Food wholesale Forest Produce has streamlined its delivery service and circumvented driver shortages with software from Podfather.
The company, which employs 45 members of staff and operates 16 delivery vehicles making an average of 2,000 deliveries a week, has seen major efficiency gains since rolling out the logistics planning, route optimisation and electronic proof of delivery software.
Using the system, Forest Produce has reduced its back-office administration, eliminated paperwork and is improving its eco credentials, as well as responding to a challenging labour market.
The company has also seen a 75% reduction in the time take to train new delivery drivers. What used to take days – including learning processes and individual routes – now takes just a few hours using Podfather.
Efficiency gains are also being realised across the back-office admin and support teams, resulting in a saving of around 40 hours a week.
Forest Produce’s founder and managing director Tony Quick said: “The hospitality sector is facing unprecedented skills shortages and, as we are constantly expanding, we are constantly trying to recruit. Using Podfather we are able to be more efficient with the resource we have which allows us to respond to this challenge.”
Podfather is also helping Forest Produce build on its green credentials, having introduced a zero to landfill policy from the start.
From day one with Podfather, the company halved the amount of paper it produced daily with electronic delivery notes and will shortly digitise its pick notes with the introduction of barcodes.
Additional green savings have been achieved via intelligent route planning and vehicle usage, resulting in fewer miles travelled, and Forest has now introduced its first all-electric vehicle to its fleet.
Forest Produce has also boosted customer service with newly introduced Dispatch Notes. These alert customers to any differences between goods they have ordered and those actually dispatched before the vans have even left the depot, allowing them to respond and adjust the day’s service accordingly.
ePOD notes, including in-box photos that are date- / time-stamped, are also reducing customer queries, especially in the case of ‘dead-drops’ (when no customer is present). Whilst real-time updates from the drivers allows for timely removal of refused substitutes, improving the accuracy and speed of invoicing and reducing the number of credit notes being issued.
“Podfather aligns so closely with our company values and ethos it has been more of a partner in our journey rather than just a tech-supplier,” Quick concluded. “So much so that drivers who were, shall we say ‘reticent’ about its introduction now say they simply couldn’t cope without it!”
