Pioneer Landscape Centers improves distribution ops via Descartes

Descartes Systems Group, the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, announced that Denver-based Pioneer Landscape Centers, a leading distributor of landscape and hardscape materials in Colorado and Arizona, is improving the efficiency of its distribution operations for commercial and residential customers using Descartes’ route planning solution.

“At Pioneer, providing an industry-leading customer experience isn’t just about truck efficiency and on-time delivery. It’s also about creating a fast, frictionless experience from the moment an order is placed until the moment it is delivered,” said Paul Tudor, President of Pioneer. “By integrating the Descartes solution with our new, homegrown point-of-sales system and dispatch system, known as Pioneer OS, we’re able to provide dispatchers a unified view of all restock and customer delivery requests, dramatically reduce dispatching time, and efficiently route our fleet using Descartes’ world class route planning solution.”

“Essentially, when sales staff process a customer order using our new point-of-sale system, that order is automatically and intelligently scheduled for delivery without any dispatcher input. Scheduling a customer delivery used to take up to 30 minutes. Today, that process takes less than 30 seconds and, thanks to Descartes, customer orders are fulfilled from the quarry or retail center closest to them. With hundreds of drivers on the road each day, plus 35 retail centers and 20 quarries and production facilities, it’s a significant innovation that has improved the customer experience, delivered an essential foundation for real-time ecommerce, and unlocked latent capacity across our fleet,” added Tudor.

Descartes’ routing solution helps distribution-intensive companies improve operational efficiency and the customer experience. It supports dynamic delivery requirements, including same-day delivery, by offering flexible, efficient and cost-effective time windows and delivery options. Using advanced continuous optimization technology, the solution takes committed delivery times and improves how routes are planned and executed, which generates additional delivery capacity and reduces costs. With an integrated GPS-based mobile application, the solution coordinates drivers, dispatchers and call centers to ensure that routes are executed according to plan and exceptions are handled efficiently.

“We’re pleased to help Pioneer fundamentally change its responsiveness to customers while improving fleet utilization,” said James Wee, Vice President at Descartes. “The combination of continuous optimization and robotic process automation-based route planning helps distribution companies redefine how they interact to be more dynamic and accurate with delivery promises and be able to plan across the enterprise to best leverage resources for improved productivity and customer service.”