Sophisticated solution helps Tesco.com cement its place as market leader

Microlise, the expert in delivering efficiency in the distribution network, has announced a deal with Tesco.com that will see one of the world’s largest retailers install parts of the Microlise Fleet and Distribution portfolio to drive fuel usage reduction and improve customer service across its home delivery fleet.

As one of the fastest growing ‘.com’ home delivery businesses in the world, Tesco.com delivers to customer homes from more than 300 stores, with over 2,000 vehicles making more than 250,000 deliveries a week. Naturally, coping with rising fuel costs and reducing environmental impact are major business goals for Tesco.com.

Consequently, it is important for Tesco.com to ensure that its large scale home delivery operation is being executed as efficiently and economically as possible, with a focus upon driving style, both in terms of fuel economy and safety, coupled with enhanced customer service.

With these objectives in mind, through a formal tender process Microlise was chosen by Tesco.com as a company that could provide the technology and support to enable it to achieve its targets.

Improving Fuel Economy

Microlise has installed its latest generation of GPS tracking units which report the location of each delivery van into Tesco.com on a frequent basis via GPRS. The units also provide vehicle and driver status and performance information. This is generated by connecting the tracking unit into the van’s CANBus network.

The Microlise system continuously reports back various pieces of real-time information about the van, such as fuel consumption, engine revs, speed and odometer reading. This information is then used by the system to build up a picture of how the vans are being driven on a journey by journey basis.

Tesco.com has set targets against fuel consumption, ‘green-band’ driving, idling – at store, en route and at the customer location – harsh braking and speeding. League table reports at each store are reviewed on a weekly basis to identify individual training needs.

Improving Customer Service

Every time a Tesco.com vehicle reports back – every mile plus other events like ignition on/off, stopped, idling, etc. – the current location and status of the vehicle is compared against the planned journey. The Microlise system has a powerful point-to-point routing system built in, which accurately calculates the estimated time of arrival, based upon the route the van should take to the next customer. Tesco.com uses this ‘planned versus actual’ information to automatically generate SMS messages to customers as they approach the delivery point. After completing a successful trial amongst a sub-set of customers, Tesco.com is ready to implement this function more widely off the back of the current phase of the project roll-out, which should be completed at the end of summer 2008.

Dino Papas, Tesco.com fleet manager commented ‘We are now rolling this system out to 1500 vans across 300 stores, and have worked with Microlise to create our own telematics reports, giving us everything we need in one compact document. It is this unique approach and expertise that ensured this was always going to be a successful relationship. This sophisticated solution allows us comprehensive visibility across every aspect of our fleet’s performance, enabling us to further improve our service. Indeed, we are making an additional 50,000 deliveries without increasing the number of vehicles on the roads. The Microlise solution also ensures we are in line with regulations and is helping us to cut our fuel consumption dramatically.’

Matt Hague, product director at Microlise, said ‘We are obviously delighted to be working with such a high profile, market-leading organisation. Microlise seeks to deliver significant productivity and economy benefits to all of our customers – however, the approach that Tesco.com has taken towards using this information to drive down fuel costs and emissions and improve customer service across such a large operation has been very impressive. We look forward to continuing to help Tesco.com with all aspects of its fleet management and relish the opportunity to further contribute towards their increased efficiency and economy.’