Thousands of food delivery workers from Uber Eats, Hungry Panda and Fantuan have adopted a new app and thermal food locker drop off system that’s been popping up in dozens of Melbourne high-rises, reducing wait times and making deliveries quicker, easier and more secure.
Foodifox 3PD, from Australian thermal food locker startup Foodifox, “is eliminating lobby and delivery handoff chaos as a result of confusing high-rise building access and delivery rules, which often leave drivers lost, waiting and searching for customers or meals left cold and unattended at reception desks,” according to the company.
Foodifox has been leveraging the global momentum of thermal lockers for delivery and pick-up convenience bringing the trend to Australian high-rise buildings, such as Swanston Central. The Foodifox 3PD app is the next step in the company’s journey, delivery drivers can earn points and rewards via the app by scanning a QR code and then taking a photo of the food delivery in the thermal locker that is then ready to be collected securely by the customer.
“Over 20,000 food deliveries have been made across Melbourne via Hungry Panda, Fantuan and Uber Eats using Foodifox. The introduction of Foodifox’s 3PD app is set to further solve the issues gig economy workers face such as delivery confusion, delivery access, security concerns and mis-deliveries, with a reward system in place,” Foodifox said. “As the only provider of its kind to directly interact with the drivers – Foodifox offers guidance throughout their delivery routes, enhancing overall efficiency and reliability.”
This new process for deliveries has also proven popular with customers. Research conducted prior to the launch of Foodifox 3PD found that more than half (53%) of high-rise residents said they’d experienced significant delays with deliveries and 37% reported that they often had to meet their drivers on the street, according to Foodifox. “The survey of more than 1000 food delivery customers found two in five (40%) have received cold or damaged food and more than one in four had a delivery person (26%) that was completely lost.”
Foodifox co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Tim Pagram says: “The gig economy is an important sector for Australia with over 250,000 people employed in short term, phone app-driven work. In Victoria alone, this sector is worth around $6.3 billion to the economy.”
“However, current conditions make it harder for these workers to do their job. Take food deliveries as an example, drivers are often struggling to locate where product needs to be delivered, waiting times are often increased and when food deliveries go wrong, they are often the first ones to be blamed. That’s why we’ve launched Foodifox 3PD app, to not only alleviate these problems but also to reward and give back to the drivers.”