Updated Customer Portal

October 8, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

After collecting feedback from customers, we’ve released a new version of our customer portal based on the latest web technologies in our Raptor web app. This is fully responsive so your customers can view order history and unit filling on a laptop, tablet, or phone.

We are sunsetting the previous version of the portal as the current one unifies all access through our Raptor web app.

You can setup portal access and provide history to a single location (ship-to address) or to all related sites.

The portal allows your customers to:

View order history
Export order history to Excel
Print PDF delivery receipts
View upcoming (scheduled) orders
Search and export unit filling data to Excel

Customers ONLY see data for sites they have been assigned.

Customer order search

View order details

Unit filling search & export to Excel

DFOA Mobile App

September 30, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

DFOA distributors (Distribute For Our Accounts) need a mobile app that supports DFOA specific requirements. BizSpeed’s goRoam mobile app and MobileHub app server understand DFOA requirements and filter DFOA line items, such as ‘Handling fee – Shell’, so DFOA customers only see relevant line items. Non-DFOA customers see all line items and fees.

As a DFOA distributor, the manufacturer pays transportation costs, but you need to ensure customers do not see DFOA related charges such as handling fees.

BizSpeed’s goRoam mobile app is designed specifically for lubes and fuels distributors – including 15 years of industry-specific workflow requirements to support bulk and package workflows. goRoam handles all expected mobile delivery needs like electronic signature, mobile receipt printing, emailing delivery receipts, capturing pictures, etc. More importantly, goRoam provides capabilities such as:

Compartment validation to address product integrity
LCR meter control
PFD (pump from drum)
Package-to-bulk conversion for drum delivery
Stick readings
Tank forecasting
Turn-by-turn navigation with commercial vehicle routing
KPI reporting with bulk metrics
GPS tracking

… and many more lubes specific features

You need a mobile app built specifically for fuels and lubes distributors. If you don’t have a routing solution, we can help there, too.

If you haven’t seen Ortec’s presentation on advanced routing, please reach out to us for a demo. BizSpeed powers the Ortec.Mobile solution for bulk products. Ortec is a 10+ year BizSpeed partner, and Ortec excels in larger fleet implementations.

What You Should Know about Multi-Compartment Routing

September 25, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

Data-Driven Logistics

Multi-compartment route optimization can save 20% of your total transportation costs by creating smarter routes and using more of your trucks’ capacity.

If you deliver bulk products and have more than 10 trucks/depot and don’t use multi-vehicle/multi-compartment routing, you’re missing opportunities to improve operational efficiency and customer service.

Multi-compartment routing allows you to define capabilities and a compatibility matrix so the optimization software can build the lowest cost routes, use the least amount of trucks and still meet customer delivery constraints like service hours.

There’s a lot wrapped up in this statement, so let’s outline what the optimization process does and how you use a multi-compartment routing solution. Our solution differentiates itself in multi-compartment routing, especially with products like lubricants where combo trucks have a variable number of compartments. There are 3 keys to our multi-compartment routing solution:

Compatibility matrix
Capabilities and calendars (service windows)
Route optimization

Step 1 – Compatibility Matrix

The first step of the configuration is to set up trucks and trailers with compartments and compatibilities. For example, a tank-wagon may have 4 fixed compartments plus 2 slots for pallets. Or a combo truck may have 10 slots that are all variable, where slot 1 can contain a pallet today and a bulk tote tomorrow.

For each compartment, you define the allowed products (compatibility matrix), filling requirements, volume and total weight. These will be factored in to prevent over-filling as well as being over-weight.

Our solution has service capabilities per compartment, along with filling requirements. An empty clear diesel compartment can take dyed diesel, or a 0W20 can take a different lubricant if the compartment is washed. This applies to all bulk products, so you can have the same filling compatibility whether you are filling organic milk on top of regular milk, 0W20 on top of 5W20, or 8% bleach on top of a 12% bleach.

The optimizer understands variable compartment layouts where slot 1 contains a 500 gal tote today but tomorrow contains a 330 gal tote. The compatibility matrix is a key part of the setup.

Step 2 – Capabilities and Calendars

In the optimizer, you can define capabilities on any resource, including trucks, trailers, drivers, customers, etc. A capability is a user defined feature such as “metered vehicle” or “high speed pump”, so you can match truck capabilities with customer or product capabilities. For example, you can state that bulk lubricants require the capability “meter,” so only metered vehicles with valid compartments are considered for bulk lubes orders. Or you can state customer 123 only has the capability for “short trucks” so you don’t route full trailers that may not fit.

