Food & Beverage

Serving demanding consumers with time-sensitive needs is not a new business trend for food and beverage distributors. It’s a daily reality. If distributors don’t get the right products to consumers at the right time, in the requested location and good condition, their bottom line will suffer.

To be successful in this highly competitive market, organisations are starting to embrace the next-generation of logistics technology to lower operating costs, increase productivity, and meet higher customer expectations, while ensuring product integrity and security.

Descartes specialises in providing SaaS on-demand fleet management solutions to help food and beverage manufacturers and distributors improve performance and boost productivity. In a single integrated suite, Descartes offers the key capabilities needed to effectively plan and execute efficient delivery routes; communicate with drivers in real time; improve distribution centre productivity; and measure real-time and historic performance – all while taking customer service to the next level.

Solutions for Food & Beverage companies;

• Dynamic delivery scheduling for home deliveries

  A powerful element of the solution is the ability to be able to offer the consumer a selection of timed delivery windows at the point of sale. Delivery slots can be incentivised based on other consumers’ previous orders already within the system, with slots closest to neighbouring deliveries being offered at preferential rates. Enabling a consumer to choose their own delivery slot is beneficial to both consumer and the company delivering the goods. A consumer is more likely to choose a delivery slot that is convenient for them when they are at home, reducing missed deliveries. The time window they choose may also not necessarily be the next day, and this can also reduce the burden on the delivery fleet.

  Descartes’ delivery scheduling system is connected to the route optimisation engine to enable continuous dynamic scheduling of loads, right up to and even after the vehicle leaves the depot. This can allow for last minute rescheduling of timed deliveries or cancelled orders. 

  Read more about Delivery Scheduling.

  Benefits of dynamic delivery scheduling:

  • Meet customer time-window commitments with confidence
  • Minimise fleet miles
  • Increase route density
• Route scheduling and last mile delivery

  The optimisation of routes and last mile delivery is a necessity for companies in the food and beverages industry involved in home deliveries. Routes and delivery schedules need to be highly flexible and optimised in order to handle periods of peak demand.

  Orders are easily visualised on a map while the software considers the routes at street level building routes automatically. Dispatchers still have full control to manage exceptions with easy drag and drop actions.

  Companies that have moved from 'manual route construction' to 'exception management' with a Descartes routing tool find that route planning time can be often be reduced to just 15 minutes per day.

  Read more about Last Mile Delivery.

• Delivery visibility for consumers

  Our mobile applications have a module for the consumer, enabling them to receive notifications relating to their delivery and to even see where the delivery vehicle is in relation to their location on a map. This has the added benefit of reducing calls to ask where their delivery is.

• Mobile applications for the delivery driver

  Hosted on a driver’s hand held device mobile applications can assist the driver with navigation, messages, delivery consignments, paperless proof of delivery, photographic evidence of a delivery location or any damages, with the ability to notify the office of damages. The driver’s location can also be sent back to the office so you know where your drivers are and what their status is.

  Read more about Mobile Applications.

• Smaller food and beverage companies

  For smaller food and beverage companies who rely on 3rd party carriers and parcel delivery companies our Transport Management solution is ideal, offering the automatic management and selection of the ideal carrier for each delivery, with the cost and taxes calculated if delivered abroad, allowing the supplier to see true landed cost of an item before delivery.

  Read more about Transport Management.

• Inbound goods for large food and beverage companies

  For those companies receiving multiple loads on a daily basis such as large food producers or supermarkets the management of deliveries is crucial to prevent lorries waiting or goods spoiling. Our Dock Appointment scheduling software provides a portal for suppliers to book delivery slots at the DC, slots are allocated depending on resource and dock bay availability.

Measurable Benefits

In addition to qualitative improvements in productivity, driver accountability and customer service, Descartes’ customers have experienced:

• Up to 30% improvement in on-time delivery
• Up to 33% increased vehicle utilisation
• Up to 50% more stops per route
• Up to 20% increase in DC space usage
• Up to 15% reduction in labour costs within the DC