MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Stephenson's Rental Services has improved on-time deliveries by 15 percent, improved productivity by 15 percent and reduced delivery outsourcing by 20 percent through the use of an Internet-based routing system called Cube Route. By using the visibility and routing service offered by Cube Route on a pay-as-you-go, subscription basis, Stephenson's can track and monitor its fleet of delivery vehicles in real time.

In the past, with no visibility into its delivery operations, Stephenson's dispatchers had no way of knowing where in the delivery cycle its trucks were or how long it would take to get back to one of the company's three central hubs to make the next drop. At times, Stephenson's had to outsource deliveries to different trucking companies to keep its schedules on track. Frustrated with lower-than-expected on-time delivery percentages and the manual processes being used to manage deliveries on orders received from across its 21-store network, Stephenson's decided to try Cube Route.

“We began with Cube Route in November 2004, we had spent a year looking for solutions, including hardware solutions, which are expensive because they have a lot of upfront installation costs, and we really couldn't find an out-of-the-box solution,” Tom Newell, Stephenson's vice president of operations told RER. “It's an Internet site computer system and it's the routing that makes it such a good system. It allows us to plan multiple drops for our drivers and figure out how long it will take to get from one part of the city to the next. We have seven or eight drivers on the road all the time covering the entire greater Toronto area and we need to know exactly where they are and how long they're going to take to get to the next job. Because then you know if it looks like somebody is going to be 20 minutes over the deadline, then you can re-route the order to the next available driver or outsource. But before we couldn't do that because we would have no idea how long it would take to go from one part of the city to the next.”

Stephenson's is using a driver input-based Cube Route application where, with one touch of a button, a driver can state that he's arrived at his destination, is waiting for equipment or departing for his next delivery, thus eliminating the need for constant dialog on two-way communication systems.

“We were able, over the course of a few days, to get them up and running seamlessly with no interruption to their day-to-day process except for the training,” said Danny Stark, operations manager for Cube Route.

More information can be found about Toronto-based Cube Route at www.cuberoute.com. Stephenson's Rental Services is No. 48 on the RER 100.