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Arthur David Food With Service

Arthur David Food With Service was established in 1962 by current Chairman Arthur and his wife Diana.

100
Fleet size
"While the improvements for our drivers, transport planners and customer care staff have had a massive impact on our business, the best results have been evidenced by our customers"
The history

Operating a fleet of around 100 vehicles, Arthur David offers a six days a week, next day service covering the whole of the south-west and the major urban conurbations of Bristol, Reading, Cardiff and Birmingham.

One of Arthur David’s unique selling points is its speed of response – a speed which is not only applied to deliveries, with orders placed up to 23h00 usually delivered by 08h00 the next day, but also to customer service. Mistakes are corrected on the same day, regardless of fault and with no questions asked, and there is a company-wide ‘leave it with us’ ethos.

 
Asparagus in a wooden bowl on a wooden table
Challenges

As the business has grown, so too has the scale and complexity of the delivery operation. Maxoptra was originally introduced to take control of distribution costs through improved operational efficiencies. Prior to the implementation of Maxoptra, each customer was allocated to a fixed route with a sequence number, but this did not take into account running costs or other factors, such as efficient vehicle utilisation, vehicle capacity and driving hours.

 
Solution
Since implementing Maxoptra, integrated with in-cab telematics from TomTom, Arthur David has seen a dramatic reduction in the time and resources taken to deal with customer queries. Before Maxoptra, and in the case of a vehicle leaving late or falling behind schedule, the company could receive hundreds of calls in a matter of hours. Each customer call required interaction with the transport team, potentially a call to the driver, often resulting in multiple calls per query.

Maxoptra is also helping Arthur David enforce its ‘leave it with us’ motto, whereby the company will move heaven and earth to ensure the customers get their goods, that day, regardless of fault. Missed items or forgotten orders can result in deliveries anywhere from London to Swansea and Birmingham to Southampton, and Arthur David is now using Maxoptra to plan the daily second wave of deliveries.Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.

 
Green apples in a basket
Results

After implementing Maxoptra, Arthur David introduced a ‘one-call’ customer care policy. Giving frontline staff direct access to real time delivery information, accessed in the cloud, they can advise and inform customers at first contact.

The use of Maxoptra has allowed Arthur David to complete the second round of deliveries with fewer miles and has resulted in parity between drivers’ hours, which in turn has boosted morale and reduced staff turnover.

 

"While the improvements for our drivers, transport planners and customer care staff have had a massive impact on our business, the best results have been evidenced by our customers"

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Daren Hill
Operations Director at Arthur David
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