Using Handheld Devices to Save Time and Money
Client: 3.5 years with eoStar; 1 year with Vocollect Voice Pick
Location: North Carolina -Wilmington, Farmville, Pollocksville, Elizabeth City
The Company: Coastal Beverage, with four locations throughout North Carolina, needed to upgrade their previous route-accounting software. Knowing this, they took the time to research multiple platforms and find the best fit for them.
The Challenge: Efficiency was becoming a problem. So much time was taken in reconciliation, running reports and generally finding the information they needed, it was evident they could be saving (and making) more money
Coastal Beverage needed a system that would be intuitive and easy to use. They needed to run automated reports. Their data needed to be readily available and easy to access.
Driver handhelds drastically reduced the amount of time our drivers had to spend reconciling and settling. Prior to implementing eoStar, reconciliation took anywhere from 15-35 minutes per route. Now, each route requires 2-3 minutes.
With drivers able to track everything that happens on the handheld devices, everyone in the company has instant access to the necessary data. In addition to eoStar’s training sessions, we ran three internal training sessions of our own. These training sessions were extremely helpful in making a flawless transition from our previous system to eoStar.
The implementation of presell handhelds alone saved our company close to $120,000. On the delivery side, printing invoices, collection money and even making off-truck sales, when necessary, are now simple tasks that don’t require much time.
What used to require days in generating reports is now automated—we run 125 reports, some of which go out daily, some bi-monthly and some monthly. We were able to cut our administrative tasks way down, freeing our staff’s time to work on the company rather than having to sift through data.
End-of-day route settlement is now centralized. Regardless of where a driver is, his route can be reconciled. With all four locations using handhelds, efficiency has never been higher. Since we implemented eoStar, our flexibility is amazing and our cost savings have been substantial.
Coastal has been using eoStar’s Voice Pick Solution for over 1 year and have seen a dramatic impact on efficiency and safety. As far as accuracy, we noticed an improvement in cases-per-hour within a week and are averaging a 99.8% accurate pick rate.
Implementation was fairly easy and the rollout was quick. Rutherford’s support for the product has been outstanding.
Looking towards the future, we are looking to build on Voice Pick with eoStar’s WMS.
Charlie Pope, IT Manager at Coastal Beverage Co., Inc., on eoStar Handhelds
