning and simplifying the initial delivery troubles.