US Patent 10885479 Courier network management

In some examples, a service provider may determine, for a time of day and a day of a week, orders received by individual merchants of a plurality of merchants over a past period of time. The service provider may further determine, for the time of day and day of the week, based at least in part on the orders received over the past period of time, a first merchant predicted to receive an order. Based at least in part on a pickup location of the first merchant, the service provider may send a communication to a first courier device associated with a first courier of a plurality of couriers. For example, the communication may include location information for a recommended location to which the first courier is to move to be in position for picking up an order from the merchant that is predicted to receive the order.