TOOLBX and Onfleet Deliver that “Last Thing” to the Jobsite ASAP
TOOLBX and Onfleet Deliver that “Last Thing” to the Jobsite ASAP
Written by Katherine Lehman at Onfleet
As we wrap up 2021 and look to the year ahead, Canadian commercial builder confidence has a more optimistic economic outlook but supply chain issues and labor shortages are still slowing builders’ ability to complete new construction and building improvement projects. Statistics Canada shows that non-residential investment rose 1.8 per cent to 14.1 billion Canadian dollars, the third consecutive quarterly increase. As the market heats up, so will the associated supply chain and delivery processes.
For a general contractor planning to finish a job, discovering the night before that you’re missing crucial supplies or a specialised tool is an exercise in frustration. You need that particular part, and you can’t spare someone to drive to the store the next day. Creating a same-day delivery service for the construction industry has been challenging, especially for a country as large as Canada. But the last and most crucial step in the supply chain is last mile delivery. These deliveries can make or break deadlines, as well as budgets.
Recent research from McKinsey demonstrates that customers will take their business elsewhere if delivery times are too long for the job. Over 90 per cent of consumers expect two to three day delivery as the baseline, and 30 per cent expect same-day delivery. This is a new phenomenon, but unless organizations and industries can adapt to these new customer expectations, companies like Amazon and Walmart will leave them in the dust.
The pandemic forced contractors into a tight space, balancing schedules against material delays. TOOLBX launched in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver to provide an all-in-one construction material procurement platform for residential and commercial contractors. TOOLBX keeps construction projects moving by ensuring materials always arrive on time – and fast! TOOLBX teamed up with last mile delivery company Onfleet to keep their ever-growing customer base of professional builders satisfied and expedite deliveries. Deliveries are even carbon-neutral thanks to the partnership with Onfleet.
Demand for delivery surged during the pandemic and it’s only going to increase as delivery is now the norm for consumers worldwide. At the same time, Onfleet is able to help companies like TOOLBX address their carbon footprint while meeting contractors’ needs.
Onfleet calculates the total CO2 emissions of TOOLBX’s operations by multiplying monthly mileage by standard EPA GHG coefficients, with Onfleet and TOOLBX splitting the cost of the carbon offset certificates. The collected funds get sent to sustainability partner Pachama, who then distributes them to a portfolio of forestry projects. By the end of 2022, Onfleet hopes to have offset 100,000 tons by protecting 113,430,000 trees. That’s the equivalent of taking 20,000 cars off the road for a year.
Along with tracking carbon emissions, TOOLBX can plan efficient routing to the job sites, which also helps stop thousands of tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere every month. With 60 per cent of TOOLBX’s orders happening the night before delivery, automatic routing, and route optimisation is essential. Today, last mile delivery processes account for 53 per cent of the total cost of shipping, and up to 41 per cent of the total supply chain costs. Most of this expense is the by-product of poorly optimised delivery routes.
Manually finding the best routes is a tedious process, as it requires taking into account delivery time windows, driver schedules, driver proximity/hub locations, traffic congestion, accidents, and distance between stops. If there are multiple vehicles with 10 stops each, there can be millions of different route possibilities. With route optimisation software, businesses can calculate the best routes in seconds, maximising the number of deliveries that drivers can make, and therefore the amount of revenue a business can generate. Onfleet’s automatic routing and route optimisation takes care of all of these factors seamlessly, giving the TOOLBX team the capacity to focus on customer service and order fulfillment. Using its platform allows drivers to visualise delivery routes, cut delivery times, automatically dispatch drivers, and improve customer service.
Using Onfleet, TOOLBX has expanded its business to major urban areas across Canada. With express delivery options, stores can get materials into the hands of builders within two hours. Onfleet provides the logistics, real-time tracking and GPS support to make this feat possible, along with a seamless interface for drivers that allows for onboarding in 10 minutes. Onfleet’s real-time tracking and proof of delivery features also boost customer service, helping build trust between drivers, suppliers, and the end customer. Each party can go back and view photos of previous deliveries to verify the correct material was delivered or rectify any mistakes.
By combining online sourcing with TOOLBX with advanced delivery management from Onfleet, builders across Canada can take advantage of last mile deliveries that can get the right products to the right job site on time so workers can stay productive.
About the Author
Katherine Lehman is the Manager of Marketing Demand Generation at Onfleet. Since its launch in 2015, Onfleet has grown to power millions of deliveries per month for thousands of businesses around the world. Clients include Gap, Total Wine & More, Imperfect Foods, and United Supermarkets.
About the Company
Onfleet’s software provides advanced route optimization, dispatching, real time driver tracking, proof of delivery, analytics, and customer communications. Onfleet was ranked at #124 on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing companies in 2019 and #13 in San Francisco Business Times’ Fast 100 list of the Bay Area’s 100 fastest growing companies.