JANUARY 2010

Palmer and Harvey is the UK's leading independent and national wholesaler of tobacco, confectionery, chilled & frozen, grocery and convenience goods with nationwide distribution facilities operating in the independent and multiple Convenience, Forecourt and CTN retail arena.

Palmer and Harvey have a diverse customer base with nationwide distribution facilities. They operate in the independent and multiple Convenience, Forecourt and CTN food retail arena, with clients including Esso, Shell, Welcome Break, Tesco and Sainsburys and also undertake distribution activities for major manufacturers including Nestle.

In order to support their plans to offer a more streamlined and value-add service to customers and potential customers, Palmer & Harvey selected VSc Solutions Ltd to provide an integrated mobile delivery management system that will give them real-time visibility of driver, vehicle and delivery activity past the warehouse door and across the entire delivery process.

Palmer and Harvey’s delivery operation comprises 550 vehicles handling 5800 deliveries per day across 12 depots.

The key solution components from VSc Solutions include:
• Vehicle Tracking
• Route & Delivery Performance – real-time analysis of performance against plan, including automated driver de-briefs
• Electronic Proof of Delivery (ePOD), managing the delivery/collection execution, including scanning and exceptions

By implementing a centralised delivery management system, Palmer and Harvey will benefit from more accurate monitoring and reporting information, together with improved customer service that will drive improvements to their delivery service at reduced cost.

Richard Slater, Logistics and Development Director at Palmer and Harvey, explains:
“The new system will provide us with greater visibility in terms of real-time information on vehicle and driver activity, as well as alerts to any areas of inefficiency in the delivery process. This ultimately means we can reduce our operational costs and provide a more effective and pro-active service to our customers”.