Delivery Partners within the Hola Health ecosystem

Estimated 4 min read

Relationship, role, and lifecycle

The relationship, role and lifecycle of a delivery partner is exceedingly simple—they’re a third-party provider that delivers goods on behalf of Hola. The delivery partner is responsible for delivering the goods to the recipient, and Hola is responsible for ensuring that the delivery partner is performing to the required standard. Hola aligns the each delivery partner with the requirements of the delivery, and essentially only has to monitor the delivery partner’s performance (completion rate, time taken, etc.) to ensure that the delivery partner is performing to the required standard.

Figure 13: The lifecycle of a delivery partner in the Hola Health ecosystem.

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Which delivery partners are used?

Delivery partners can be split into two categories: marketplace delivery partners (UberEats and DoorDash) and courier delivery partners.

• Marketplace delivery partners: not suitable for delivery of prescription medication, but are used for Over The Counter (OTC) products.
  • UberEats
  • DoorDash
• Courier delivery partners: used for delivery of prescription medication, which requires a higher level of trust and security.
  • Sherpa
  • Toll
  • Zoom2u

How are delivery partners selected?

Hola doesn’t have a policy on the selection of delivery partners which. We do note it’s an infrequent affair.

Hola advised they instead assess each delivery partner on a case-by-case basis, and in the case of courier delivery partners, they’re assessed against their ability to uphold a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) related to secure delivery of prescription medication. Specifically, Hola upholds stringent requirements on the pickup and delivery of prescription medication, including the requirement for a signature upon delivery and the need for the courier to verify the recipient’s identity, otherwise the delivery is not completed and is returned to the pharmacy. These are communicated using ‘pickup instructions’ and ‘delivery instructions’ that are templated and provided to the courier.

OTC goods, delivered by marketplace delivery partners, are not subject to the same stringent requirements as prescription medication but given these are low-risk items, this is understandable; it’s akin to allowing Australia Post to leave a delivery at the front door where it’s low value. The main risk brought about here is just one of brand reputation—with “anyone” delivering the goods, there’s a risk that the customer experience is tarnished if the delivery partner is not up to scratch, reflecting poorly on Hola.

Given there are informal requirements that already exist and are seemingly well embedded into Hola’s relationship with delivery partners, we recommend these are formalised into a policy to provide ongoing surety to partners like Hola that these standards will be upheld.

How are delivery partners monitored and managed?

For marketplace delivery partners (UberEats and DoorDash), an API is used to fetch data on delivery times and this is compared against Hola’s target delivery timeframes.

For courier delivery partners, Hola manually places the order (based on best time/cost mix) and monitors the progression of the order with the courier using their own tracking system. This is quite a manual process and isn’t the most scalable; integration with delivery partners, while admittedly complex and potentially costly, would be a more scalable solution. This is reasonably a low priority for now, though.

Who owns the relationship with a delivery partner?

Hola owns the relationship with a delivery partner, and is therefore responsible for ensuring that the delivery partner is performing to the required standard.

When we consider the SOPs that are placed on delivery partners—particularly in the context of secure delivery of prescription medication—then we must recognise that SOPs are only useful if actually followed. We recommend some consideration be given to how Hola may better monitor and enforce these SOPs, to avoid ‘normalisation of deviance’ over time; this’d be integrated well with

What mechanisms minimise risk when using delivery partners?

The mechanisms to control risk when using delivery partners are:

• SOPs: Hola has a set of SOPs that are communicated to the courier delivery partners to ensure that the delivery of prescription medication is secure; if the SOPs are not suitable, the delivery partner isn’t onboarded to Hola. Unlike other providers, Hola does offer delivery of higher-schedule medications but the controls put in place under these SOPs are reasonable.
• Verification of recipient: Prior to handing over prescription orders, delivery partners are required to verify the identity of the recipient. This ensures that orders are delivered to the intended recipient.
• Patient choice of delivery mode: In addition to courier delivery, patients can choose to pick up their prescription from the pharmacy. This is a good option for patients who are concerned about the security of their delivery.

We recognise that there isn’t a great deal of manoeuvrability in the delivery partner space, and SOPs are effectively the best tool available for Hola to manage the inherent risks involved, but again this boils down to the ongoing, effective and comprehensive monitoring of these SOPs.