At Urbantz we help retailers and carriers ship physical goods to consumers.

Depending on the industry, we introduced some concepts and hierarchical levels to physically and digitally arrange the shipping. In the Grocery industry for example, we use the following concepts:

PRODUCTS	ITEMS	ASSETS
e.g. Pasta/Tomato sauce (Retail concept)	E.g. Box /Parcel/Crate Container of products (Logistic concept)	Pallet Container of items (Logistic concept)
What you buy at the supermarket	The box used to pack your shopping list. This is what the driver really cares about. The driver does not scan each individual product at preparation but only the boxes that need to be loaded into the truck. He does not care which products are inside.	Pallet used for big deliveries to group items.
Optional info in Urbantz	Required info in Urbantz	Optional info in Urbantz
Do not have a status	Do have a status. It must be tracked during the delivery (pending, prepared, arrived)	Do not have a status
Info added to the task: via API at announcement or task update	Info added to the task: by API at announcement or at task update or manually via UI	Info added to the task by the driver at preparation from the mobile app.
Can have barcodes	Can have barcodes	Do not have barcodes
Have a price	Do not have a price	Have a price

Examples:

If I order 1 table and 2 chairs, the carrier would deliver 1 item (1 box) and 2 products.

PRODUCTS

How to add a list of products to a task?

Adding a list of products to a task is only possible using the API at announcement or task update.

Important Note:

The description of products is optional but if it's present the value should not be empty
The barcode is mandatory!

How to view products on the task?

Once products have been added to a task, the list of products are visible in the "Task Details" screen.

What is the difference between Rejected Products and Returned Products?

Rejected Product

Returned (or empty) Product

E.g. Yogurt expired

E.g. I have an empty bottle to return to be recycled (see Solucious)

Processed on the driver app

Rejected products are marked as "rejected" from the list provided via API.

Processed on the driver app

Returned products are added to the task at the delivery via Product Catalogue

Rejected products

In the grocery industry, the crate used to deliver the food is open. This means the recipient can check if it is fresh or expired.

Some of our customers allow recipients to reject products. To do so, a config is available to allow drivers to mark products as rejected.

Go to 'Administration' => 'Platform' => 'General' => 'Drivers'.
Enable the option 'Allow the driver to mark products as rejected by the recipient on delivery'. By activating this option, the driver can mark products as rejected by the recipient upon delivery.

On the mobile app, when attempting to deliver a task, the driver will see the list of products added via API.

If the 'hasBeenPaid' field of the task is "false", the driver will now see the final amount he has to collect. Note that we don't control payment.

Rejected products are saved against the task with the reason (freeText)

Returned Products

Returned products are products that were previously accepted and need to be returned to the carrier/retailer. For example, empty bottles that can be recycled.

E.g. the drivers deliver all products. The customer does not reject any but has some products to return (e.g. some empty bottles to recycle).

While rejected products are products added to the task at the task creation and flagged as Rejected at delivery, returned products need to be added at the end of the delivery from a pre-defined list. This is because returns need to be tracked/monitored/validated.

How does it work?

1. Enable the (Return) Product Catalogue module from Admin - only feasible for Urbantz employees - please contact your CSM accordingly

Upload the list of products into the platform, go to Admin > Platform > General > Product Catalog.

2. At delivery, a return screen will be displayed on the driver app side where he will be able to select the barcodes of the products that can be returned.

3.Returned products are also visible on the task

ITEMS

Items are mandatory info on the task. If you try to create a task manually, even if you do not add an item, after saving, a fake one will be automatically added by the system with the name "item".

How to configure items on a platform?

General > Lists > Item. From here, you can configure the item types.

It is also possible to upload a pre-defined list of items on the platform. To do so you need to enable the Item Catalogue module from the Admin. - Only Urbantz employees are able to do this action - please contact your CSM representative accordingly.
To upload the list of items into the platform, go to Admin > Platform > General > Lists> Items catalogue

How to add items to a task?

Manually via UI
Via API at announcement or task update

What are the item statuses?

The item status is the same as the task status. the task status just represents a summary of the item statuses.

ASSETS

Assets are used in the B2B world for big deliveries that require multiple items/boxes to be packed into pallets.

How to add Assets to the task?

Set them up by adding a pre-defined list of assets on the platform from
General > Lists > Assets

2. The list will be made available on the driver app so that the driver can select which and how many assets are used for the delivery at preparation.

How to view assets on task?

Once they are added, they are visible in the Task Details

Also, Assets can be returned if they can be reused. The platform allows tracking the quantity as the driver can add the Asset ID from the Return screen at delivery.

FAQ:

Can the data in the item catalog or product catalog be extracted?

Currently, the data in the item catalog and product catalog cannot be extracted via the UI. The customer is responsible for using a version control of the items file, respectively the products file, to keep track of changes. Exceptionally, Urbantz is able to retrieve this data from our servers, upon invoiced request.

Products/Items/Assets