Cutting-edge tech gets food to you hotter

Food delivery platforms are using cutting-edge intelligent delivery technologies to get your food to you hotter, and safer, after calls from authorities to improve.

A smart earphone module allowing deliverymen to receive orders, navigate and contact customers via simple voice signals is just one example, which will be used by all deliverymen of major food delivery platform ele.me within the year. 

This will not only ensure smarter delivery, but allow deliverymen to communicate while biking without having to touch their phones.

An intelligent dispatching system which covers route design, time estimations, allocation solutions, and the balance of supply and demand is already being used by ele.me and Baidu, significantly reducing the rate of empty vehicles and cutting costs.

"The system can accurately forecast the time of delivery, route and order load, and change dispatching order based on different situations such as delivery peak time and change of delivery persons," said Li Pei, head of the system team.

The system has shortened the average delivery time to 28.6 minutes per order, with a 99 percent rate of on-time delivery, based on tests in 30 cities.

The food delivery platform is also trialling meal delivery robots, which can take elevators independently in office buildings and deliver food to customers after receiving food from deliverymen on the ground floor, saving up to ten minutes per order. The robots can so far work in enclosed environments like residential buildings, office buildings and hotels, said Ele.me Chief Executive Officer Zhang Xuhao.

The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration has ordered online food delivery platforms to improve techniques in food delivery such as the sealing and packaging of food.

A big data system has been established and data sharing between food delivery platforms and the government will be strengthened further to improve food safety, according to the administration.