The problem
Retail stores do not take a delivery whenever a truck turns up. Each retailer has its own booking system and email process for delivery timeslots, and a store will reject stock that arrives outside the slot.
The 3PL’s staff were picking the orders and then booking the timeslots themselves, without knowing whether the carrier of the day could make the time. Often it could not. Rejected deliveries meant stock back in Brisbane, a second attempt, a second booking and a retailer chasing its order.
What we do
Collected and cross-docked
Our own truck collects from Darra on the daily Brisbane run. At Yandina the load is broken down and consolidated by receiving store.
Timeslots booked by our office
The office at Yandina books every delivery into the retailer’s own timeslot system, or by email where that is the retailer’s process, and the store’s requirements go onto the consignment: the slot, the dock, the paperwork, the contact. Each store’s run is planned around its booked slot, and the driver who delivers to that store did so last week and knows its dock and its receiving staff.
Scanned against the slot
Every parcel and pallet is scanned at pickup, into Yandina, onto the delivery vehicle and at the store, with a GPS-stamped signature as proof of delivery against the booked slot.
No new processes
This fitted our network as it stood: we already deliver into the same Sunshine Coast, Gympie and Moreton Bay stores for other senders, we already use the retailers’ booking systems, and the receiving staff already know our drivers. The 3PL’s freight joined runs that were already going there.
The result
- Timeslot booking moved from the 3PL’s warehouse team to our office; the 3PL hands the freight over and the rest is handled.
- Stores receive consolidated deliveries in their booked slot from a driver they know.
- Rejected deliveries and second attempts stopped being part of the week.
In the customer’s words
“Prior to shifting to All Freight, not only were we having to pick the stock, we had the tedious task of having to book in the timeslots without even knowing if our carriers at the time would be able to make that time, and in a lot of cases they were not, and our products were being rejected. Now we just hand it all over to the team at All Freight and they manage the whole process. This has been one of the biggest wins in our business, given the time-consuming nature of the process.”
Who this suits
Brisbane 3PLs, distributors and importers delivering into retail stores and distribution centres on the Sunshine Coast, in Gympie or in Moreton Bay that need timeslot bookings handled, not just freight moved. See retail and distribution centre deliveries, booking freight into retail distribution centres, Brisbane to Sunshine Coast freight, Sunshine Coast delivery agent for carriers, or request a quote.