A capability can also be assigned to a driver, such as “mine safety certification,” so only drivers with that capability will be routed on orders that have customers meeting the same capability.

Capabilities are most often assigned to trucks/trailers. If you have a specific piece of equipment it will only be matched to orders that have that same capability.

In addition to capabilities, you can assign calendars to resources, just like you assign capabilities. The most common resource calendar is customer service hours. You can establish multiple service hours per day so the routing engine will determine if you can meet that calendar, such as only deliver between 8am-10am and 1pm-4pm so you don’t block dock bays during peak windows.

Additionally, you can add one-time calendars such as Thanksgiving or Christmas where customers are closed or have limited service times.

The optimizer considers both capabilities and calendars, with the option to highlight when a route can still be considered but may have a “soft constraint.” This comes into play when a customer may close at 5pm but the optimizer shows you would complete the order at 5.10pm, or when orders on a truck total 1010 gals and the compartment holds 1000. The dispatcher can still accept the route after acknowledging the violation of this constraint.

Step 3 – Route Optimization

Optimization is the process of automatically building routes (trips). The optimizer assigns resources (drivers, trucks, trailers) and stops (orders, loads) to create the lowest total transportation cost to service all orders. The optimizer considers compatibility matrices, capacities, constraints and calendars to ensure the most efficient routes are built and comply with your business rules.

The simplest example is a depot that has 10 trucks and 100 orders. The optimizer will automatically build routes and may determine you only need 8.5 trucks.

Many customers worry that “all the knowledge is in my dispatcher’s head” and you can’t automate that – my dispatchers know the geography and the customers.

Dispatchers’ territory and customer knowledge is important, but how do you know they’ve done a good job? How do you know how many miles they should drive, how long it should take and that you’ve used your assets most efficiently? Without a planning tool, you don’t know. And without a mobile solution, you don’t know driver actuals or route compliance. Without delivery metrics, you miss key data to measure logistics efficiency.

Moving from paper and older dispatch systems to a multi-vehicle, multi-compartment optimization allows you to centralize dispatch and establish a foundation for “Data-Driven Logistics.” Route optimization allows you to take the knowledge from your dispatchers’ heads and formalize it in software to get efficiencies of scale and provide tools to make dispatchers more efficient.

The optimizer provides the plan while the goRoam mobile app provides the actuals and up to the minute delivery status. goRoam enforces route compliance and can be configured to require a 1-time PIN code from the dispatcher for the driver to go out of sequence. goRoam is specifically built for bulk and package workflows, and includes capabilities such as barcode scanning of tanks, bulk inventory tracking, signature capture, mobile printing and compartment validation.

Our multi-compartment, multi-vehicle routing solution, along with the goRoam mobile app, provides the most advanced optimization and mobile solution specifically built for bulk logistics. Together we provide the platform for your “Data-Driven Logistics.”

If you want a detailed analysis of how multi-compartment routing applies to your logistics, just click here…

How to find money using mobile logistics apps

September 14, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

Going from paper delivery tickets to mobile is “found money”

Move from level 1 to level 2 in the Bulk Distributor Maturity Model

Most companies using paper delivery tickets have grown to accept them, but in reality, switching to a mobile app is equivalent to the move that retailers made decades ago when they replaced “price stickers” with barcodes and installed registers with integrated barcode scanners to read them.

While no one questions the need for a cash register and scanners in retail, many bulk distributors are still perfectly content giving a driver $10k in bulk products and asking them to “write down what you delivered so we can bill it.”

Mobile logistics systems are an investment just like cash registers are for retail stores, and like cash registers, mobile logistics systems enforce standard processes and provide visibility into key delivery metrics.

