Rexel sparks a move to paperless planning and delivery with PODFather
Rexel provide electrical products, site supplies and solutions to a wide range of customers across all sectors. With over 90 years’ experience, Rexel, and Denmans (which is part of the Rexel Group), have one goal: to help customers be their best in running their business by providing a broad range of sustainable and innovative products, services, and solutions. With product delivery being a key part of achieving this company goal Rexel understood that it needed to move away from the planning process of the past and introduce an automated solution to help with route planning, customer notifications and proof of delivery. Having reviewed several solutions Rexel picked PODFather, and the nationwide rollout is now nearing its completion.
“PODFather’s ability to get to grips with our operational challenges made them a clear front runner right back at the start of our selection process,” comments Andy Hinks, Logistics Process Manager, at Rexel. “Following a very successful pilot, we are now nearing the end of our phased roll out for our existing UK operation, and we are now turning our attention to looking at the role that PODFather will play in our future expansion plans.”
Rexel uses PODFather’s optimised route planning functionality to plan both its same day and next day delivery runs. With large order volumes and tight delivery turnaround times, the Rexel team has been impressed with routing speed and result reliability. Drivers now use handheld devices on which they capture their vehicle check information and receive their job details, negating the need for paper logbooks or tickets. Once out on the road branch teams have visibility of driver locations and customers are now benefiting from advance ETA notifications, real time tracking links and immediate electronic proof of delivery, with geolocation stamps, signatures, and accompanying photos – all standard functionality within the PODFather solution.
“We rely on PODFather to help us plan and manage our delivery routes and it handles both our same day and next day requirements,” adds Hinks. “The big benefit has been the reduction in the number of customer queries our branches have to deal with on a daily basis; our customers now know what is going to be delivered when and they get a copy of the electronic proof of delivery to prove it.”
“This is a fantastic example of how effective the PODFather end to end solution can be for larger fleet operators, such as Rexel,” adds Colin McCreadie, Managing Director at PODFather. “We were able to meet Rexel’s requirement to reduce commercial queries, improve efficiency and reduce cost with our out of the box logistics software offering. This is a nationwide operation, operating with very tight margins and it’s great to see the rollout nearing completion, and delivering benefit, across the current fleet.”