- Postmates added a new curbside pickup feature for delivery drivers and customers.
- Any business with a Postmates tablet can activate curbside pickup on the app.
- Customers and drivers will “Check In” in real-time when they arrive to alert the business.
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The coronavirus pandemic drastically altered our habits and routines virtually overnight, forcing us to stay inside and avoid gatherings at all costs. Restaurants and bars have been hit as hard as any business, doing everything they can to stay open while keeping their employees and their customers safe. For many of them, this meant limiting service to pickup and delivery, and on Friday, Postmates made our lives slightly easier with a new feature.
Postmates was the first online delivery service to introduce non-contact delivery at the beginning of March, and today, the company is beating its rivals to the punch once again with curbside pickup. From what we know about COVID-19, being in an enclosed space with other people for any length of time is risky, which is why Postmates wants to help local businesses drop off orders at the curb so that customers don’t have to go inside.
According to a blog post on Postmates’ website, any merchant with a Postmates tablet is now able to offer curbside pickup via the app. They can also choose for this to be the only service they offer, so if they want all delivery drivers and customers to wait outside to have the order handed off curbside, they can do so.
“To use this feature, the merchant chooses whether or not they want to hand off their goods curbside,” the company explained in the same blog post on Friday. “If the customer chooses pickup, the customer will “Check In” in real time when they get to the merchant to notify them to come outside. The fleet app will also support curbside pickup, so Postmates will be able to let the merchant know that they are there to pick up the item. The fleet app will also support curbside pickup, so the fleet will be able to let the merchant know that they are there to pick up the item — this further reduces close-contact human interactions in the delivery chain.”
As states begin to reopen, individual businesses will be doing what they can to keep everyone safe, and with curbside pickup, they can ensure that as little contact as necessary is made between employees and customers while keeping the business open. Unfortunately, we can expect to see many places of business reopen in the coming days with no regard for the ongoing crisis, but it’s nice to know that there are tools available for the ones that care.
