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7/22/05
by Maria Baran
(reprinted from the St. Louis Business Journal, JUL. 07, 2005)
Schnuck Markets Inc. reported double-digit percentage savings after its first six months using Sprint wireless technology to track its more than 100 delivery trucks. In what Steve Carroll, the grocer's director of transportation, called "almost a mini air-traffic-control system," he and other workers at the company's distribution facility in Bridgeton now can monitor deliveries on large television screens. They can track where every Schnucks driver delivering goods to grocery stores is in its seven-state delivery area. After an up-front fee, the new wireless system has paid off, saving Schnuck Markets between 10 percent and 20 percent per month on the cost of deliveries.
Sprint Corp., with support from Microsoft Corp., created the nationwide service designed to help businesses locate, track and direct mobile workers via wireless text and voice messages. Microsoft provided its MapPoint Location Server software, which presents information about the location of hand-held devices on a computer-based road map for use by dispatchers and call center workers.
The GPS (global positioning satellite) system is a pretty big leap from the large piece of white paper Schnuck Markets was using to monitor deliveries before Jan. 1, Carroll said. "Originally we ran off a large sheet of paper that was two-sided, 3 feet by 3 feet," Carroll said. "Everything was manually written, color coded."
Deciphering different levels of penmanship and looking past coffee stains, the daily delivery schedule — including truck drivers, routing numbers and delivery loads — was often a bear to work with, Carroll said. "We wanted to get (a program) that was user friendly for us and modeled after us — almost the same type of thing as our paper format, except now it would be on the computer screen," Carroll said.
Agilis Systems Inc., a 1-year-old company located in west St. Louis County that employs a dozen people, designed the service-based software specifically for Schnuck Markets, according to Perry Dwars, Agilis' director of sales and marketing.
The software was created in partnership with St. Louis-based LADS Network Solutions Inc. The company's Local Area Delivery System (LADS) is a server-based routing, delivering and dispatching program that has been used for courier businesses for about 20 years. Agilis advanced the program to be applicable for all field service and field sales companies.
"We use wireless phones with Web browsers for downloading store deliveries into the phone," Carroll said. Instead of the archaic piece of paper, Carroll now refers to a 21-inch monitor on his desk tracking the dispatch system. "I can see where the department is right up to the minute," he said.
Once orders are assigned, the system downloads routes to drivers' wireless phones mounted in the trucks. The mobile technology allows dispatchers to pinpoint a driver's location. As a Schnucks truck driver makes deliveries, the system generates a cellular phone call to the next store telling it to be prepared for its delivery.
The new system cut the turnaround time at each store by about 20 percent, Dwars said. And the new system not only saves the grocery chain time and money, but the difference in deliveries goes full circle to benefit customers, as well. At the end of the day, truck drivers have extra time, according to Dwars. "They can deliver an extra load a day," he said. "Customers get fresher products and more products go out the door.
Maria Baran is a St. Louis freelance writer.
Reprinted for web use with permission from the St. Louis Business Journal,
© 2005 all rights reserved.
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