EASI is one of the most popular food delivery apps in Australia, delivering gourmet food from 25,000+ restaurant partners to customers doorsteps. As one of the largest delivery platforms in Australia, EASI seeks to improve all their users daily lives. EASI operates as a food delivery, grocery delivery and travel booking services platform with a food delivery service that is now available in more than 30 cities across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, U.K., U.S.A and Canada. EASI also holds the largest market share of Asian users in the Australia food delivery market.

Making Every Step Count The most critical part of a delivery service is of course getting the order to the customer in a timely manner which makes every step of the journey from original location to customer highly time sensitive. With EASI making great inroads to the Australian food delivery service and expanding operations, the business looked to partner with the Alibaba ecosystem of businesses in order to identify how to maximize delivery efficiency, reduce costs and remove some of the manual processes that slows down delivery times.

The distribution problem of takeaway orders can generally be modelled as a Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problem (DVRP) problem with several complex constraints. Alibaba Group’s logistics company Cainiao helped EASI establish an order allocation model through DVRP computing services. Based on the real time location of each order, customers order time, delivery time constraints and distance, the solution is able to calculate the optimal order allocation time and delivery partners. To ensure an optimal order distribution and help reduce the overall order fulfillment process, the DVRP algorithm automatically increases the overall delivery efficiency by 32% and saves manual dispatching effort by 72% which in turn improves the service experience of EASI customers. By optimizing these parts of the business EASI are also able to reduce delivery costs by 18% which is a direct bottom line improvement to the business.

An Algorithm at Work When riders are faced with multiple orders they are provided a distribution route as well as an order sequence in advance which greatly improves the riders’ delivery efficiency and riding safety during delivery times. EASI uses the order planning service provided by Cainiao in order for EASI riders to intuitively identify the order sequence and best routes. This is delivered through the riders’ app and avoids any challenges that new delivery partners may have through lack of experience. The overall benefit of this has meant that customers get food delivery faster and EASI have more efficiency and safer riders. The business is also saving money through optimized delivery and rider routes – a true win – win situation.

The Future for EASI With EASI realizing the benefits of the DRVP system, they are now looking at expansion plans for further areas of the business. Grocery delivery, home services and city errands are all in development phase and will make use of the DVRP solution from Cainiao. The organization is also looking further afield at cities in Asia, Europe and North America to service customers with food, grocery and other home delivery needs.