Mechanical Air Supplies Optimises Delivery Operations with Logistics Software
Overview
Mechanical Air Supplies (MAS) is an independent manufacturer and distributor of air movement products to the HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) sector. Part of the Airvance Group, the company supports contractors and installers across the UK, offering a fast-paced, delivery-led service with a strong focus on reliability and responsiveness.
MAS operates a dedicated fleet of light commercial vehicles, making up to 80 deliveries a day from three depots, handling a combination of planned routes and reactive, same-day requirements. To support growth, improve productivity, and reduce costs across its mobile operation, MAS introduced Podfather's advanced route planning and delivery management system.
20 %
Increase in delivery efficiency
40 %
cut in planning time
50 %
reduction in paper usage
Challenge
Prior to implementing Podfather, Mechanical Air Supplies' mobile operation was largely manual and paper-based. As the business grew, these manual workflows became increasingly inefficient and difficult to scale.
- Printing and preparing daily job sheets required significant administrative resource
- Manually allocating jobs across the mobile operation
- Chasing paperwork after deliveries had been made.
Solution
Following a rigorous research and benchmarking exercise against key requirements of efficiency, visibility, and automation, MAS selected Podfather based on its comprehensive functionality, ease of use, competitive pricing, quality of support and onboarding, and strong reputation within similar industries.
MAS deployed Podfather across multiple areas of its operation, implementing automated route planning and optimisation, real-time tracking and notifications, and electronic proof of delivery (POD) capture. Using the Podfather app, drivers complete daily vehicle checks for safety management and compliance, while also capturing, recording, and sharing POD evidence that includes date, time, and location-stamped photographs and signatures.
Results
Since introducing Podfather, MAS has achieved a 20 per cent increase in deliveries using the same resource, a 40 per cent reduction in admin time, and a 50 per cent reduction in paper usage as it transitions toward a fully paper-free delivery service. Automatically optimised delivery routes have reduced planning time, lowered mileage and emissions, and enabled more deliveries to be completed in less time, while giving back-office staff and management full visibility of drivers and deliveries.
Customer service has improved through automated ETA notifications and delivery status updates, resulting in greater transparency, faster response times, more proactive communications, and fewer inbound enquiries. Internally, the flow of information has become easier, faster, and more informed, drivers benefit from simpler and less stressful workflows, and digital records have improved audit readiness while helping offset fuel and labour cost increases.
Podfather has had a significant impact on our business. We have improved our customer service with faster response times, more accurate and more proactive communications. The flow of information within the company is also easier, faster, and more informed. It is currently a very challenging time for many businesses and Podfather is helping us address some of the issues we are facing. Improved efficiency is helping us offset fuel and labour increases and drivers benefit from simpler, less stressful workflows. Better planning allows us to handle more work, with the same resource, and optimised routes reduce mileage and emissions. We are also cutting down on paper usage with digital records improving our audit readiness. Moving forward with Podfather, we are hoping to leverage more of the reporting and analytics features, explore additional features to further optimise our operation, and potentially roll the solution out to other areas of the business.
George Ferrar
Manager Leatherhead Branch, Mechanical Air Supplies
