Bakers and snack food producers face many challenges when delivering their products to customers on schedule. In a competitive marketplace, they need to make sure their products are on the shelf when consumers want them. Factors such as traffic delays and driver deviation have a big impact on delivery efficiency. Late and failed deliveries result in unhappy customers, which can impact future orders and the bottom line.
Increasingly, retailers are demanding that their suppliers hit tight time delivery windows. Doing so requires more visibility of deliveries, estimated time of arrival (ETA) and late notifications, as well as delivery and merchandiser coordination. In addition, some stores no longer have sufficient floor space to warehouse large deliveries to meet daily demand, and thus are requesting multiple deliveries of fresh product throughout the day.