UK tile retailer Topps Tiles has cut its delivery journeys by two percent as it optimises its fleet delivery with Descartes’ cloud based route planning. The company is also gaining a better understanding of potential impacts of planned changes to its delivery strategies.

Part of its Routing, Mobile and Telematics suite, Descartes’ route planning helps retailers and logistics providers reduce costs through more agile and efficient routing. It also helps improve fleet resource management by generating additional delivery capacity and become more sustainable through the reduction of their CO2 footprint and their use of paper across the route network.

The route modelling capabilities allow companies to understand and optimise their delivery and customer service strategies before having to execute them. Descartes’ mobile application helps drivers perform their daily routes, keeps managers aware of the progress and provides an accurate estimated-time-of-arrival (ETA) to notify customers of their deliveries. Proof of delivery (POD) capabilities support customer service and order accuracy through real-time mobile communication.

“With over 300 stores nationwide in the U.K., we’re continuously evaluating how to maintain a high degree of customer service while reducing operational costs, especially today’s high transportation costs,” said Simon Macdonald, National Transport Manager, Topps Tiles. “Working with Descartes, we’ve replaced manual, spreadsheet-based processes with automated route planning to optimise the volume of tiles being delivered at any given time, as well as the routes our vehicles are travelling. Descartes’ strategic route modelling capabilities are also enabling us to model delivery scenarios and make more informed strategic decisions, which would have been nearly impossible with traditional resource-intensive analytical methods.”

“Topps Tiles’ long-term success is based upon its ability to continually provide customers with a superior shopping experience while offering cost competitive pricing,” said Pól Sweeney, VP Fleet Sales in Europe at Descartes. “We’re delighted to help Topps Tiles minimise its operational costs today through our route planning and optimisation solution and in the future with our strategic route modelling capabilities.”