Matthew Clark increases customer service levels & cuts transport costs with vehicle routing software

Sept. 13, 2011 - PRLog -- Optrak Distribution Software Ltd (www.optrak.com) today announced that Matthew Clark, the award winning drinks supplier to the on-trade, has achieved a significant increase in customer service levels at its York depot, reduced transport costs whilst cutting the time spent planning by 66%.  Matthew Clark has also improved transport planning and increased operational efficiency at its Runcorn depot.

Alan Williams, Operations Manager for Matthew Clark at York said, “By introducing Optrak’s vehicle routing software we have achieved a significant increase in customer service levels with 95-97% of our deliveries occurring within the SLA.  We have also increased the efficiency of the individual routes that each vehicle follows on a daily basis whilst cutting the time we spend planning by two thirds.  If we had not moved away from manual planning I estimate that we would need at least two more vehicles on the road to meet our delivery commitments and this represents a very large saving for the company.”

Matthew Clark has benefited from improved utilisation of its existing resources as Williams notes, “By planning more efficiently and accurately we can get more orders onto each vehicle and make better use of our driver’s time.  By providing a more consistent service we have increased customer loyalty and retention rates.  The Optrak project has proved itself to be totally worthwhile and I would recommend Optrak to other companies - it is a brilliant system that has reduced our planning time and made a lasting impact on our business.”

Optrak (http://optrak.com/applications/vehiclerouting) has also been introduced at Matthew Clark’s Runcorn depot to replace manual route planning.  It is part of a company-wide initiative to migrate to a new warehouse management system (WMS) from RedPrairie which gives Matthew Clark live stock availability, improved pick accuracy thanks to barcode verification and access to the latest voice picking technology.

Commenting on the benefits that Matthew Clark has achieved at its Runcorn depot, John Hitchmough, Depot Manager explains, “A combination of Optrak and RedPrairie ensures that we are optimising our warehouse and delivery resources by picking accurately and delivering to our customers on time.  Since we went live on Optrak we have increased the number of time windows that we hit to 84% and I am confident that this will rise to 95+%.  We are making better use of the resources in the transport department as route planning now takes as little as 45 minutes.  This gives us greater operational flexibility and enables us to cope better with seasonal fluctuations in demand.”

Tim Pigden, Managing Director of Optrak commented, “The drinks sector is a market where providing consistently good service can mean the difference between retaining a customer and losing it to a competitor.  Using Optrak (http://optrak.com/solutions/optrak-vehicle-routing-food-a...) to plan vehicle routes ensures that demanding SLA commitments can be met without sacrificing efficiency or increased costs.”

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Optrak provides vehicle routing software that helps companies cut transport costs, increase efficiency and customer service.