5 ways money can be reclaimed by going mobile

Invoice processing – On average, it costs $12.90-$15 to process a manual invoice with the highest cost going up to $40. Automated invoicing lowers that cost to $3.50/invoice. That amounts to a savings of roughly $360/ week in invoice processing if a driver is writing 6 invoices daily. Going mobile saves manual processing time because you no longer have to process and re-key paper invoices.
Route compliance – When given paper, drivers complete orders in any sequence and there is no visibility into time to service, start times, end times, order sequence, order status, etc. With a mobile app, drivers are given a planned schedule with time and distance. With this increased level of visibility, you automatically get higher compliance which can be a 5-15% reduction in total transportation costs. A conservative savings estimate is 30+ mins/trip and 10 miles/trip amounting to $75/week in labor and $50/week in loaded mileage ($2/mile) for a total of $120/week.daily. Going mobile saves manual processing time because you no longer have to process and re-key paper invoices.
Shorten Order to Cash (OTC) – By going from paper to electronic invoicing, you skip all the manual processing and can shorten the number of days to invoice by 7-10. Some ExxonMobil customers have been able to invoice buyback accounts the next day versus the average of 21 days (20 day savings). Shortening the OTC process impacts Days Sales outstanding (DSO). DSO is the average length of time invoices remain unpaid. If you have access to an investment that returns 5% and have a $2M average receivables balance, you would save $100k/year by reducing your DSO 10 days. Apruve talks a lot about DSO if you’d like more information.

Inventory control – The quantities of materials loaded onto trucks can be tracked against what is delivered to customers so you always know the inventory level on a truck. If the quantity retained at the end of the trip does not match customer deliveries, the driver must account for that discrepancy. Mobile apps can’t necessarily prevent theft, but they can certainly monitor it, inform you of any misappropriation, and discourage the act—similar to a security camera watching a cash register. Better inventory control could easily prevent theft of up to $100k/year from one driver alone. Tracking hose flushes and load vs. delivered variances, as well as verifying tanks to prevent over delivery can conservatively identify variances of 5 gal/day. At $10/gal, that is $300/week. Without mobile technology, who knows how much you are actually losing. *
Product integrity – By scanning a barcode on each tank delivery, drivers ensure the product they are pumping matches the tank and the last product delivered, which guards against product integrity issues whether you face product integrity issues weekly or quarterly. With only 1 issue/year/truck you would save $5k/incident alone from remediation cost savings, assuming there are no legal costs related to the customer discovering this problem. See how our mobile app reduces product integrity issues.

There are many softer benefits to going mobile. The ability to email a delivery receipt means customers perceive more professionalism and accuracy, and don’t have to worry about discrepancies between the paper ticket they signed and what the billing clerk enters on the invoice.

Here are some other benefits, beyond cash savings, that increase customer focus and provide operational visibility:

emailed proof of delivery receipts
real-time truck location and inventory reporting
customer notification of pending deliveries
add/change orders on an active route

Conclusion

Going mobile should be an intuitive decision. With just a few days for relatively simple set-up, the results can be a 10x cost-savings versus paperless delivery and routing. Accelerating the Order To Cash (OTC) process, avoiding re-keying mistakes, reducing contaminated deliveries with barcode verification, building a tank database to forecast orders, and having visibility into your delivery metrics lays the groundwork for data-driven logistics.

For a typical fuels and lubricants distributor, the conservative business case can be pretty compelling. Using the data above, a 10-truck operation could save more than $500k/year.

Area	Annual Savings	Notes
Invoice Processing	$17,280	6 invoices/day/truck
Route Compliance	$5,760	30 mins & 10 miles/trip
Inventory Control	$14,400	5 gal/day @ $10/gal
Product Integrity	$5,000	prevent 1 issue/yr/truck
Shorten OTC	$100,000	applied across ALL trucks
TOTAL – 10 trucks	$524,400

Our goRoam mobile app for bulk distributors can help you find money that is hidden in your logistics system whether you have an existing legacy mobile app or are still using paper. Interested in knowing more? Contact us to have someone walk you through what this would look like for your company.

*When inventory control feature is used with our electronic meter integration or our truck scale integration, we further restrict drivers’ ability to manipulate inventory. And you can see any time a driver manually enters or changes a value.

Bulk Distributor Maturity Model for Logistics

August 30, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

Is your company caught in a “fail to scale” scenario? Bulk distributors that have grown through brute force must adopt technology to realize the potential capacity of existing assets. Automation strategies create new opportunities to reduce the number of delivery vehicles, total mileage and increase gallons delivered when adding another truck no longer does the trick.

Key metrics that indicate success are hard to evaluate if you don’t have a system geared toward optimization and insight. Keep reading to understand how technology investments are not just another expense.

The addition of new trucks can represent more delivery capacity, but if you have some untapped delivery capacity in your existing fleet, would it make sense to avoid buying more trucks by investing in automation technology? Similarly, new order entry clerks can add additional back-office capacity, but if you are just re-keying and duplicating work, would it make sense to automate your delivery workflows and integrate directly to your back office?

We’ve highlighted ways companies use technology to measure and manage their operations. In response to the idea that “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”, we’ve developed a maturity model for logistics maturity and what you need to get to the next level.

