The trilemma for delivery on demand

In the world of cryptocurrencies, there is a popular maxim called the blockchain trilemma, which refers to the difficulty of simultaneously achieving three desirable properties in a blockchain network: security, scalability, and decentralization.

The trilemma states that it is impossible to have all three properties at their maximum level. As a blockchain network becomes more secure, it becomes less scalable; The more scalable it becomes, the less secure it is; The more decentralized it becomes, the more insecure and less scalable it becomes.

When designing a blockchain system, tradeoffs must be made between all three parameters that result in an acceptable balance for a given use case.

There’s a similar trilemma with on-demand delivery in the convenience food space:

It rises to the challenge of balancing three of the most important factors in the delivery of on-demand ready meals: speed, cost-effectiveness and affordability.

With the pre-order delivery model, it is impossible to maximize all three factors at the same time.

For example, in order to pass on low delivery costs to the consumer, i.e. affordability, the delivery system must sacrifice profitability or speed. To be profitable, the company must charge high fees that make it unaffordable, or improve its cost base by being slow. To be fast, the business must be profitable, which means either charging high fees or foregoing those costs and sacrificing profitability.

Below I will give examples of the advantages and disadvantages of each and why it is not possible to get around them when using the existing delivery model for ordered goods.

Holders using this existing delivery model include:

delivery robot. Route-based food and ice cream trucks. delivery apps. Fast trade. delivery robot

Delivery robot providers such as Starship, Nuro, Serve, Kiwi and Coco reduce costs by automating the driver. This cost reduction helps them achieve profitability and affordability, but they sacrifice speed to achieve it.

A robot takes longer to deliver than a human and significantly longer when it comes to slow robots on the sidewalk.

Route based trucks

Route-based ice cream and food trucks have been around for decades, but new companies like Scream Truck and Zing are trying to modernize them.

However, they operate on the same underlying model of pre-ordered goods and therefore can only become more profitable and affordable; no speed

Because they are route-based, they park in central locations, forcing consumers to go to them, queue up, and purchase goods to consume or take home. A considerably slow experience.