Online Food Delivery on the Rise

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Currently the traditional model of delivery, where a customer contacts a local restaurant directly, still accounts for nearly 90% of all delivery orders, with ⅔ of those being ordered by phone. However as technology has shown in many other commercial markets, the ability and desire to purchase or order anything online is growing quickly.

Recently the worldwide market for food delivery has been estimated to be worth over $87 billion, which is around only 1% of the total food market, and 4% of food sales by restaurants or fast-food chains. Americans themselves are expected to spend over $12.5 billion a year by 2019 on delivery food. With the estimated growth the by around 3.5% per year for the next 5 years, many companies and startups are trying to get their piece of the pie.

Companies like Deliveroo, UberEats, and Eat24 have slowly grown to become the middle-man between the customer and restaurants throughout many cities in North America and the UK. The concept is to basically offer as large a choice of restaurants as possible based on your address. Two models of this concept have been developed that both involve dealing with numerous restaurants but handle the delivery of food completely different. One model is operated by aggregators. These aggregators take orders online or via app, and pass the order along to each individual restaurant who then handles delivery themselves.

The other model can be defined as “new delivery,” which is a concept that requires the company taking the orders to also control the logistics and delivery.

Deliveries from restaurants are not the only avenue that has been taken for companies who are trying to exploit the growing market of food delivery services. Startups across the United States have found that offering weekly meal packages have also been a lucrative and attractive way to capture the growing healthy eating trend developing across the country. Companies such as PlateJoy, and Plated have created healthy and relatively inexpensive meals that are prepared and delivered to homes, to be eaten during the week.

One company called Gobble initially pursued this course as their entry into the food delivery market, but after 5 years of prepared meals decided to change her model to quick, one-pan meals. Owner Ooshma Garg said that the company eventually learned that “getting food in a takeout box was not satisfying [to some working parents] because people felt guilty about not actually cooking.” (Fortune, Fenn) This specific trend of delivering ingredients instead of meals themselves has grown to include some billion dollar companies such as: Blue Apron, and HelloFresh.

Being able to offer a meal that people want has not been the only challenge facing many, if not all of these companies vying for food delivery supremacy. Everything from marketing to delivery has required a ton of capital and research to separate from the crowd and offer a superior service. With the ability to personalize the ordering experience, once a customer signs up for one of these websites, 80% will either never, or rarely venture to another.

For the deliveries themselves, the speed of delivery is considered to be one of the largest factor when it comes customer satisfaction. If ordering a meal for dinner or lunch, most maximum most people were willing to wait was up to 1 hour. Also the majority of meals were found to be delivered to the home (at 82%), rather than to work, with a spike over the weekends. One can speculate as to why this is the case, but with the fast pace lifestyle of the average American, at home deliveries may slowly become the new battleground for all styles of restaurants.

This article originally appeared on optimoroute.com.

Why Use Route Optimization Software?

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With route optimization software you’ll spend much less time planning – and the routes produced will be far superior to manually created routes.

For a mobile workforce, route optimization is the process of determining the most efficient routes, in terms of cost, resources and time. All other relevant factors such as order and driver restrictions, as well as the various workflows of a particular business are also factored in.

The aim is to maximize efficiency and fulfil more orders: getting to more addresses with fewer resources. This allows businesses to save time, costs and ultimately increase their revenue.

With route optimization software, your business will:

•  increase earnings by 10-30% simply by allowing you to complete more orders,
•  improve employee productivity and customer satisfaction,
•  cut operating costs and overtime by 30%.

Using a map, or any other manual means, to create optimized routes is incredibly difficult and time-consuming. As the number of drivers and orders increases, the complexity of the task of dividing up the work accurately and efficiently grows exponentially.

Route optimization software uses incredibly sophisticated algorithms to plan and optimize routes in a matter of minutes. This frees up to 57% of the time previously spent on planning – allowing staff to spend their time on other important tasks related to running and growing a business. This applies whether your business has 10 drivers, 150 drivers, or more. Even as your business grows, your route optimization software will produce the same fast, consistent, and accurate planning.