As companies invest in technology, they move from left to the right, from paper-based manual dispatching to fully-integrated companies that optimize routing, forecasting, and inventory.

Level 1 – Paper

Level 1 companies have paper-based dispatch with little or no software automation. Historically, everyone had to use paper. Most companies do not have sufficient systems in place to measure logistics efficiencies such as gal/hour or gal/trip since everything is paper-based. Level 1 does not necessarily mean you are highly inefficient or have poor customer service, but it does mean there are no processes and systems in place to deliver consistently and efficiently.

Level 1 typically views success as “Let’s make sure we make all of our deliveries…do not worry about overtime or whether we have too many trucks, just make sure everything is delivered.”

Many companies are reluctant to take the first step beyond Level 1 to begin implementing systems for dispatch because of a perceived risk to customer service and an inability to see beyond the expense. If you don’t have systems to capture and analyze data, you can’t grow your business and operate efficiently or predictably as your larger competitors do.

Level 2 – Basic Automation

At Level 2, logistics functions eliminate paper and allow information to be shared, and laying the foundation to measure efficiency. Since drivers use a mobile device, you know how long each trip takes so you can get bulk metrics reports like gal/hour, gal/trip and gal/mile.

The smartphone delivery app turns your truck into a virtual cash register that enforces a consistent set of delivery rules. Each barcoded tank lets you know the delivered quantity over time as well as that tank’s capacity and GPS location. It maintains product integrity by alerting/preventing the driver from delivering the wrong product to that tank.

Level 3 – Integration

Level 3 companies focus on moving from reaction-based logistics to resource planning. They optimize routes to determine how long a trip should take and measure performance with “plan-vs-actual” reports.

Example: The driver took 10 hours and drove 350 miles but should have taken 8 hours and 275 miles. At $25/hr and $2/mile, your plan saved $50+ in overtime and $150 in loaded mileage. You can see if the route ran out of sequence so you can take corrective action. Integration with your ERP means you are not re-keying orders, so the Order-To-Cash (OTC) cycle is shorter, and customer service is improved.

Level 4 – Visibility

Level 4 companies focus on using data to make decisions and have moved from simple route planning to optimize operations. Centralized dispatch is possible, which standardizes processes to ensure efficient and standardized delivery across ALL depots.

Many companies think site-based dispatch is more agile because their dispatchers “know the customers and territory,” but what happens when your dispatcher is sick or leaves the company?

The reality is decentralized dispatching reinforces inefficiencies. Level 4 companies use data to make better business decisions and have processes in place to ensure they can scale. They don’t have to worry a single dispatcher will make or break their operations and quality of service.

Level 5 – Optimization

Industry-leading companies with Level 5 integration use automation to achieve higher profitability, higher customer satisfaction, and lower waste. Now that all of your tanks are barcoded, you forecast orders for unmonitored tanks using Machine Learning. Instead of topping off keep-full accounts, you schedule deliveries based on when the tank needs to be filled, resulting in larger drop sizes and increasing your average gal/delivery. Instead of delivering 1x/week, you deliver 2x every three weeks and use the extra capacity on the truck to service more customers.

Level 5 includes multi-vehicle, multi-compartment optimization. The software routing engine optimizes orders across vehicles to ensures optimization for the lowest total transportation cost while still meeting customer service windows.

Example: The routing engine will take ten trucks with 100 orders and assign orders to trips, so the net result is meeting all customer service windows but only using 8.5 trucks. Optimization gives you extra capacity that equals an extra truck and driver.

Multi-vehicle, multi-compartment route optimization tends to be used in companies with more than 50 trucks. There are a few companies that advertise multi-compartment routing, but in our real-world experience, there are only a couple that achieves it. Dynamic, multi-compartment routing requires a high level of sophistication and commitment. Multi-vehicle, multi-compartment routing has proven to save an additional 10-25% of your total transportation costs depending on the density of your delivery area and the number of stops per day per truck.

“What gets measured gets managed” is our first article in a series to help companies understand their logistics maturity and find tools to measure and grow their business. Future articles will cover the steps needed to move from Level 1 to Level 5. We will share why companies decide to invest in technology and the benefits your company can expect as it moves through the maturity model. If you have questions or would like to learn more, please contact us.

Forecast tanks without monitors using AI and ML

July 30, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

Just because a tank doesn’t have a tank monitor doesn’t mean you can’t forecast the level, days to safety stock and days to empty.

You simply cannot optimize logistics without accurate order forecasts.

