Siva's Delivery Check

Customers tap one of three buttons when my tempo drops their goods, so by night I know which routes are running clean and which are slipping.

Who this is for

Siva Kumar runs SK Transports from a shed in Ganapathy, Coimbatore. Four tempos, two hired drivers, his nephew on the third, himself on the fourth when somebody is off. Twenty-two drops a day of knitwear cartons to shops in Tiruppur, Erode and Salem, eleven hundred rupees a drop. The moment is nine at night, chapati in one hand, phone propped against the sugar tin, when he wants to know whether the Erode run behaved itself.

How the job is done today

The only news Siva gets is a photo. Drivers post the signed bill into a WhatsApp group called SK Drops, twenty-odd photos a day, and he scrolls them while eating. A photo proves the carton reached. It does not say it reached at eleven instead of nine, or that one box had a wet corner. Complaints come the slow way, from the garment company's office three days later, by which time the shop has already told two other shops. His notebook has a page per tempo, but only drops and diesel go in it.

The screens, in order

1. Today's drops — Siva puts in the day's drops each morning with shop name, phone number, route and driver, so the day has a shape before the tempos leave.
2. Drop done — The driver taps one line to say that drop is finished, which is the only thing that sends the shop its three buttons.
3. Three buttons — The shopkeeper opens the link on their own phone and taps one of three answers with nothing to fill in and nothing to join.
4. Tap received — Tells the shopkeeper the tap went through, so they do not tap four times on a weak signal.
5. Night summary — One message at nine at night showing each route, how many drops, how many taps came back and what they said.
6. Route page — Opens one route to show which shop said what, with the phone number next to it, so Siva can ring before the shop rings the garment company.

What it keeps track of

• Drops — which shop, phone number, which town, which route, which driver, which day, finished or not
• Taps — which drop, which of the three buttons, what time it came in
• Routes — route name, towns on it, usual driver, usual number of drops
• Drivers — name, phone number, which tempo, working today or not

The one decision that matters

Whose phone shows the three buttons. Option one, the driver holds out his own phone while the shopkeeper signs the bill, and nearly everybody taps. Option two, the shop gets a WhatsApp link on their own phone a minute after the driver marks the drop finished, and maybe half tap. Go with the second. A shopkeeper will not press late with the driver standing in front of him holding the phone, so option one buys a high count of useless taps. Siva is not counting taps, he is trying to find out that the Erode run leaves too late. Half the answers, honestly given, tell him that. Full marks from a polite hand tell him nothing.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out the driver scorecard. The taps are about routes and timings, and the second a driver sees himself ranked against the others he starts asking shops to press the green one, or stops marking drops finished at all. Also leave out the typed complaint box, stars out of five, and photos of damaged cartons. Three buttons is the whole reason a man signing a bill with one hand will bother.

How you would know it worked

One night in October Siva reads that the Erode run got reached late from four of seven shops. Next morning he rings the Chithode shop before they ring the garment company, and moves that drop ahead of the Perundurai one. Nobody had complained to him yet.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run four tempos out of Ganapathy carrying knitwear cartons to shops in Tiruppur, Erode and Salem. I want an app where each morning I put in the day's drops with shop name, phone number, route and driver. When my driver finishes a drop he taps it done on his phone, and that shop gets a WhatsApp link with only three buttons, reached on time, reached late, something was damaged. No joining, no filling, nothing to read. Most of these taps will come between ten and half past eleven from shops on poor signal, so the page must open fast and tell them clearly the tap went through. At nine at night send me one message with each route, how many drops, how many taps came back and what they said, and let me open a route to see which shop said what along with its phone number.