Topps Tiles Transforms Fleet Delivery Operations with Descartes

Topps Tiles is the leading U.K. tile retailer, selling a complete range of floor, wall, and outdoor tiles direct-to-consumer through its 300+ stores and its e-commerce website, as well as a commercial offering supplying the building trade. Over its 60+ year history, the company’s core philosophy has been to provide an inspirational shopping experience with unrivalled customer service, coupled with innovative product ranges and exceptional convenience; an ethos which has, in the last ten years, expanded to include an intrinsic focus on corporate and social responsibility, and sustainability. 

From its centrally-based, 50,000 sq ft warehousing and distribution facility, Topps Tiles manages the bi-weekly deliveries to its stores located throughout the UK, planning and scheduling over 600 deliveries per week for its private vehicle fleet - a process that was, prior to working with Descartes, executed manually.  

It was the combination of customer experience, CSR and sustainability, as well as productivity enhancement that led the retailer to look to automate its route planning methods, with Descartes’ responsiveness during the tender process as well as the capabilities of its software suite, proving the winning factors. 

The Challenge 

Prior to working with Descartes, Topps Tiles’ logistics team managed the schedule for the twice-weekly deliveries to its stores. Yet, while the deliveries to each store were on a scheduled date, and with a scheduled set of products, the actual volumes required would vary. With a fixed schedule and route plan, there was little scope in the way of optimising its fleet’s loads and capacity, or dynamically adapting each driver’s route to maximise mileage accordingly. 

“The plan we were using was static,” says Simon Macdonald, National Transport Manager, Topps Tiles. “We knew we could do more to optimise our route plan from a geographical perspective, which would help reduce our operational costs while unlocking capacity within the existing fleet, therefore maintaining a high degree of customer service and supporting our CSR and sustainability objectives at the same time.” 

In addition, Topps Tiles wanted to be able to explore route planning and optimisation at a more strategic level, something which was too time and resource intensive for the team to undertake using manual methods.

Simon explains: “We wanted to run different scenarios where we might change the frequency of delivery to our stores or change the delivery days to optimise the efficiency of our fleet. That, in turn, would allow us to model scenarios where we might bring the delivery of our commercial orders in-house, rather than relying on external delivery partners - particularly when the pallet order volumes were relatively low.” 

The Solution 

Topps Tiles explored various solutions with a number of technology providers. However, none were as responsive as Descartes, nor could any of them confidently offer the proven consultative expertise and customised technology and deployment options that Descartes could. Consequently, Topps Tiles chose to deploy Descartes’ last-mile delivery solution – including its route planning software and integrated mobile application. 

Part of its Routing, Mobile and Telematics platform, Descartes’ route planning and optimisation solution helps brands, retailers and logistics providers reduce costs with more agile and efficient routing, improve fleet resource management by generating additional delivery capacity and become more sustainable through the reduction of their CO2 footprint and their use of paper across the route network.

The strategic route modelling capabilities allow companies to understand and optimise their delivery and customer service strategies before having to execute them. Descartes’ mobile application helps drivers perform their daily routes, keeps managers aware of the progress and provides an accurate estimated time of arrival (ETA) to notify customers - in Topps Tiles’ case, its stores - of their deliveries. Proof-of-delivery (POD) capabilities support customer service excellence and order accuracy through real-time mobile communication. 

The Results 

“With over 300 stores nationwide, Descartes has helped us to maintain a high degree of customer service while reducing operational costs,” Simon says.

“Working with Descartes, we’ve replaced our manual, spreadsheet-based processes with automated route planning to optimise the volume of tiles being delivered to our stores at any given time, as well as the routes our vehicles are travelling. Descartes’ strategic route modelling capabilities have also enabled us to model delivery scenarios and make more informed strategic decisions, which would have been nearly impossible with traditional resource-intensive analytical methods.” 

By working with Descartes, Topps Tiles has decreased the average mileage driven per delivery route by two percent, increased its overall fleet capacity by over two percent, and has gained a better understanding of the potential impact of changes to its delivery strategies. 

“Our long-term success is based upon our ability to continually provide customers with a superior shopping experience while offering cost-competitive pricing,” Simon Macdonald concludes.

“We’re delighted with the solution and the service we have received from Descartes. Ultimately, Descartes is helping us minimise our operational costs through its route planning and optimisation solution and is actively contributing to our corporate and social responsibility and sustainability efforts as we get ever smarter with strategic route modelling capabilities.”  

Contact a Descartes Solution Expert Today