Respa Beds System Development Manager Anna Carolan tells us about how HUB 360 has transformed their Delivery Operation
HUB 360 delivers measurable savings on day-to-day operational activities by using smart technologies to optimise distribution activities and eliminate time wasted spent on tasks that can be easily automated. It ensures that your business delivery requirements are met, as well as making full use of all of your available resources.
All this at the touch of a button.
Respa Beds, Oldcastle, Co Meath
We spoke to Anna Carolan development manager of Respa Beds, a family-owned business that has been operating from Oldcastle in County Meath for more than 70 years. With more than 170 employees on the books and an annual turnover in excess of €20m, it’s fair to say that theirs is a major operation that involves thousands of deliveries each year.
The topic of discussion was the HUB360 system, which Respa Beds have recently implemented into their delivery processes, with Anna providing feedback on what a transformative effect it has had on their operation. Prior to implementation, Respa Beds had used an entirely paper-based, manual setup and by reading on, you’ll discover what Anna had to say about how our cutting-edge delivery technology has improved the efficiency and transparency of what is a major part of the Respa Bed’s business.
Effective delivery management
In simple terms HUB 360 manages the grouping of sales order, creating of loads and scheduling loads for delivery. Next, the optimal delivery route is automatically assigned based on the delivery location of each sales order in the load.
Here’s what Anna had to say.
Question 1 - Has HUB 360 improved your efficiencies with respect to grouping orders?
“We found that the ability to group orders allowed all of our sales orders to be transparently managed, which resulted in an efficiency improvement of nearly 80%. As each customer order came in, we were able to group deliveries by location and date, meaning optimum delivery routes were achieved.”
Optimization of your resources
HUB 360 has been designed to provide significant savings to both the operational and day to day costs of your organisation. It does so by providing valuable oversight of your daily business activities and ensuring that your trucks are always running at optimum capacity.
The following features make this possible:
● Paperless Proof of Delivery (POD) functionality
● Real-time geo-tracking of loads and vehicles
● Digital scanning of paper documentation for simple storage and easy retrieval
● Analysis of your fleet behavior for performance optimisation
This highly-effective functionality not only allows your business to grow but is also able to evolve and adapt to your needs as they change. It offers the true definition of a paperless operation.
Question 2 – Has HUB 360 improved your profitability with respect to optimizing the delivery process?
“We have achieved an efficiency boost of almost 60% since we began using the Hub System, as it provides an accurate, real-time figure of what percentage of each of our trucks was full. This means that none of our trucks leaves without us first knowing it is carrying the optimum load. A raft of other data metrics, like the value of the goods being transported, are available to our distribution manager, meaning inefficiencies are greatly reduced.”
Work faster, cheaper, easier
HUB 360 makes the delivery planning and scheduling so much easier, as it provides a real-time view of all planned and scheduled delivery loads. The 100% paperless system makes searching for archived sales records and accompanying documentation really simple, drastically reducing lost paperwork. Also, the browser and mobile app-based applications included mean that every aspect of the delivery process is made quicker, easier and more effective.
Our system also has a positive impact on the customer experience, as visibility is enhanced and from the order being placed, right through to the point of delivery. After implementation, our customers get to enjoy quantifiable benefits right from the outset.
Question 3 – How easy is it to use HUB 360?
“At Respa, we used to use a paper-based system, which when compared to the HUB 360, was much more convoluted and much less effective. The Hub System is really intuitive and easy to use and now all of our sales order management is done centrally in a simpler and optimised way”
Facilitate a real-time view of distribution activities
Hub360 reports in real-time, it automatically generates PODs on customer signature for sign off on delivery that is immediately sent to the customer and Real-time reporting as each load is physically delivered.
Providing quick and easy access to current and archived delivery documentation to both businesses and customers provides a highly transparent experience for everyone concerned. Being able to scan and digitally store documentation from every point of the delivery process, means that when it’s needed paperwork is immediately available.
Question 4 – Does HUB 360 give Respa better transparency into the delivery process?
“Absolutely! Each of our sales orders is signed for by the customer via our mobile app, which is then archived for easy future reference. What’s more, a copy each of these transactions is automatically emailed to the customer as a proof of delivery. Every aspect of the delivery process is more transparent and visible”.