The Art of Managing Ground Fleet — Secrets revealed by Shadowfax

Building a Strong and Happy Driver Community

In a span of a little under 3 years, Shadowfax has sourced more than 45 thousand drivers on the ground, and with time, we have learnt how to keep them happy and excited about the work. We have achieved this by constant engagement and transparent operational metrics that help the drivers grow both in terms of earnings and professional profile. That has resulted in the lowest attrition rate of 7% in the last quarter, which is the lowest in the industry.

Technology-Driven Solutions for Fleet Management

We have developed some interesting and relevant solutions, for the first time in the industry, to manage the fleet in a completely technology-driven manner:

Payouts

Drivers can check the money they make the next day at 8 o’clock on the app, purposely designed to make sure they see that before their next workday begins. Since they are not earning fixed salaries, seeing the money they earn right at the beginning of the day gives them a sense of satisfaction.

Issue Resolution

If any of the payouts have any errors, drivers have full control to raise issues to a dedicated support team. The drivers can add details regarding the type of issue (missing incentive or delay in payment), and issues are promptly solved within 24 hours.

Communication

One of the key products that was missing was mass and specific notifications being sent to the drivers. Shadowfax holds in its hands a tool to not only mass broadcast information to or ask for feedback from the fleet with rich UI, but also send over specific notifications to individual riders through automated engines.

Referral System

A powerful tool to help grow a community is through a referral system where drivers can bring their friends to work at Shadowfax. Being able to track their referrals, being notified of them completing bonus criteria, this feature helps Shadowfax expand its fleet while the drivers gain extra income.

Shift Management

Drivers can see their expected roster, which is maintained by Shadowfax on the basis of a demand prediction engine. They can see their reporting locations and timings and can apply for leave a day in advance, which allows us to arrange for additional fleet using its serviceability model.

Leadership Perspective on Fleet Management

“Any organization that handles a ground fleet of over a 1000 drivers, the month-on-month attrition numbers are alarming. Shadowfax has also moved through the same churn and, with time, has gained understanding to manage the ground fleet through technology solutions which cover a wide range of aspects in drivers' day-to-day activities,” says Ankit Singhal, Head — Financial Planning at Shadowfax.

What's Next for Shadowfax Drivers?

Some interesting products are in the pipeline at Shadowfax, including a full-fledged training solution built inside the app for drivers to learn and grow. We continue to break barriers and think beyond the ordinary.

About Shadowfax

Shadowfax is India’s largest crowdsourced delivery platform with a presence in 70+ cities across India and 7000+ daily active delivery partners. Shadowfax’s unique app enables delivery of food, groceries, pharmacy and e-commerce for businesses and helps them create customer delight using technology. With a relentless focus on engineering pleasant experiences for customers, Shadowfax envisions becoming the most desirable and trustworthy delivery platform for customers.