Route Optimization Software

Sends Your Business in the Right Direction

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Increased Productivity, More Revenue

With route optimization software you’ll spend much less time planning – and the routes produced will be far superior to manually created routes.

What’s more, route optimization software ultimately gives your business the opportunity to increase revenue. When your existing workforce is able to get orders done in less time, you can easily take on more business without needing to increase staff or work hours.

Controlled Expenses and Informed Decision Making

Businesses with route optimization software as an integral part of their operation can cut fuel and other driving expenses by 20%. Their overall distance traveled and time spent on the road is minimized, thanks to more efficient scheduling.

With route optimization software you can do real-time monitoring of your team and review their performance history. Both allow you to identify patterns – putting you in a better position to address them. Detailed insights into your workforce let you make more informed decisions for your business.

Which Problems Does Route Optimization

Software Address?

Workload Restrictions and Distribution

Route optimization software allows you to manage different types of driver restrictions (allowed working hours, different skills needed for the order) and vehicles (load capacity, refrigeration).

And, you can use route optimization software to minimize overtime and account for driver lunch breaks. The routes that are created will be fair, optimal, and will not create additional costs for the business.

Example: The orders for this period will be balanced by route optimization software to ensure that all of the drivers work for the same amount of time.

Dynamic Planning

Changes, especially last-minute ones, are inevitable for any business. Instant and automatic recalculation of routes to reflect real-world changes, such as late orders, cancellations, drivers calling in sick, or customers requesting alternative delivery addresses is an absolute lifesaver. With route optimization software, only a few clicks of the mouse are needed to produce the new routes that you’re after.

Example: It’s simple to edit the order date, re-optimize routes and send new schedules to drivers.

Driver Communication

In order to actually be useful, route optimization software needs to have its own mobile device application. Rather than being printed on paper, having orders on one convenient mobile application lets your drivers receive schedule updates. This exchange of information should be quick to allow for constant and seamless route and schedule changes. With mobile applications drivers can also update the completion status of each order. For dispatchers, there are a number of useful features enabled thanks to this information from the field, such as driver tracking capabilities and planned vs. actual route displays. Also, features like order tracking, real-time ETA and customer notifications help you give your customers excellent service.

Deliver, or Pick up and Drop off – in Any Combination

Whether your business makes multi-stop deliveries from a central depot, or does pickups and dropoffs of goods or passengers, or a mix of these – route optimization software can handle it all.

You’re able to select the task type for each order, letting the software come up with the optimal way for your business to perform all of these tasks. You’ll maximize efficiency, make the most of your vehicle capacity, and cut down on driving time – perfect!

Example: Orders can be pre-identified as a regular delivery (from a central depot), or as a pickup that needs to be dropped off at another address.

Prepare Schedules in Advance

Businesses might sometimes need to plan their schedules a few weeks in advance, to ensure resource availability or just to provide drivers with their long-term schedules. With route optimization software you can plan up to 5 weeks in advance, while still allowing planners to specify details like days of the week, date ranges and time windows for orders.

Example: These orders have been uploaded and the route has been optimized, so the following week the schedule and driver will be ready to go.

Performance Analytics

Good decision making should be data-driven: why rely on assumptions or on your intuition, when route optimisation software also lets you analyze many aspects of your performance. Identify positive trends, or problems to be addressed with a number of tools that give you detailed insights into your team’s performance.

With route optimization software you can compare completed routes to those that were planned, and compare actual stop duration to the duration that was planned. Also, see your order status history, arrival accuracy, time worked, distance traveled, and more – all letting you make more informed decisions about your business.

This article originally appeared on optimoroute.com

Google Maps and Route Optimization Software Are Not the Same – They’re Worlds Apart

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The difference between planning routes on Google Maps and route optimization software is enormous:

●     Route optimization software is powered by algorithms to efficiently and logically organize the order of stops for multiple drivers, accommodating the various constraints that your business has.