The image shows a typical keep full account with the blue line as the delivered quantity.

We often hear customers say 80% of their bulk tanks are not monitored and therefore not forecast. Inaccurate or missing forecasts have a significant impacts on transportation and logistics costs, because you:

Over serve customers – you deliver more often than you should
Retain too much product – avg 10-20% returned to the depot
Only use 80% of your vehicle capacity
Run less efficient routes

When drivers deliver with the goRoam mobile app, all tanks get a barcode and all tanks have a tank profile created, so you know the tank capacity, max fill level, safety stock, etc. All subsequent deliveries are tied to individual tanks, so you know exact delivery quantity and timing.

This data is used by our Insight module, which uses statistical consumption modeling that we have developed to analyze delivery history, related tanks, monitored tanks and related products to generate a forecast. The benefit of the Insight module is the ability to use AI and ML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) to detect relationships that simple statistics like averages cannot detect. With Insight, your dispatchers have tools and data to optimize logistics and make smarter decisions, including:

When should I service this customer? Instead of a keep-full account that goes 2x per week, they may determine they can go 3x every 2 weeks. At $125/per stop, this saves one stop.
How much product should I plan for the order, assuming the same keep-full schedule? Most of our customers want to change the schedule and fill when needed, but if you keep the same schedule, you may have 30% additional capacity on your truck. We often see keep-full tanks that are filled at 50% of the order volume, so even keeping a buffer above the forecast volume still frees significant truck capacity.
Are there any keep-full tanks that I could top off to use 100% of my truck capacity? This is a trade off in transportation costs, but now that you have another 20-30% of available capacity on your truck and the driver is already on the road, you can determine if there are other tanks that you can top off.
Can I revise the order quantity based on the forecast so I DON’T have as much retained product (if I always top-off my slow-moving tanks at the same customer location)?

Forecasting all tanks has a direct impact on the bulk delivery KPI’s. You should see an immediate impact in the following. When looking at gal/trip and gal/hr, you should be tracking delivered gallons, not loaded gallons.

Gal/stop
Gal/trip
Gal/Hr
Gal retained

And what about tanks that have infrequent fills, such as once a quarter, and our ability to forecast the? The more frequent the delivery, the more accurate the forecast and the better ability to capture trends or seasonality. There is still an opportunity in infrequent fills. If you deliver 700 gals on Jan 1, April 1, July 1, etc. you can now call the customer on Mar 15 and say “We have a truck in the area and we think you need xxx gallons. Would you like to place an order?”

The key to forecasting is data, and the key to data is capturing it at the point of delivery. The goRoam mobile app and MobileHub Insights module help you make smarter decisions.

You simply cannot optimize logistics without accurate order forecasts.

goRoam for fuels and goRoam for lubricants and chemicals

Bulk distributors – what you’re missing with old technology

July 12, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

“You can’t use typewriters forever.”

We get it. You’ve always done business this way. You have great drivers and dispatchers. You make all of your deliveries, and your drivers seldom make mistakes. Your customers are happy. Margins are good, and you’re making money.

But how long will it last when your competitors are moving to mobile apps to increase driver efficiency and reduce contamination risks?

The reality is several factors are driving your competitors to change.

Industry consolidation
Driver shortages
More exotic products

Industry consolidation

Private equity is fueling industry consolidation. Companies facing acquisition opportunities don’t get the best deal if they are still using a paper-based workflows and manual routing. When rolling up smaller distributors, private equity firms have specific objectives to drive their ROI, which drives acquisition price:

Get efficiencies of scale
Operate as one company – not 25 small companies

To get efficiencies of scale, successful companies implement technology to drive efficiencies. Specifically, they invest in route optimization, mobile delivery apps, tank forecasting, and data analytics to drive their business. While it used to be “okay” to use paper or static routes, or dispatch from each office, rollups are centralizing dispatch and using technology to get efficiencies of scale.

Where you used to have competitors that did business the same way with paper and static routes, you now have ones who optimize routes, email customers when their delivery is scheduled, provide an immediate email receipt on delivery and a customer portal to view order history. They know how much it costs to serve a customer, and they grow without adding more trucks and trailers.

Routing technology enables centralized dispatch and knowing “planned times and distance.” Mobile technology provides real-time updates and captures “actual delivery metrics.” Routing and mobile together provide the foundation to understand the cost to serve and to drive efficiency by managing “plan vs actual”. The paper-based alternative is to pass driver management responsibilities to your customers.

