The power of paperless planning in construction logistics

Historically load allocation and tracking has been a very manual process, involving the production and co-ordination of paper tickets used to plan and monitor material movements.  But in recent years there has been an upsurge in the adoption of electronic ticketing; an upsurge that we here at Podfather are very much at the forefront of. 

“Prior to Podfather we produced, shared and stored around 1,500 bits of paper a day, which were used as Despatch Notes to communicate with Depots, and Proof of Deliveries that were given to customers,” commented Anna Zorzoliani, Operational Analyst at GRS Building Products. “This required a significant amount of admin work and meant that there could be a considerable delay in updating our central management systems. With Podfather, GRS’s order fulfilment processes have been significantly enhanced with automated system updates.

Our journey started almost 25 years ago with the development and delivery of our first logistics planning solutions.  Our evolution has seen us move from a bespoke solution development company  to the electronic ticketing provider of choice for industry giants, including Tarmac, Breedon, Aggregate Industries and GRS, and the preferred solution of choice for a whole host of companies operating in the UK construction sector.

Breedon supplies the construction industry with the essential materials needed to build the places where we live and work, play and in between. Having historically relied on paper tickets to track and monitor loads, Breedon identified that streamlining its ticketing process and removing paper would help achieve its corporate objective to improve business sustainability, delivery reliability and customer experience. 

Having spent over two years planning and documenting how Podfather would add value to the business, Breedon saw the result of its many months of hard work when electronic ticket numbers ramped up rapidly in the first week of the system going live.

“This project’s success has been a testament to the dedication of both the Breedon and Podfather teams,” comments Rob Titley, Head of IT at Breedon Group.  “By working collaboratively, we have delivered a fantastic result. To be able to ramp up our electronic ticket numbers in just a matter of weeks of the changeover shows how successful the entire team has been.” 

Our solution will help you deliver the changes you need to keep pace with changes in the construction industry. Whether it’s making the move away from paper tickets, improving load allocation and route optimisation, having a clear audit trail of what’s been moved where, or improving how you allocate and track work to your drivers and subcontractors, we have a one stop solution that will enable you to tackle all these challenges.

“Since implementing Podfather we created a virtually paperless delivery process. We have improved our customer service as we have total visibility of the mobile operation and access to real-time updates and feedback, and we are more efficient and effective in our fleet utilisation with bulk-load planning and route optimisation features,” adds Anna Zorzoliani, from GRS Building Products

Our work with Breedon and GRS Building Products are just two of a long list of Podfather success stories in the construction logistics sector.  If you are operating in this sector and what to know more pick up the phone, calling tel: +44 (0) 131 553 0400 or drop us an email to sales@podfather.com.  We’d love to have an opportunity to talk to you.