●    Google Maps is simply a quick way of getting the fastest route and accurate directions from point A to point B. It doesn’t take multiple stops or constraints into consideration, and won’t help you optimize your operations.

Google Maps works if you simply need to go from point A to point B, but it isn’t suited to even the smallest of mobile workforces with a handful of orders to complete. Multiple stops on a route combined with factors that need to be accounted for (specific to the business, operations, needs of customers) cannot be handled by Google Maps – it simply wasn’t built for that.

When to Consider Using Route Optimization Software

Regardless of the actual service that you provide, a business with a mobile workforce needs to do planning according to a whole range of constraints and task types. Route optimization software has the features to build routes according to your constraints – and this is something that Google Maps isn’t capable of. These are just a few of the capabilities of route optimization software:

Planning According to Time Windows and Date Ranges

It’s likely that your customers have specific times, days and dates for when they’d like your service to be performed – whether it’s a delivery, an inspection, or a repair. Route optimization software easily factors these in when optimizing your routes.

Planning According to Driver and Vehicle Constraints

Your mobile workforce is made up of actual people, driving vehicles of all different sizes. Route optimization software gives you schedules that work in the real world: you can schedule in lunch breaks for your staff, and assign orders based on the specific skills needed for each order. Also, you can manage the load of each vehicle according to its capacity and route optimization software will schedule in returns to depot when each vehicle is empty.

Scheduling Based on Order Priority, and Various Task Types and Durations

Route optimization software gives you the ability to plan your orders according to their high, medium or low priority level. The software can also recognize connected pickup and delivery orders – where items or people need to be collected at one location and taken to another location.

Creating Multi-Day and Multi-Week Schedules

You might have the flexibility of completing some orders over the course of a few days or weeks. Or, there might be orders that need to be completed within a certain timeframe. Route optimization software can give you optimized multi-day and multi-week schedules that factor in these timing constraints.

Benefits of Using Route Optimization Software

When you use route optimization software rather than Google Maps to organize your mobile workforce, you’re getting more than just routes and directions. Instead, you’re getting optimized schedules that account for your customers’ needs and make the most of your resources. These are some of the benefits to look forward to when your business starts using route optimization software for its operations:

Reduced Planning Efforts

Automated planning with route optimization software can be up to seven times faster than manual planning. That’s a lot of your time saved – letting you focus on other important tasks related to growing your business.

Logical Routes and Schedules to Cut Mileage

Optimized routes (that still account for all of your constraints) will ensure that mileage is as low as possible, cutting your fuel and vehicle costs by up to 30%.

Serve More Customers with Improved Productivity

Thanks to the supremely efficient routes created by route optimization software, you’ll fit more orders into the day – probably more than you ever thought possible. This allows you to increase capacity with the same number of employees. Or, control overtime hours, and reduce the need for independent contractors.

Provide Better Customer Service

Exceptional customer service gives you an edge over your competitors, and route optimization software helps you here too. Performing services and orders on time, according to customers’ appointment preferences increases their overall satisfaction. They’ll be more likely to remain loyal to your business and recommend you to others.

This article originally appeared on optimoroute.com.

Quantum Money and Bitcoin

This artice was originally published in Albaron Ventures

Deemed as one of the biggest potential technological revolutions of recent history, quantum computing also poses security risks for the cryptocurrency space. Quantum-computing is able to harness quantum mechanics to reach data processing levels otherwise impossible with traditional computing.

In 2015, Google announced that its quantum prototype was 100 million times faster than any other computer in their laboratory, and this was nearly five years ago. In that short time span, we’ve seen a massive explosion in popularity and quantity of cryptocurrencies. It’s been estimated that in order to hack a single a 64-digit hexadecimal private key, it would take most modern computers anywhere between 10,000 years to a few billion billion years to crack. Google’s quantum supercomputer could potentially shave that time down to 200 seconds. 