Driver shortages

All distributors are dealing with driver shortages. You have to adopt technology to make the drivers as productive as possible, but there is a secondary reason that is just as important. With the current shortage of drivers, you’re forced to choose among less experienced drivers, so you are rolling the dice without the right technology. Mobile apps enforce workflows and ensure drivers follow the correct steps.

Even with experienced drivers, a mobile app that performs specific workflow checks is crucial and improves efficiency. For bulk product delivery, a mobile app that scans tank and compartment barcodes will confirm the product and prevent a contamination incident. If a driver puts 15W40 in a 0W20 tank, or 8% sodium hypochlorite in a 12% tank, they won’t know until the customer uses the product.

The worst scenario is not the cross-fills you find, but the ones you miss.

A mobile delivery app is the basis for driver efficiency. It provides real-time status updates to dispatchers and workflow efficiencies for drivers. Instead of handwriting meter values and using a calculator to determine what is delivered, the mobile app can read the meter directly. Data that you used to write on paper like stick readings now becomes actionable data to forecast tanks. With the goRoam mobile app, there is no paperwork as the data is captured on an Android or iOS device and transmitted electronically for billing – no more waiting on paperwork and no more re-keying. And the mobile app can enforce route compliance by requiring a PIN code for drivers to make deliveries out of sequence.

More exotic products = greater contamination risks

With more exotic products such as super low viscosity oils, the cost of making a delivery mistake is much higher. Distributors such as ExxonMobil and Shell have a heightened focus on their Quality Assurance programs.

If you don’t have a mobile app like goRoam to help drive workflow, it is simply a matter of time before you have a serious contamination issue.

Summary

Industry consolidation, driver shortages, and more exotic products are three reasons why you need to invest in technology right now. We understand you have always done business the same way, and you’re making money, but these factors are going to force you to adopt or lose business.

If you are a rollup operating as a independent companies, you have to adopt technology to get efficiencies of scale and operate as one.

The good news is, now it’s easier than ever to get started with our cloud server and fully managed mobile solutions. Contact us to get started!

3-way Match to Eliminate Product Integrity Issues

June 19, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

As a bulk distributor, product integrity matters. It may not occur frequently, but when contamination does happen, there can be a high cost in remediation, especially if the driver or customer does not catch it at the time of delivery.

What tools do you give your drivers to ensure they don’t cross-fill and contaminate a customer tank/asset?

Whether you distribute bleach, gases, fuels or lubricants, manufacturers such as ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron have increased their focus on product integrity and are looking at distributors to ensure you have tools and processes in place to avoid contamination.

We’ve worked with key manufacturers to develop a 3-way match between the compartment, product, and tank that ensures product integrity. You can enable 3-way matching at the truck/trailer level or enforce it on ALL of your trucks.

3-way matching using the goRoam mobile app

3-way matching is done in goRoam with a load sheet that contains 2D barcodes that are unique for that truck and compartment for each day. As you can see in the image above the product and quantity are loaded and recorded by compartment during the load with a barcode scan.

The load sheet allows you to support compartment validation using totes or on trucks with compartments that vary by day.

At the time of delivery, the driver selects the product they are delivering and scans the compartment barcode. When the driver fills assets, they scan each asset like a normal fill and the goRoam app confirms the compartment – tank compatibility. If the tank is not configured for that product, the driver is alerted. If the truck uses our electronic meter configuration, the solenoid remains closed and the driver cannot physically pump any product.

The goRoam app has extensive auditing so you can see each time a driver attempted to fill an asset with the wrong product. Even without 3-way matching, we still confirm product compatibility so you cannot put gas in a diesel tank, ATF in a lubes tank or bleach in an acid tank.

To learn more about 3-way matching, use the contact form or call us!

Dispatching on Paper? You’ve got a problem

June 12, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

Paper-based dispatch seems like it works and you’re making all your deliveries, but what you are missing?

Paper-based dispatch, delivery and old barcode systems simply don’t have the tools to allow you to measure your logistics efficiency, and you can’t improve what you don’t measure.

