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How Ufleet saved Metro
13% on delivery costs

Metro drivers used “experience and gut feeling” to plan routes.
Ufleet delivered optimal, data-driven routes.

10,000+
Happy customers
100+
Delivery vehicles
25,000+
Deliveries/month

Ufleet
+
Problem
=
Solution

Zero Transparency

Non-transparent delivery process leading to too long loading times, stressed dispatchers and drivers, many WISMO* calls, and customer complaints for late or incomplete deliveries.
* Where is My Order?

Data-Driven Technology

Ufleet provides the technology to plan, execute, and improve the delivery process. Dispatchers plan with a push of a button. Drivers follow optimal routes in the mobile app. Everything is real-time.

Amazing Results

A unified delivery process across the whole organization, leading to improved loading times, happier dispatchers and drivers, 5X decrease in WISMO calls, and 3X fewer customer complaints.
13%
Lower Cost-to-serve**
14%
Less Miles
17%
Lower Time-to-serve
** Average cost-to-serve equals the annual delivery costs by the total number of deliveries for the year.
“Ufleet route optimization helped us save 13% on delivery costs and at the same time improved the quality of our service”
Ivan Yotsov
Head of Food Service Delivery at Metro Cash & Carry

Delivery operations at Metro

Metro is a leading international food wholesaler that provides cooking solutions to the HoReCa sector worldwide. The company’s product lines “Metro chefs”, “Metro Professional”, and “Metro Premium” are designed, developed, and produced in collaboration with professional chefs and are thoroughly optimized in test kitchens.

Metro BG delivers to more than 10,000 hotels, restaurants, and caterers from its flagship specialized Food Service Delivery warehouse and 10 wholesale shops. Here are the specifics that mark the delivery operations at Metro:

  • Logistic partners make 100% of the deliveries
  • Temperature-controlled vehicles: frozen, chilled, and normal
  • Next day/same day, free delivery within an agreed time window
  • Seasonality of demand in the highest turnover regions
  • Metro logistics and operations strive for emission neutrality by 2040

Surrounded by chaos
A myriad of problems

Delivery sequences were the responsibility of the drivers leading to subjective, suboptimal routes and late deliveries.
Deliveries had to go into fixed delivery zones with varying day-to-day orders resulting in a messy process and late dispatches.
Loading process took too long because LIFO order had to be followed, but routes were not ready until the last moment.
Lacking vehicle capacity at certain depots while at the same time having excess capacity at other depots.
Drivers, especially new ones, had a hard time finding addresses, parking spots, and other location-specific issues.
Too many chain phone calls: customer → customer support → dispatcher → driver and following the same path back to the customer.
Drivers arrived at the delivery address earlier than planned leading to idle time or failed first attempts.
Impossible to plan for a vehicle’s multiple daily routes because it was unknown when it would be back at the depot.
When a route was late or early, dispatchers did not have the whole picture to reoptimize the routes under the changed conditions.
Management did not have the tools to benchmark performance, measure KPIs, and justify necessary changes.
Loose proof of delivery process allowed for customers or drivers claims that were hard to resolve objectively.
Lots of unregistered complaints — sampled customers returned feedback only at phone surveys several times per year.

Ufleet to the rescue
The AI-powered Delivery Management System

Metro has been looking for a delivery management system that not only addresses the problems above but also provides a solid business and IT process integration with its existing infrastructure. The system had to meet the following requirements:

  • Fully integrate with the in-house custom Siebel/Oracle based ERP
  • Legacy support for Microsoft Internet Explorer
  • Work independently when the core infrastructure has unexpected outages
  • Provide a unified solution for all depot operations and all logistic partners
  • Provide real time delivery data to the call center and logistic partners
  • Track standard KPIs across the whole operation and modify them periodically

The implementation of Ufleet started with a thorough design thinking process involving all stakeholders. It brought together delivery department management, IT department professionals, dispatchers, drivers, call center, and sales reps as they had direct knowledge of the HoReCa customers pain points. After several workshops and detailed role and process mapping the technical specification was finalized and the dev team could start work.

As it often happens with complex systems, the implementation plan took a month longer than the originally planned 2 months. However, the delay was caught up at field tests when the pilot delivery depot was fully operational within a week. A green light was given for a national roll-out and Metro was ready to meet the high season with a fully fledged AI-powered delivery management system.

“Delivery data helps us make smarter decisions. The dashboard allows us to discover inefficiencies and address them when they are still small.”
Ivan Stoichkov
Delivery Execution Manager at Metro Cash & Carry
screenshot of ufleet route optimization

Amazing Results
Ufleet helps Metro
improve operational efficiency

Optimal routes

The Ufleet AI takes into account multiple parameters and provides the best routing solutions.

The optimization process takes one click, returns immediate results, and is completely paperless.

Less stressed workers

Dispatchers, warehouse workers, drivers, customer support have visibility, predictability, and can focus on real exceptions rather than deal with emergencies.

They can go home on time now.

Less idle time

In logistics everyone is interconnected. Better planning and execution means more efficient time allocation.

Drivers seldom wait for warehouse workers to load the vehicles or for customers to open shop.

Less pollution

Less miles driven means less CO2 pollution.

Metro strives to become an emission-neutral company by 2040. Next step is fleet electrification for which Ufleet also has a solution.

Happier customers

Getting to customers on time is important both for the delivery driver and the restaurant.

Predictability and reliability takes the stress off restaurant owners and decreases the chance to look for alternatives.

Empowered managers

Management already knew what is important - optimal cost of delivery and a stable service level.

With Ufleet now they have the tools to measure all delivery related costs and take actions when needed.

Deliver more with UfleetTry Ufleet for Free

About Metro

Metro is a leading international food wholesaler with over 89 000 employees in 30 countries. The company generated EUR30 bln. in 2023 from 17 mln. customers. Sustainability is one of the principles of Metro which has been listed in various sustainability indices and rankings, including MSCI, Sustainalytics and CDP.

Metro specializes in serving the needs of hotels, restaurants, and caterers (HoReCa) with its unique omnichannel mix as a competitive advantage - customers can purchase from one of the large stores in their area as well as by delivery (Food Service Distribution, FSD) – all digitally supported and all interconnected.

Testimonials

"Ufleet helped us achieve considerable cost cuts in logistics—fewer miles driven, significantly less idle time, fewer pay hours."
"Ufleet is unbelievably effective! It takes just a single click to find the best routes for hundreds of tasks."
"Ufleet route optimization helped us save 13% on delivery costs and at the same time improved the quality of our service."
"Delivery data helps us make smarter decisions. The dashboard allows us to discover inefficiencies and address them when they are still not critical."
"Route planning is so precise that we no longer worry about missing delivery windows."
"The driver app is so easy to use and helps us onboard new drivers much faster than before."
Ivan Yotsov

Ivan Yotsov

Head of Food Service Delivery at Metro
Connect on Linkedin
Ivan Yotsov

Ivan Stoichkov

Delivery Execution Manager at Metro
Connect on Linkedin

You too can reduce costs and improve efficiency with Ufleet

Join thousands of businesses that rely on Ufleet to:
  • plan and optimize delivery routes
  • manage and empower drivers
  • enhance customer experience
  • make data-driven business decisions

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ufleet dashboard and ufleet driver app screenshots