Two ways to get an order to a nearby customer: your own van on a planned run, or an on-demand courier (DoorDash, Uber, and similar) when coverage allows. Both are Available. This page covers your own van in detail; on-demand is summarised below and in Integrations.
Status: Available. Mapping and route optimisation for your own runs are included. On-demand courier accounts are ours too — you do not bring a Google, routing, DoorDash or Uber account.
What it is for#
Local delivery (own van) is for kitchens, bakeries, greengrocers, and anyone else who delivers with their own drivers on a planned run for a calendar day.
Shoppers choose local delivery at checkout when you have turned it on. Wholesale buyers can land on the same day's van when you add their orders to a run.
On-demand couriers — Available#
When you prefer a gig courier instead of your own driver, turn on on-demand under Storefront → Fulfillment. Checkout quotes a live courier fee for the address, collects it with the order, and dispatches after payment. Shoppers get status, ETA and a tracking link. Outside coverage the option is hidden.
On-demand is a separate checkout method from your own-van local delivery — an order uses one or the other, not both.
What you set up#
In Storefront → Fulfillment, under Local delivery:
- Which weekdays the van runs
- How much notice you need (same-day allowed if you set notice to zero)
- An optional cutoff time in your store's timezone
- Optional time windows the shopper can pick (for example morning / afternoon)
Those rules are what checkout offers. The server re-checks them when the order is placed, so a stale form cannot book a day you no longer run.
On the product, you can set delivery units — how much van space one unit takes — so auto-assign and routing can pack by load as well as by stop count. On each driver, you can set a stops-per-day limit and optional unit or weight caps.
Building a run#
Open Local Delivery, pick the date, choose a driver, and select the stops. You can:
- Save draft — keep the van without emailing anyone
- Preview as driver — open the same stop list the driver will see
- Print / CSV — a signature sheet for the clipboard, or a spreadsheet
- Email the driver — they get the manifest plus a link that works on their phone for seven days (no app, no login)
- Re-optimize — re-sequence open stops after you change the van
- Auto-assign — split the day's unassigned drops across drivers by area and capacity, as drafts you review before anyone is emailed
A run is one driver's trip for that date. Two vans means two runs. Order status follows the van: emailing moves confirmed work to out for delivery; when the driver marks a stop delivered, the order closes.
What the driver sees#
The share link is a simple phone page: visit order, address, phone, line items, promised window, and (when routing provides it) an ETA.
Before marking a stop delivered, the driver can:
- Check off each line item (useful when something is short or substituted)
- Attach an optional photo and signature as proof of delivery
- Or mark the stop missed, with a reason, so you can rebook another day
Missed attempts stay on the run history. Undo is available if they tapped the wrong house.
After the drop#
On the order page you see when it was delivered, by whom, and the photo and signature if the driver took them. Only your team can open them.
If the driver marked items as short, you get a notification and the order shows Short delivery with what was missing. For card-paid orders, one click refunds the missing items — the amount accounts for any discount and tax on those lines, and delivery fees are not refunded. It can only be refunded once per drop. For invoiced orders, the owed amount is shown so you can credit the invoice.
Route optimisation#
Included. When mapping is available:
- Stops are sequenced into a driving order
- The driver gets a maps link for turn-by-turn navigation
- Auto-assign prefers neighbours that are actually near each other, not only the same postal prefix
- Shopper-chosen time windows and van capacity (units / weight) are planned against when the full solver is enabled on our side
- When vans have unit or weight limits, auto-assign rearranges drops between vans to fit as many as possible, and lists anything that still won't fit
If routing is briefly unavailable, the run still goes out in a sensible postal-code order. That is a soft fallback, not a broken delivery day.
Not included: live GPS on a map, mid-route re-routing from traffic, or a customer-facing live van tracker. Those stay Planned (or a specialist fleet product if you outgrow planned runs).
Related#
- Merchant quickstart — turn on local delivery at fulfilment setup
- Supplier quickstart — add wholesale orders to a run
- Capability map — status of every fulfilment option
- Integrations — mapping account is ours
Describes the product as it ships today.
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