With paper-based or old barcode systems, drivers are free to deliver in any sequence with no controls or automated recording of data. Here are some examples of problems you may not realize:

Underutilized equipment – if you’re buying a new tractor or trailer but are dispatching on paper, you’re almost certainly not using your existing equipment efficiently. In dense delivery zones, we’ve seen customers lower their total transportation costs by 20%+ with route optimization. With better forecasting, we’ve seen customers utilize an additional 30% capacity of existing equipment. This means you have more equipment than you need to service your customers. The good news is, with a routing system you can avoid purchasing new equipment as your business grows. The bad news is without a routing system, you have no way of knowing what you are missing.
Inefficient routes – you used 10 trucks @ 3000 miles. It should have been 9 trucks @ 2600 miles. Without a planning tool, you have no way to easily build and optimize routes. At $2/mile loaded transportation cost, that one day cost an extra $800.
Overtime – trip took 9 hours – it should have been 7.45 hours. How do you know they took an extra hour of overtime? Because you don’t know what the planned time was or the actual sequence of stops. That extra hour cost $40 – and you never knew it.
Product integrity and contamination – since drivers don’t scan a barcode to confirm product compatibility, there are no checks in place to ensure they don’t put gas in a diesel tank, bleach in an acid tank or 5W30 into a 0W20 Synthetic. If you’re lucky enough to catch the first or last, you can pump it out. The middle issue is a 911 emergency.
Theft – tracking inventory and customer deliveries on paper or old barcode systems that don’t have current checks and balances makes it easy for drivers to short a few customers and sell product on the side. The more automated controls and electronic checks and balances, the more you can control theft. The tough part about bulk product theft is you never know you’re missing it unless a customer calls or you happen to get lucky. Small theft is a few thousand dollars and difficult to find. In a low margin business, it quickly hits the bottom line. The worst scenario is when a driver steals consistently and you have to go back to each customer they serviced, explain the issue and credit them. We could tell you about drivers who stole thousands of gallons of diesel by shorting a non-monitored tank by 700 gal each delivery….until the customer stuck the tank. Or the driver who shorted lubes deliveries and was caught only because a customer called to say ‘I think you have a bad driver’. Otherwise, they never would have been caught. Or the bleach drivers who shorted customers. Everyone believes their drivers are honest, and almost all are; however, it just takes one driver to rack up a LOT of theft.
Customer service – do your customers call to find out when an order is scheduled, if the driver on the way or can you send me a copy of the receipt? This is a hidden but real cost. Using paper and old barcode systems, you have to wait until the driver returns to get copies of the paperwork or call the driver to check on status. You have no real-time visibility. You may think this customer service cost is part of doing business, but companies with integrated electronic dispatch and current mobile systems have a LOT less, and their customers appreciate the paperless delivery.
Lost sales/customers – another customer service issue is losing customers. It’s too late to add electronic routing and delivery when a customer says they are going with your competitor because they’re electronic. The corollary is, you don’t know how many sales you may have won if you offered an email receipt as soon as the customer signs for the delivery. A number of our customers win business this way because customers know the driver/office does not manipulate the paper results after they sign…and it is a customer service benefit.
Inventory control – when everything is on paper, it is too hard to manually transcribe to audit and paper/old barcode systems don’t provide adequate controls. For example, two drivers deliver to the same customer tank, but one says they delivered 1800 gal to a 1900 gal tank, and the next driver delivered 1875 gal to a 2000 gal tank. On paper, you have no way to track and control and one driver probably gave away an extra 75 gal of product. Electronically tracking what was loaded versus delivered (per customer, per tank) versus what is retained is the first step in better inventory control.
Calculating delivery efficiency – if you don’t electronically timestamp when a driver starts/stops a delivery, then you’re relying on the driver’s honesty and accuracy. Without automated processes to record delivery info, you can’t calculate delivery efficiency. Why does one driver deliver 10 gal/min and another 25 gal/min at the same customer? What time did the driver actually arrive and depart? How long do they average per stop and per asset filled? We have a customer who had a driver who worked for them 10+ years and did all his own routes on paper. When they implemented our routing and mobile app, the driver was highly resistant so they continued to restrict his routes…moving from all nighttime deliveries to daytime. They still had issues so they fired him and assigned a new driver. His 8 hour routes were consistently done in less than 4 hours. They trusted this driver because he worked for them for 10+ years.
Inventory visibility – if your dispatch is paper based or you have an old barcode system, you have no visibility into the current inventory on the truck. You can’t tell where a driver is in his route sequence, if he is onsite, on-schedule and more importantly what the current truck inventory is. When a call-in customer asks for an emergency delivery, your dispatcher has to call each driver to see what their inventory is, where they are in their route and if they can make an emergency delivery. You took the dispatcher and driver’s time, and then sent a truck that ended up costing an extra $200 in transportation costs. Many people say this is simply the cost of doing business, but companies with routing systems know the cost to service (even on call-in orders) and make informed decisions.

