You have a habit of keeping an eye on the neighborhood. You know about what time the FedEx and UPS trucks go through. You have come to recognize the lawn care providers who roam around cutting the grass. But there is a nondescript white van you don't recognize. It just started appearing a few weeks ago. Guess what? It could be related to cannabis delivery.
Cannabis home delivery is by no means as ubiquitous as deliveries from Amazon. It is not as popular as having restaurant food or groceries delivered to the front door. But it is an emerging service in an industry that seems to be growing with no end in sight.
As for the nondescript van, there are very good reasons delivery companies make an effort to not stand out. This post will discuss those reasons, along with a couple of other important aspects of home delivery.
Convenience and Need
Right off the top are convenience and need. In some places, cannabis home delivery is a convenience no more necessary than pizza delivery. But it is an undisputed need in other places. Let us look at Utah as an example.
The owners of Salt Lake City's Beehive Farmacy say all but one of the pharmacies in Utah are located in urban areas. People who live in those urban areas have little trouble getting to pharmacies. For them, delivery is a convenience.
On the other hand, there are countless numbers of medical cannabis patients that live in rural portions of Utah. They are nowhere near a local pharmacy. Home delivery is the only thing that stops them from having to either drive great distances or cross the border into another cannabis-friendly state.
State Regulations for Delivery
States that have legalized cannabis home delivery regulate it as much as any other part of the industry. In Utah, delivery providers must utilize nondescript vehicles with no identifiable markers. Those vehicles must also be fitted with a list of specialized equipment including, electronic tracking devices and security safes.
A nondescript white van with all the required equipment satisfies state law. Compliance may be the only reason some delivery providers do what they do, but there is another reason for the nondescript white van: security.
Let's Not Advertise
A delivery truck carrying a full load of cannabis is a prime target for criminals looking for a big score. With every delivery, cannabis products are exchanged for cash. That makes delivery trucks an even bigger target. It stands to reason that delivery providers are collectively saying, "Let's not advertise what we're doing." Thus, the nondescript white van.
Cannabis delivery providers are not the first to adopt this tactic. Vending machine operators have been doing the same thing for a long time. One particular vendor (who shall remain nameless) long known for its gumball and toy machines has been using nondescript vans for decades. They have to. A single delivery van can be carrying thousands of dollars in cash by the end of the day.
The fact of the matter is that advertising cannabis home delivery puts delivery drivers at risk. It opens an employer to liability in the event something goes wrong. So providers simply don't take chances. They send their drivers out in the most nondescript vehicles they can find.
Next time you see a nondescript white van in your neighborhood, consider that its driver might be making a cannabis delivery. Then again, it could be something completely different. You would never know without investigating it. But come to think of it, that's the whole point of the nondescript white van anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment