“As a family run organisation, we have been serving the people and businesses of Leicestershire with food deliveries since 1945,” commented Emma Draper, Office Manager at Mason Foodservices. “From humble origins; the original man with van supplying fresh fish and poultry, we now have a customised fleet of temperature-controlled trucks which deliver everything from fresh bakery to ambient chilled and cleaning products, serving catering outlets, nursing homes and schools, across seven counties.
“As the business has expanded, we realised we needed to address some of our potentially outdated working practices,” Draper continued. “Using Podfather we are transitioning many of our processes and workflows to paper free, we are improving the efficiency with which we plan and execute our delivery schedules, and we are boosting customer service with automatically generated and updated ETA notifications and real-time ePOD reporting.”
Mason Foodservices offers more than 1,400 product lines which are available for delivery 5 days a week reaching beyond Leicestershire to Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Rutland and the West Midlands. With free delivery on orders over £35, Mason makes around 700 deliveries a week priding itself on fair prices, prompt delivery and friendly service.
Using Podfather, Mason is transitioning from manual delivery scheduling, based on local knowledge and experience, to automated planning, load allocation and optimised routing. With greater visibility of the entire operation, it is hoped this will reduce mileage and allow more deliveries to be made with the same resource.
At the start of each shift drivers undertake guided vehicle checks using the Podfather app giving fleet managers early notification of potential defects and possible issues. Goods are loaded from the warehouse to the relevant vehicle and drivers can check they have the right products for the right customers based on their Podfather generated manifests.
As the day unfolds Mason’s customers can elect to receive ETAs from Podfather which include real-time updates and the option to ‘Follow my Driver’ ensuring they are kept informed of any delays or problems. This also helps ensure the customer is on-site and ready for the delivery when it arrives.
Once onsite, the driver captures extensive proof of delivery evidence using the Podfather app, including date, time and location stamped photographs and signatures. Additional detail, such as missing or damaged goods reports, collected cash or unsuccessful deliveries can also be recorded and shared, in real-time, with both the back office and customer as necessary.
“Not only is Podfather changing how we do things on a day-to-day basis, it’s also changing how we report on what we have done,” Draper concluded. “This helps with our customer service, it will also inform critical decision making as we prepare for our next 80 years in business.”
