Autumn 2007

Brakes Group, the big supplier to the catering industry, says it has reduced fulfilment costs and at the same time improved customer service by implementing a dynamic scheduling system built round software from Optrak.

The system is being used at Brakes's Egham depot to schedule a fleet of 80 vehicles delivering grocery orders, ambient, chilled and frozen goods. A key element in the solution is integration with in-cab communications, satellite tracking and satellite navigation.

Orders are taken on day one up to 4.30pm for day two delivery, and are entered on two back office systems - grocery orders on Concerto, frozen orders on SAP. Chilled orders can come from either system. Previously it was not possible to link orders from both systems to a single customer record, so customers occasionally received their deliveries on two different vehicles.

When drivers are ready to go out, they log on to the system via a secure key fob, then choose the first delivery from a drop down of the daily manifest and accept the job. This information is sent back to the Optrak Business Intelligence system which is monitored by the Brakes customer services team.

 

The Siemens satnav system then guides the driver to the drop via on-screen and voice prompts. At the customer site, the driver reports arrival departure time. This information is recorded by Optrak Business Intelligence and stored for analysis and reporting.