Enhancing and optimizing routes is critical for food service distributors to not only keep happy customers, but also to reduce costs and increase margins. This can be achieved by reducing spoilage through prompt delivery while saving time and gas through route efficiency.
While these priorities are year-round concerns, the summer heat keeps them top of mind for col-food distributors. Making the best routing decisions helps to make sure that your products and profits don’t literally melt away by enabling efficient and timely deliveries.
Better Technology Leads to Better Route Management
Prime FoodService Software was built in the cloud to help food distributors meet all of their business needs, but it is especially intelligent in how it handles route management.
There are two key elements to Prime Route Management: Routes and Trips
A route consists of one or more trips. Each route is assigned a number, a day of the week, and a cut-off time. On the route, you can see all of the possible stops or customer locations that could be on that route in the most geographically advantageous order. However, any stop can be dragged and dropped to change the order as needed.
Once a shipment comes in that would be placed on a route, a trip is automatically generated.
Trips beginning in the “Planning” status, are moved to “In Process” once they are in route, and then eventually get “Completed”. Each trip can also be attached to a zone and will be labeled with its parent route. You can also see the starting warehouse location, in case the product ends up elsewhere, the driver assigned, the vehicle to be used, and other metrics about travel and travel time.
Within a trip, stops will be ordered based on the sequence of the route, but can be re-ordered as needed.
A Mobile Solution for a Business On-the-Go
Prime is completely accessible through a mobile app, so drivers can have all of the necessary trip information available to them on a mobile device. At each stop, the system captures GPS coordinates to confirm routing information and they are able to record cash. Drivers are able to record the amount of cash received, the form of payment, whether it was check or cash, or accept credit cards and align it with the invoice.
When the driver returns, you can total the amount that the driver has collected and reconcile the amounts with whoever counts the cash to confirm that the totals agree. If the numbers align, you can release it and it will apply the cash to the invoices. You will then get a deposit report for bank reconciliation.
See first hand how Route Management in Prime FoodService Software can help you optimize your deliveries and maximize your profits! Watch our demo webinar today!