Kaebox: Enabling seamless, sustainable shipping with Google Maps Platform

E-commerce consumers expect small businesses to offer the same delivery quality they receive from bigger, well-established companies. But putting together the large-scale shipping operations required to meet these expectations isn't easy or cheap. Kaebox offers an on-demand shipping solution to help small businesses stay competitive by using drivers who are already on the road. "Transportation logistics is the backbone of economic growth," says Dr. Mohammad AL-Abbadi, CEO and Founder, Kaebox. "Businesses of all sizes need cost-effective ways to get their goods into the hands of consumers as fast as possible, and we're here to help with that."

Kaebox helps its customers save time, effort, and money by enabling them to operationalize all stages of shipping from their mobile devices. With the Kaebox app, customers can request a package collection, selecting from a range of courier options according to their needs and budget. Kaebox partners with drivers offering ride-hailing services to transport these parcels, rather than introducing more vehicles to heavy traffic areas. For these drivers, Kaebox designed a separate mobile app that guides drivers at every step of their new courier journey. To help drivers navigate faster, more reliable routes, we wanted to form a strategic partnership with the market leaders in the geolocation services industry. Naturally, that brought us to Google Maps Platform.

In 2022, Kaebox identified room for improvement. The company aimed to refine the accuracy of pick-up and drop-off locations in its apps and optimize driver allocation and routing. Searching for mobility services technology that could help address these needs, Kaebox looked to Google Maps Platform. "To help drivers navigate faster, more reliable routes, we wanted to form a strategic partnership with the market leaders in the geolocation services industry," AL-Abbadi explains. "Naturally, that brought us to Google Maps Platform."

Creating exceptional customer experiences with hyperlocal insights

Kaebox's previous mapping solution couldn't meet its dynamic business needs. Inaccurate pick-up and drop-off locations sometimes led drivers to the wrong place, leaving customers waiting. "Sending drivers to the wrong spot is a liability for us. It had a direct impact simultaneously on driver safety and customer satisfaction," explains Ann Quan, VP for Domestic Operation and Project Manager, Kaebox.

Prioritizing precision and reliability in its mapping functionality, Kaebox was immediately interested when Mobility services were released, and worked with Google Maps Platform Partner Searce to implement it. "I believe we were the first team in the world to implement Mobility services in a React Native app, so we were figuring many things out on the way and we're very proud of what we've achieved," explains Venu Bandi, IT Director, Kaebox. "Our Google partners at Searce were always there with us resolving issues, and if there was anything we couldn't figure out together, we created support tickets for Google, who jumped right in and gave us directions to solve our problems quickly."

Kaebox's first step was to close the gap between the address customers entered into the app and where the drivers landed for pick up and delivery. With the Addresses & Location Context feature, users can now simply drop a pin to indicate their pick-up location on a map within the Kaebox mobile app. If they live in a large apartment complex, for example, they can drop a pin on the exact door that is closest to them. Mobility services then calculates the driver's route to that customer's precise location, rather than to the generic address for that building.

This feature helps Kaebox deliver smooth, timely deliveries. "People have their time constraints, which is why we enable them to schedule a delivery time or order an immediate pick-up service," says Bandi. "If drivers arrive somewhere unexpected, they cause delays. They need to contact the customer to figure out how to reach them, adding friction to what should be a fast and convenient process. Since updating our app with Mobility services, we've eliminated these issues."

Meanwhile, Mobility services also enables detailed journey tracking where customers could previously only see a static map. With the Navigation SDK, Kaebox now displays the vehicle's real-time location from the moment of collection until the parcel is delivered. "Customers can see which route the driver is taking, whether any traffic delays are expected, and the exact moment of delivery, which is a much more sophisticated experience compared to our previous app," says Bandi.

Helping drivers navigate fast, safe routes

Another consideration for drivers is finding the fastest, safest routes. Previously, drivers switched between applications to receive Kaebox updates, contact recipients, and navigate between pick-up and drop-off locations. Now, they can find all they need within the Kaebox driver's app.

Additionally, the Mobility services Navigation capability offers turn-by-turn directions to drivers, taking into account live traffic, so that they can select the best path at any given time.

To measure the success of the implementation, Kaebox conducted surveys with app users before and after the release. "It is very clear that the Mobility services implementation significantly optimized our driver- and consumer-facing applications," says Quan. "Our app now directs drivers to the exact spot selected by customers, and being able to rely on its accuracy means drivers are safer, ETAs are calculated correctly, and everyone saves time."

Additionally, within one month since the release of this new update, Kaebox measured an increase in the number of consumers who signed up for its services (12,000 new users in December 2023 alone).

Achieving more reliable services with simplified operations

Bandi's team now has a more streamlined workflow. Kaebox's previous app relied on a large number of APIs to support different application features, which increased management complexity. "We were busy managing API calls for everything from address validation and route planning to calculating toll charges between destinations and finding drivers within the radius of incoming requests," says Bandi.

Aside from the burden of manual processes, relying on a multitude of APIs and service providers created several direct dependencies on Kaebox's architecture. "Our application's performance risked becoming entirely dependent on the stability of multiple services, which is far from ideal," Bandi explains. "If any of these connecting points go down, our app goes down."

The solution was to unify all of the Kaebox mobile apps' functionalities with Mobility services. This way, Google Maps Platform became the single point of dependency for Kaebox's new, simplified architecture diagram. "We've eliminated multiple points of failure and traded it for the Google Cloud global standard of 99.99% reliability rate, which means we can rest assured our application won't go down," says Bandi. "We couldn't ask for a better solution."

Optimizing driver allocation

Working closely with Searce, Bandi's team highly customized Mobility services to fit the unique needs of Kaebox's workflow, including the criteria it uses to assign pickup requests to drivers. To make driver allocation as efficient as possible, Kaebox takes into account multiple factors. When a new pick-up request comes in, Kaebox searches for drivers based on proximity, but that's just a start. "That's where Mobility services come in to support the predictability factors," says Bandi.

He explains that looking at distance alone isn't enough to make the best decision, because changing traffic conditions can imply delays for a nearby driver, while someone who is further away might be able to reach the pick-up location faster through a different route. "If we identify, say, 50 drivers near a pick-up location, Mobility services calculate the ETA for each one, considering live traffic conditions, and display the ones most likely to get there first. This gives us a smaller but better subset of drivers to choose from."

In addition, Kaebox developed a special logic to take care of this complex operation. As Mobility services surface nearby drivers with the Search Vehicles API, Kaebox verifies whether the parcel size and weight are compatible with those drivers' vehicles, which can range from bicycles to cars. Kaebox also must check that the allocated driver has available space for one more parcel at that moment, and whether he or she is available to take on this new request.Kaebox's logic also matches drivers who are already on a delivery path to take more packages within that same route, optimizing the number of deliveries they can make within the same distance.

Connecting more people sustainably

The benefits of optimized operations come in many forms, says AL-Abbadi, but he is primarily interested in the company's environmental impact. "After transitioning to Google Maps Platform we've improved location accuracy and optimized driver allocation, which led to 14%-18% less distance traveled to complete the same amount of deliveries," he says. "This improved efficiency contributes to reducing the carbon footprint needed to support this industry and our customers, which is for us the ultimate sign of success."

Next, Kaebox will introduce same-day delivery services and expand to new markets. "At Kaebox, we believe in empowering the overlooked," AL-Abbadi adds. "We aim to level the playing field for individuals and small businesses by making deliveries more accessible and affordable worldwide. Our strategic partnerships with Google Maps Platform and Searce play a key role in helping us bring this vision to life for more people."