Claims:We claim,
1. The Many-to-Many pickup and delivery system of home cooked food facilitated by mobile applications and a hub-and-spoke embodiment such that every aspect of the lifecycle of the service rendered through the system is managed within the software applications and the hub-and-spoke embodiment, the system comprising:
a. Provider mobile application, wherein the said provider mobile application containing different types of login for corresponding type of user in the system, wherein the business process from service setup to order fulfilment is managed within;
b. Customer mobile application, wherein the said customer mobile application is packed with features to order for a single day or for a period of week or month as a subscription;
c. Hub-and-Spoke embodiment, comprising of the Hub site, Hub crew, pickup crew and delivery crew.
2. The mobile applications of Claim 1 also have the internet web version and that the web versions of the mobile applications perform the same functionality in the system.
3. The lifecycle of the service rendered by the system of Claim 1 is managed within the mobile applications include;
a. Managing service zones;
b. Managing Pickup crew, Delivery crew, Hub Crew and service partners;
c. Managing Pricing and Promotions;
d. Managing configuration settings of the backend application for optimizing the cost of service;
e. Order placement and payment for single day;
f. Order placement and payment for a week or month;
g. Order assignment to Pickup Crew;
h. Setting up a favorite order and updating the profile;
i. One-click ordering from favorite order details;
Order location navigation during pickup;
j. Identifying locations from where the home cooked food has to be picked up for delivery;
k. Updating Pickup status;
l. Sending notifications while pickup and delivery;
m. Receiving notifications while pickup and delivery;
n. Generating reconciliation reports for Pickup and Delivery;
o. Generating operational insights.
4. The provider application of Claim 1 which is integrated with the customer application is used by the corporate service management team to;
a. Manage zones for pickup;
b. Manage destinations for delivery;
c. Manage users of different categories of Pickup Crew, Delivery Crew, Hub Crew, Indirect service partners;
d. Manage Pricing and Promotions;
e. Manage Insights;
f. Manage configurations settings to optimize the service.
5. The customer application of claim 1 is used by the customer to:
a. select the location from where the home cooked food has to be picked up;
b. select the destination to where the food has to be delivered;
c. select the quantity of the food boxes to be picked up;
d. select the date and timeslot for the pickup;
e. provide the receiver name and receiver phone details;
f. place the order for service and make the payment;
g. set the favorite pickup location, destination, quantity, receiver name and receiver phone and enable one-tap ordering of the service;
h. Place a subscription order for a week or month or a set of days.
6. The Hub-and-Spoke embodiment of claim 1 comprising of the Hub site, Hub crew, pickup crew and delivery crew further comprises of:
a. Pickup preparation process wherein the pickup user arrives at the hub site location; who is handed over the smartphone with mobile application, order labels and colored bags for pickup;
b. The preparation process further includes the pickup person logging into the mobile application to identify the pickup locations for a particular date and time slot;
c. The box collection at the hub, segregation, sorting and grouping process where the boxes of the same color are grouped together and sent for delivery.
7. The provider application of claim 1 is composed of different functionalities for corresponding user types in the service fulfilment process, wherein;
a. An administrative login is used by the Corporate administration to define and activate service in a geography, create users and configure service for optimization;
b. A Zonal partner login is used by an indirect service partner to gain insights into the operations of the corresponding zones owned;
c. A hub manager login is used by the hub manager to check integrity of the pickup and delivery;
d. A pickup user login is used by the pickup crew to identify the locations from where the boxes have to be picked up for a particular date and time slot
e. A delivery user login is used by the delivery crew to identify the destination locations to deliver the boxes.
, Description:The critical aspect of the present invention is that, every stakeholder in the system is powered by a mobile application and all the steps in the processes are accomplished utilizing the mobile application. This is illustrated in Figure 1. With reference to Figure 1 titled “Many-to-Many pickup and delivery system of home cooked food facilitated by mobile applications and a hub-and-spoke embodiment”, the stakeholders in the process including the customer, the corporate, pickup crew, hub, delivery crew is powered by a mobile application to carry out all the steps related to their function in the system.

The various stakeholders in the system and the roles played by them is further illustrated in Figure 2. With reference to Figure 2 titled “Stakeholders in the system”, the different users in the system use corresponding login to the mobile application to fulfil their function. All the stakeholders are grouped into two categories - the service providers and the customers; these two categories of stakeholders are powered by two mobile applications; the Provider mobile application and the Customer mobile application respectively. The service providers include corporate personnel, pickup crew, hub crew and delivery crew; the customers are the ones who places the order for service through mobile application and those who receives the food box. The various types of users in the Service providers’ category of stakeholders play different role in the mobile application which is mentioned with the type of login into the mobile application.
The hub-and-spoke embodiment is at the core of the invention which defines how the pickup and delivery is managed. This is illustrated in Figure 3. The hub is the central site. The pickup crew and the delivery crew are directed by the hub manager. The pickup crew arrive at the Hub site to prepare for the pickup. The Pickup crew then leaves the hub with order labels and navigate to each customer premises to pick up the food box. After pickup they all arrive at the hub and handover all the boxes to the hub manager. The hub manager then sorts the box, dispatch for delivery. The delivery person is handed over all the box by the hub manager who then delivers to the customers at their workplace or institution. All the pickup crew converges at the hub site with collected food boxes and all the delivery crew leaves from the hub site for delivering the boxes, thereby forming the hub-and-spoke system.