Route Delivery Solution Improves Accuracy

Used with permission from Integrated Solutions magazine

Producer's Dairy is an independent dairy that has been in business for more than 75 years. The company supplies fresh dairy products that distribution personnel deliver directly to clients across the western United States. Imagine you are a grocer receiving a delivery of a Producer's Dairy product. What do you expect at the time of delivery? You probably expect to be able to verify that your order is correct, pay for your order, and obtain a receipt.

Producer's Dairy operates from 10 locations throughout California, and has more than 2,500 customers. To be able to satisfy customer expectations, the company began using handheld computers and portable printers about 10 years ago. The handhelds had a lifespan of about two to three years, and Producer's Dairy spent approximately $56,000 every two to three years to replace the equipment. In addition, the handhelds had a failure rate of 8% to 10% per day, mostly due to the non rugged nature of the devices. "These failures were causing us to waste valuable time while waiting days for a replacement," says Frank Sewill, director of administration at Producer's Dairy, "More importantly, the failures were causing customers to be dissatisfied because they were unable to pay or obtain a receipt at the point of sale."

Along with the aging handhelds, Producer's Dairy used a portable dot matrix printer. The printers were mounted in the delivery trucks. The drivers had to go back and forth from the delivery site to the truck when printing an invoice or receipt. The printers the company used required 8 ½-by-11 inch paper and a printer ribbon, which combined cost Producer's Dairy $40,000 each year. Using an 8 ½-by-11 inch piece of paper for an invoice with only one or two items was wasting expensive paper. The company's handhelds didn't allow for electronic signatures, so hard copies of the receipts had to be filed. When these receipts began taking up too much space, Producer's Dairy decided to scan the receipts for electronic storage. With more than 2,500 customers, scanning in all of the receipts was labor intensive.

In January 2007, the company received notification that its current handheld was being discontinued. The dairy used this as an opportunity to search for a route delivery solution that was more technologically advanced, and a unit that was durable to allow the company to experience fewer failures and, in turn, maximize customer satisfaction. The first step in the search for a new route delivery solution was to speak with the company's existing software provider, VAR Ross Computer Systems, to get an idea of what products in the market would be compatible. Producer's Dairy was happy with the performance of the software it was using, and wanted to keep that software with the addition of ruggedized hardware.