Scout Distribution Expands its Last-Mile Reach with Wise Systems

Geographic expansion brings opportunity and growth, but it can also come with logistical complexities. With growth plans on the horizon, Ricky Adams, Director of Business Systems and Technology at Scout Distribution, knew they needed a new routing and dispatching solution. The focus finding a platform to streamline data collection, automate route planning and optimization, and accelerate dispatching operations.

Accelerating route planning

Before implementing the Wise Systems automated delivery platform, Scout Distribution employed a static routing strategy, which meant assigning drivers to fixed route plans that were created around order forecasts. While their ERP could handle some light routing, dispatchers had to use up hours planning one route at a time. And, after routes were planned, making last-minute adjustments and updating drivers was a cumbersome process.  

With expansions into new markets come the influx of new customers. New customers bring more stops, and more stops means more complicated routes. Ricky and the team at Scout Distribution could see that their route planning strategy would need to be more dynamic in order to support the complexity that comes with growth. 

Unlike static routing, which relies on order forecasts to plan routes in advance, dynamic routing enables accelerated route planning and optimization based on the day’s orders, available drivers, and other variables. With new orders, new customers, new merchandisers, and so many other inputs changing daily, Scout Distribution needed a technology solution that could intake data and quickly create multiple routes at one time.

Breaking barriers between teams with real-time visibility

When it came time to execute their routes, drivers received a printed copy of the day’s stops. Each driver would spend time before their shift planning out their delivery day, timing out breaks and incorporating last-minute route adjustments. After leaving the distribution center, and in between stops, drivers had to spend time inputting stop locations into their routing apps. These small delays may not seem like much, but minutes aggregate quickly, resulting in missed delivery windows and poor impressions on new customers. Compounding the issue was time spent coordinating with merchandisers who would often wait 30 to 40 minutes for a driver to arrive. 

The Scout Distribution team knew they needed to improve information sharing and communications, and a modern, cloud-based platform would be key.

With applications that work together to support each of their last-mile delivery teams, Scout distribution empowers their dispatchers, drivers, and merchandisers to meet their responsibilities while keeping them connected in real-time.  

Discover how Scout Distribution uses the Wise Systems automated dispatching and routing platform to: 

• Improve customer service
• Plan multiple routes in one place
• Accelerate growth 
• Make more on-time deliveries

There’s more to the story. Download the case study and read more from Ricky and the team at Scout Distribution: