The economics of delivery services are fascinating. Density is king. Let's say Big Delivery Company pays Joe and Bill to deliver 200 packages each, splitting a

The economics of delivery services are fascinating. Density is king. Let's say Big Delivery Company pays Joe and Bill to deliver 200 packages each, splitting a region of the city between them. They drive and deliver for 10 hours each, probably covering 50-100km each on the road- drive to the next stop, drop package off, repeat. But now let's say BDC adds 200 pickups of packages as well in the same region, and also adds Kate as a driver, splitting the region 3 ways. Now, each driver still has 200 stops (some drop offs, some pickups), but the average distance between stops decreases since it's the same area overall region with more stops to make. That means each driver is driving less, taking less time, becoming more efficient. As density of stops increases, variable cost decreases. Those pick ups are also additional business- tomorrow, density will be higher somewhere else. Given that, BDC could be doing those deliveries at cost, and still come out making money because of all the efficiency gains elsewhere. And yes, this does make presumptions that pick ups are as easy as drop offs, etc, etc. Lots of those to go around. But the principle is the same: density is money, and any company doing deliveries wants more density.