There are a number of other hidden costs as well as limitations with paper-based dispatch and old barcode systems. We hear lots of reasons for keeping the old processes.

We’ve always done it this way
We’re making money – always have – don’t have any problems
We always have overtime – it’s just the nature of the job
I trust my drivers. They would never steal or pad their time. They’ve been with me 15 years.
We don’t have inventory issues
I pay by the gallon so my drivers are motivated to be efficient
Our routes are created by experts! All the knowledge is in my dispatcher’s head. They know the territory and all the delivery secrets.
10-20% retains are part of doing business. We do it to make sure we always service customers.
I’m too busy to look at a new system.
I don’t know how to interface to our accounting system so we probably can’t do this.
My drivers won’t use a mobile app – they are comfortable with paper.
Our customers like paper.

If any of these reasons or problems resonate with you, we should talk. Let us help you understand what you’re missing. Contact us!

3 Vital KPI’s for Bulk Distributors

March 27, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

There are a “Vital Few” key metrics that can determine the health of a project or operation, and this applies fuels, lubes and bulk chemical delivery.

Just three vital KPI’s can tell you how efficiently your business is running and trending.

Plan vs. Actual route time
Gal/Trip
Gal/Hour

Plan vs. Actual time is an indicator of excess hours by drivers

There are always exceptions for traffic, weather, and mechanical issues, but without this measurement, you cannot manage your labor costs and overtime.

Anecdotally, one of our customers had a long-time fuel driver who always ran an 8-hr shift with occasional overtime, so nothing looked out of the ordinary. He was highly resistant to our mobile solution and kept making excuses and claiming there were technical issues. Our customer continued to restrict his trips but still had issues with him. They gave his route to another driver who consistently did the route in less than 4 hours – with the same stops. If you don’t know how long a trip is supposed to take, you don’t know if drivers are working the system.

Gal/Trip is an indicator of whether you are fully utilizing your equipment

If you are not using a route optimization solution, you are not building trips with the most efficient order combinations. Aggregated unused capacity on your trucks is a running loss of opportunity that can never be recovered– though you never see the bill for it, it comes at a cost. We’ve seen customers do the same number of trips with 8.5 trucks vs. 10 saving more than 15% of their total transportation costs with route optimization. This saving s alone can cover the cost of deploying a dispatch and delivery system!

A more advanced method of increasing gal/trip is to route all current, open orders, and then use our virtual tank forecasting and trigger tanks to determine which keep full accounts you can top off with products also on those routes. We’ve seen customers increase truck utilization by more than 20% using this approach. Even if a customer’s tank has not reached its safety stock, it can still be topped off to avoid a separate trip just to hit that tank a couple of days in the future. That’s a win for your customer and improved operational efficiency! The important message here is that technology is not just an expense; it’s a tool that can drive out unnecessary costs and improve customer satisfaction while paying for itself.

A word about tank monitors: Installing tank monitors on every tank at every customer is expensive and labor intensive. At the same time, knowing the level of every tank is invaluable from a customer service standpoint. When you use BizSpeed’s bulk delivery solution, you don’t have to put a monitor on every tank to track utilization. You can still accurately forecast some tanks without monitors with statistical modeling and Machine Learning(ML)/Artificial Intelligence (AI). While the intelligence is artificial, the results are real.

BizSpeed’s goRoam can use historical delivery data and put unmonitored tanks into groups along with similar traditional monitored tanks to calculate utilization trends. These calculations can be tailored to account for different usage patterns to predict when a safety stock level will be reached.

Gal/Hr is a measure of how efficiently you route

It is correlated to gal/mile but provides a better indicator because it captures any slack time a driver takes or “meandering factor.” When drivers linger at the yard before/after a trip starts, or where they take an unplanned break during a trip. Their gal/mile may look good, but it took an extra 30 minutes of delivery time while the mileage did not change.

There are some other KPI’s that help manage your business, such as:

On-time %
% of the fleet used
Ordered vs. delivered variance
Total mileage

These should be tracked as well, but the vital few KPI’s will give you an accurate snapshot of your logistics efficiency that shows you the biggest places to save money. BizSpeed’s goRoam software combines these with our Driver Scorecard to keep improving your operational efficiency and customer service. You can start to develop a comprehensive picture and plan for the health of your operation today. Reply to this email to start the conversation.

Click here to read more about our solution.

Apps for last mile logistics | routing and dispatch

Apps for last mile logistics