UCOOK, South Africa's largest online meal kit provider, has scaled from 24 meals in its first delivery five years ago, to thousands every week now. The mise en place for this scalability was Picup’s disruptive logistics solution.

UCOOK provides high-quality ingredients, well-written recipes and fantastic flavours. Its expert food team collaborates with top SA chefs and food talent to produce 12 inspired recipes each week. Customers can choose their favourites online, and have pre-portioned ingredients with recipe cards delivered.

Bunna Booyens, UCOOK Head of Logistics, says Picup is responsible for approximately 2 600 of UCOOK’s weekly deliveries, ensuring that all meals are delivered on time and with a smile. “Customers can choose which recipes they’d like to cook each week. Our fresh, locally sourced ingredients – in the perfect portions – are delivered straight to the doors of our customers each week."

Picup’s reliable tech, responsive support and crowdsourced fleet have allowed UCOOK to scale without the teething problems one would generally experience when using traditional carriers. Picup’s Transport Management System (TMS) helps streamline the entire logistics and last-mile delivery process.

Booyens says convenience is a core competency in UCOOK’s offering. "The only time UCOOK has any human-to-human interaction with a customer is upon delivery. Logistics is therefore critically important to ensuring a great and complete customer experience, portraying the values of our brand."

“There are many reasons why UCOOK has entrusted Picup with so many of its last-mile deliveries. Firstly, Picup's Transport Management System (TMS) offers a digital proof of delivery. With access to the Picup backend, we can view all PODs, delivery times, who the receiver of the parcel is and what their relation to the customer is,” he explains.

Booyens says UCOOK’s offering is continually changing and Picup has managed to adapt and provide specific, customer-focused solutions to meet their needs. “Route optimisation is extremely important because most of our deliveries are in the big cities, mainly Cape Town and Johannesburg.”

“Picup’s technology clusters meal-kits that are going to similar addresses and it auto-creates a route – based on live traffic – which makes planning incredibly easy. UCOOK is also able to generate and download custom tracking waybills through the Picup Enterprise TMS,” he adds.

Ashley Arendse, Picup HR manager, says Picup also offers real-time visibility using Google Maps with a vehicle tracker, allowing UCOOK to view all drivers in a live environment and to predict and correct movements.

"We offer Accurate Geocoded Addresses, where all addresses are first automatically geocoded by our technology and then vetted by our Data Integrity Team (DIT), ensuring that delivery coordinates are accurate,” Arendse says.

Picup TMS offers integrated customisable SMS and email notifications to let customers know when the delivery is around the corner. The SMS sent to customers includes a link to track the driver with all their details, and emails sent to remind customers that their meal kit is on the way also notifies them when it had been successfully delivered.

Arendse says the synergy between Picup and UCOOK is of an exciting, agile nature. “Both teams are obsessed with innovation and providing the best customer experience to their respective clients.”

“The most important thing about having a good experience with a brand is managing customer expectations. Picup’s tech has allowed us to manage our customer expectations more effectively and responsively. They have a friendly, responsive and knowledgeable support team who help drivers with any issues and assist UCOOK with any queries relating to delivery,” concludes Booyens.