Bitcoin’s security relies on the computational difficulty of the public-private key cryptography function (ECDSA), which becomes computationally feasible to solve with quantum computing capabilities. More specifically, it is vulnerable to a modified Schor’s algorithm (which normally makes integer factorization much easier) for solving discrete logarithm problems. 

Unlike a “quantum-resistant cryptocurrency” (which is something bitcoin can evolve towards by updating the signature algorithm), “quantum money” uses quantum mechanics — photons and their state — in order to mint, sign, and verify transactions. More specifically, instead of leveraging the existing cryptocurrency binary digital world (where a bit is either a 1 or a 0), quantum money uses quantum bits, or “qubits,” which can exist in more than one state at the same time. 

Enter “Quantum Money”

Quantum cryptography’s security is based on the No Cloning Theorem, which gives mathematical assurances that it is impossible to exactly copy an arbitrary quantum state. More intuitively, the quantum state is always different than what can be measured/observed from the outside, and every measurement alters the quantum state.

Quantum money is one of the main concepts in the Quantum Cryptography field, which focuses on the creation of quantum-resistant primitives, such as randomness and signatures. The goal of quantum money is to create money that is physically impossible to counterfeit. 

This is in sharp contrast to the existing cash banknotes system, which is still capable of being counterfeited. According to the United States Department of Treasury, there are roughly $70 million counterfeit bills in circulation in the US, not counting the hundreds of millions that have been seized. 

Full quantum money would use quantum mechanics in each of the steps involving the minting, signing of transactions, and verifying transactions. 

For example, minting would entail having a quantum algorithm run by the bank, which would send the quantum state (photons and their state) to the user, through a quantum channel. Similarly, quantum verification would require sending of the quantum state to the bank to be verified. 

Semi-Quantum Money as a Hybrid Approach

An intermediary step to full quantum money could be Semi-Quantum Money, which uses classical minting and classical verification for the bank side. This means that while the user would still need a quantum computer, the bank would only use a classical computer and a classical communication channel. This lowers the barrier significantly, creating a more feasible goal for the evolution of money. 

Interestingly, in semi-quantum money, the user creates the banknotes, but the creation process is originated in the minting that involves the bank, which can identify if a state would be copied subsequently, attempting double spends. One area that still needs more research would be that of a public semi-quantum money, which wouldn’t require a bank to verify it. This would generally require a memory-dependent system (unlike private semi-quantum money), which makes it a lot more challenging due to how challenging it is to store information in quantum memory. 

What Would Happen to Bitcoin in a Quantum Computing World?

Bitcoin uses SHA 256 for the hashing algorithm and ECDSA for signatures. While SHA-256’s security wouldn’t be impacted by quantum computing (since it uses symmetric encryption), breaking ECDSA would become much easier, since it is based on the classical computational infeasibility of breaking the private key. 

However, breaking the private key assumes knowing the corresponding public key, which is only being revealed when trying to spend bitcoins (through UTXO). This means that if only one Bitcoin address is being utilized at a time, the risk only exists for the amount of time between transaction broadcasting and addition to a block. 

Therefore, the amount of time available for computing the private key (generally less than 1 hour) would still pose significant computational challenges, even in a quantum computing world, which is estimated at the earliest to in the 2030s-2040s (ECRYPT II). 

Final Thoughts

Quantum computing likely won’t cause the level of problems we are envisioning today. As the threat of quantum computing materializes, Bitcoin would be able to adjust gradually by evolving to adopt more quantum-resistant cryptography such as  Merkle Schemes, Lamport’s Signature, and Secret Sharing. 

In the meantime, new versions of Quantum Money are being created, such as public and private quantum money, or semi-quantum money. Long term, the mathematical assurances provided by the No Cloning Theorem would be able to increase the security of the money, but the path will be created with intermediary building blocks that bridge the current fiat and crypto worlds with the more distant quantum money world.