Bidvest Logistics is part of the Bidvest Group which trades on four continents and employees over 115,000 people worldwide. Since 1999 Bidvest Logistics has grown to become the largest global foodservice distributor outside of the USA. Bidvest Logistics owns the largest food distribution groups in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It currently operates through two businesses in the UK; Bidvest Logistics and 3663 Wholesale.

Bidvest Logistics currently runs 365 vehicles with Microlise’s vehicle tracking & telematics technology on-board in order to help provide exceptional service to customers such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Zizzi’s, Nando’s and PizzaExpress. Bidvest Logistics’ vision is to lead the market with high performance logistics solutions that WOW their customers.

Bidvest Logistics have been using Microlise’s Transport Management System for tracking, telematics, and journey management (route & schedule adherence), for over 3 years.

Bidvest Logistics chose Microlise based upon the breadth and depth of their portfolio, product innovation and the open and can-do attitude of the Microlise management team.

Having delivered significant successes in reducing fuel costs through improved driving style, Bidvest Logistics then approached Microlise with the idea of implementing a Customer Service Board that would help with delivery issue visibility, response time, and administration in order to provide the most pro-active service, best customer experience with the least amount of operational overhead.

The Customer Service Board would use the same core technology as used in Bidvest Logistics’ transport operation, whereby each vehicle is tracked by the Microlise system against a plan. Microlise’s point to point routing engine calculates an up to the minute estimated time of arrival (ETA) each time the vehicle reports in (every mile).

The Customer Service Board rather than looking at the delivery status of the operation at a route level however, looks at the forecast time of arrival at a contract and delivery level. As such, as soon as, on a moving horizon, the Customer Service Board determines a delivery window is going to be missed, the staff responsible for that customer and / or delivery point is notified via the system.

The customer service agent is then provided with contract and site contact information, information about the delivery, the trip and current ETA. They can then record all contacts made with the customer within the system, which can then be reported on both internally and at customer account reviews.

Currently Bidvest Logistics is doing 10,500 – 11,000 deliveries a week with a 1 hour window. The new Customer Service Board from Microlise allows Bidvest Logistics to manage customer issues by exception and in a much more proactive manner. Thereby improving customer experience and reducing Bidvest Logistics administration effort.

The ability for Bidvest Logistics to proactively monitor the likelihood of failing to meet delivery commitments is seen by them as a unique selling point within the food service industry. Bidvest Logistics have also seen customer confidence increase - inevitably there are delivery problems, but being told about them in advance and being communicated to on a much more consistent and accurate basis, with up to date information, has proven to be very powerful.

As a result of the hard work that went into designing the Customer Service Board by both Microlise and Bidvest Logistics, Bidvest Logistics won the Best Technology Partnership category at the Call Centre North West Awards on October 7th, 2011.

In addition Bidvest Logistics also received the Contact Centre Manager of the Year Award which was awarded to Lianne Blackman-Morrow.

“We are delighted with the deployment of this advanced tracking technology that we have developed in conjunction with Microlise Group. The enhancement is without question industry leading and demonstrates Bidvest Logistics ambition to continue to service its client base to the best of its capabilities today and in to the future. The operating system now allows our business to proactively engage the customers with accurate information in real time and thus ensure they have clarity on the status of their delivery.” Shaun Foley Chief Operations Officer Bidvest Logistics UK

Matt Hague, Product Strategy Director at Microlise comments; “Microlise are really pleased with the addition of the Customer Service Board to our portfolio – it allows our customer’s to derive even more value from our Journey Management solution. It is also a great example of how our Agile Development teams can work with customers, such as Bidvest Logistics, to deliver innovative solutions in a timely and cost effective manner and is something we want to do more of.”

Bidvest Logistics hopes to continue to improve its customer relationships and will continue to look to Microlise for further help in regards to system improvements. Microlise appreciates all the help Bidvest Logistics provided with the creation of the Customer Service Board and its continued support of the Microlise Transport Management System.