Cannabis regulations are changing again in California on January 1, 2023. Ensure your delivery business is up to speed on the new requirements as described in these new "DCC Modifications to Proposed Text of Consolidated Cannabis Regulations" (see pages 112-113 re: delivery changes).
Until December 31, 2022, "California licensed retailer’s delivery employee shall not carry cannabis goods in the delivery vehicle with a value in excess of $5,000 at any time. The value of cannabis goods carried in the delivery vehicle for which a delivery order was not received and processed by the licensed retailer prior to the delivery employee departing from the licensed premises may not exceed $3,000."
Starting January 1, 2023, the total trunk size will increase to $10,000 at any time. Per the regulations "the value of cannabis goods shall be determined using the current retail price of all cannabis goods carried by, or within the delivery vehicle of, the licensed retailer’s delivery employee."
This means that starting in the new year, cannabis retail operators have significantly more flexibility in the amount of products that they're able to load into their delivery vehicles, eliminating the back and forth trips between the inventory hub to pick up orders, saving time and gas money.
REVIEW YOUR DATA TO DETERMINE WHAT INVENTORY TO INCLUDE
Now that you can essentially double the amount of product your drivers are carrying, do you know what to inventory to send them with? Using Meadow's inventory analytics tools, it's easy to see what products are most popular in certain areas, and plan your inventory mix accordingly. In a G2 review of Meadow, dispensary owner Slay says: "The upsides are the ways that you can analyze your sales by category, even by zip code! That does wonders for me and my inventory manager when ensuring we are working most efficient as possible."
REVIEW YOUR PRODUCT STORAGE PROTOCOLS
Note that this regulatory change to increased trunk sizes comes with an expanded definition of how those products need to be stored within the delivery vehicle: "Cannabis goods shall be stored in a secure, fully enclosed trunk which cannot be accessed from inside the vehicle, or in a secured area within the inside body or compartment of a vehicle. A secured area is defined as an area where solid or locking metal partitions, cages, or high strength shatterproof acrylic can be used to create a secure compartment in the fully enclosed vehicle. The secured area may be comprised on three sides by any part of the body of the vehicle, provided the parts of the vehicle used for the purposes of this section area shatterproof and are not made of glass."
REVIEW YOUR SECURITY SOPS
It's important that delivery businesses review their SOPs and ensure they have updated protocols to keep their teams safe; delivery vehicles have historically been targets for theft and robberies and the increased value of products in the car will warrant additional planning to ensure staff are trained in best practices should such a situation arise.
REVIEW YOUR SALES STRATEGY
Whether you're a California storefront retailer considering to add delivery to your omni-channel sales strategy or an existing delivery operator getting ready for increased trunk sizes, now is a great time to look at ways to optimize your business to sell more cannabis with less work.
“Life is so much easier now that our dispatch team can process an order in Meadow and have it automatically pop up on their Onfleet driver selection,” says Kristina Valdez, Owner of Bleu Diamond. “Implementing Onfleet and Meadow was the smartest thing I’ve ever done for my business." Read the Bleu Diamond case study.
For operators using Meadow's cannabis delivery software system, this increases the value of utilizing a system like the Dynamic Delivery method (also called ice cream truck or trunk by trunk delivery). With this system, each vehicle becomes its own inventory hub, with a designated service area and customized menu offerings, making it possible to deliver to quickly customers within custom delivery zones. With auto dispatch, delivery orders are automatically assigned to vehicles within that zone without manual labor.
