Independent Electric Supply Improves Distribution Operations with Descartes’ Cloud-based Route Planning Software and Mobile Fleet Tracking Solution


A leading electrical distributor throughout Arizona and California, Independent Electric Supply operates 19 electrical supply branches and over 1 million square feet of warehouse space to serve its contractor customers.

To support business growth and better serve customers, starting in the Arizona market, Independent Electric Supply is using the cloud-based Descartes Route Planner™ On-demand  and Descartes Mobile™ solutions to improve the efficiency of its distribution operations.

The deployment is part of a major strategic initiative at the company to consolidate distribution operations and automate route management. With the Descartes solutions, Independent Electric Supply has realized significant productivity gains and higher levels of customer satisfaction by increasing delivery volumes and minimizing route distance and the time spent driving. In particular, during its peak early morning hours, the company has been able to double and, in some cases, triple the number of deliveries to customers. Independent Electric Supply plans to soon expand the deployment to a new facility underway in Northern California.

Why Descartes for Route Planning?

With Descartes Route Planner On-demand, distribution-intensive companies have a comprehensive cloud-based delivery route planning, execution and mobile solution that provides rapid time-to-value. The solution offers advanced capabilities at an affordable cost for companies who need to centralize delivery operations and move away from highly inefficient manual routing practices that cannot support the customer service standards required in today’s markets. With the solution, companies have real-time visibility into the daily routes planned automatically for each driver, can monitor at-a-glance  the status of deliveries throughout the day, and can promptly manage customer expectations as new orders are received or unexpected issues arise.

Route Scheduling Software Improves Delivery Performance

Descartes Route Planner™ On-demand provides an easy and affordable way to plan, optimize, dispatch routes, track and monitor delivery fleets in real-time. This cloud-based fleet tracking solution combines sophisticated functionality with the simplicity of service delivery built to run on the Web. It optimizes both static routes and dynamic routes to maximize efficiency by taking into account geographic zones, time windows and other physical constraints when planning delivery fleets. It also provides dispatchers, managers and customer service representatives with a real-time, global view of driver movement and delivery status across an entire enterprise.

To learn more about Independent Electric Supply, visit www.iesupply.com

Read more about Descartes Route Planner On-demand and other Descartes solutions for Distribution-intensive Industries

Written by Andrew Roszko

Senior Vice President of Sales at Descartes

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