Uber Eats style app helps families affected in times of crisis

Using emails and spreadsheets to manage the complex and time-pressured logistics was no longer enough for the Australia-based charity.

The rapid onset of the pandemic meant they needed an automated system to manage the food deliveries - and they needed it up and running as quickly as possible.

While the humanitarian organisation had previously been delivering food boxes to victims of domestic violence, the pandemic required them to scale up operations and act as an emergency food bank for people and families in self-quarantine, self-isolation or those struggling to access food supplies.

PhoenixDX worked with the charity to build the Food Box Delivery application. The application allocates the government’s support requests to the charity's queue and matches them to the nearest distribution site. Deliveries are optimised into delivery runs. The volunteers receive notifications and have access to a summary of key details, such as the number of boxes, distance, and duration, among others, to ensure optimal efficiency in delivering the food boxes. The volunteers accept the task, drive to the destination, deliver the boxes and take a photograph as proof of delivery. RRT and the client can track deliveries in near real time.