In an instant, delivery platforms and services have become the last link between quarantined consumers and the struggling service economy. As a result, these companies are rolling out best practices and guidelines as fast as possible to comfort employees and customers alike.
Delivery.com is among the companies rapidly adapting their business practices to serve customers under lockdown, CEO Jed Kleckner told Cheddar.
The online platform is using distributed text-based training to get its 1,700 drivers up to speed on the safest way to handle deliveries without transmitting COVID-19.
The company has partnered with a group of New York City-based technologists headed by Dan Teran, founder of Managed by Q, that is working to develop coronavirus-related solutions.
“With them, we’ve put in place a technology that enables us to train in a short text-based — either through SMS or WhatsApp — messaging drills that they can do daily over a seven-day period to certify them as having best-practice guidelines, whether it be from the [World Health Organization] or the CDC,” Kleckner said.
Basically the training provides guidance on how to avoid direct contact with customers.
“We will keep on sending the drills until they pass them with 100 percent,” he said. “Right now, we’re making sure we’re pushing out the message to every one of our drivers.”
Customers can also input specific delivery instructions into the platform, which could be crucial for someone who is experiencing symptoms and under a total, no-contact lockdown. That way, the delivery person can leave the order outside of a door or in another safer location.
In addition, the company has opened up its merchandise store to drivers to give them access to
“everything that we can possibly get into their hands, as it were, to help stop COVID,” including gloves, hand sanitizer and even masks, if available.
Kleckner noted how much the restaurant industry is struggling and urged businesses to consider third-party delivery services to help keep themselves afloat through the pandemic.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
