Collect&Go Drivers: the home delivery service for private delivery drivers
Help someone in your neighbourhood by delivering their groceries to their home while earning a bit on the side: this is the principle of Collect&Go Drivers. These private delivery drivers use a convenient app. Right up the alley of the Colruyt Group IT staff!
App to deliver groceries at home
Collect&Go Drivers is an app that brings together two groups of people: those who want groceries delivered at home and those who want to earn something on the side. As a driver, you pick up groceries at a Collect&Go collection point and deliver them to customers in your neighbourhood. An example of the sharing economy, which has already attracted 500 active delivery drivers in 13 cities.
Home delivery service started during Covid pandemic
"With the Collect&Go concept, we are constantly looking for ways to make things easier for our customers," says Laurens, commercial developer within the online grocery service's innovation lab. "In the innovation lab, we come up with new concepts, launch pilot projects and if something works or catches on, we also assist in the scaling-up process. Drivers is such a project. In April 2020 – in full Covid period – we launched a home delivery service with local delivery volunteers, which meant people could pick up Collect&Go groceries and deliver them to their neighbours. An instant hit! In 2021, we decided to give this concept – which is now called Drivers – more punch, with automations behind the scenes, optimisations for customers, as well as an app for delivery drivers."
A melting pot of stakeholders
Dries has been in the project team since day one. "As a solution analyst at Colruyt Group IT, I am the bridge between all stakeholders, each of which contribute to the process," he explains. And there are quite a lot of them: business developers, IT developers, data analysts, marketers, lawyers, customer service staff, and so on. "All these different domains, that's what makes my job so fascinating. One day I'm discussing wireframes and mock-ups for the app, the next day I'm tinkering with the working methods for the store employees in the pick-up points. Incredibly interesting to continuously refine and align all those aspects."
“Seeing the project grow step by step gives me a boost of energy.”
2 ways to deliver groceries at home
When Collect&Go decided in 2022 to send out their own home delivery drivers, project manager Caroline joined the Drivers project team. "Suddenly there was a strict deadline for the Drivers project, which had to be rolled out simultaneously with the home deliveries by our own Collect&Go delivery service. My main task was to make sure we delivered the project on time, within the predefined scope and budget."
"I made sure that any obstacles that came our way were resolved as quickly as possible, to allow the project team to continue working smoothly. For our customers, it's simple: depending on the region where they live, it may or may not be possible to have groceries delivered to their home. But behind the scenes, we were working with two teams on two different processes, in the same test environment, on the same website, etc. That was the biggest challenge for me as the project manager."
"In my job, I contribute to change and innovation within the organisation. The fact that we managed to set up a solution with a concrete impact on the lives of many people is obviously very satisfying."
"This IT project has an impact on the lives of a lot of people. That gives me a sense of accomplishment."
Innovating in the sharing economy
Collect&Go Drivers is a great example of how innovations start small but can eventually have a large impact. "We have put a platform on the market that contributes to society, completely in line with Colruyt Group's role as a sustainable and innovative entrepreneur", Laurens concludes.
"Drivers choose which orders they take or don't take. The number of deliveries per day is limited though. We're aiming at people who want to do others a favour, but it's not meant to be a full-time job. I am enormously proud of the result: no other retailer in Belgium has set up something similar under their own management."
