BC Sands

As a leading supplier of premium building and landscape products BC Sands (building & landscape supplies) required a route planning and delivery solution that ensured consistent, on-time, in-full delivery. The company used the same-day optimisation capabilities of the Descartes solution to automate delivery appointment scheduling, route planning, and proof-of-delivery (POD) to heighten the customer’s delivery experience, improve operational efficiency, and reduce costs.

With successful last mile delivery a priority, BC Sands struggled with meeting tight delivery windows and high demand for same-day deliveries — complicated by an intricate road network and traffic congestion. In addition, the company delivers a diverse range of products in vehicles with varying dimensions and capabilities. Complicated load building rules and regulations also added to the complexity. BC Sands sought a comprehensive, integrated delivery solution with route planning, scheduling, execution, and proof-of-delivery (POD) capabilities in order to increase operational efficiency.

With the goal of increasing operational efficiency and improving the last mile delivery experience for more than 1,100 customers each week, BC Sands deployed Descartes Route Planner™, Descartes Reservations™ and Descartes Mobile™ modules. The solution combines planning, execution, and comprehensive reporting to provide sophisticated route optimisation with fully-integrated route tracking and execution via mobile devices.

BC Sands takes advantage of the same-day optimisation capabilities to book its online and phone orders directly into the dispatch schedule. Real-time status updates from GPS-tracked vehicles help ensure accurate availability, while providing visibility into deliveries enroute and the ability to notify customers of delivery progress.

Mark Parsons, Managing Director, says: “We’ve moved from ‘best guess’ times for deliveries to accurate, scheduled time windows. We can meet same-day delivery expectations, keep customers informed and easily amend orders on the fly, while increasing consistency of our ability to ‘Deliver In Full, On Time. By optimising planning, scheduling and routing, we’ve lowered our distribution costs: we’re getting more capacity out of our fleet and have reduced the number of returned loads by ensuring the right product is loaded onto the right truck."