They used to find out when the truck got back.
Middle West Pet Distributors runs delivery routes out of the Chicago suburbs to pet stores, groomers and clinics. Until this year every route ran on paper: a handwritten log, a printed sheet, a carbon-copy inspection form, and a clipboard. This is one delivery day, as it was and as it is now.
The paper on this page is theirs, scanned from the old process, with every account, name, address and number blurred. The screens are the app as delivered, running demo data: no store, driver or figure on them is a real one.
The store log.
Every afternoon somebody walked to the office for the store log: every account that ordered that day, written by hand, in whichever pen was nearest. Then each account number was typed into a program from another decade, after clearing yesterday's first, because the previous day's routes were still in it.
Now the numbers are pasted in once. Every account lands on its master route by itself, and the ones that belong to no route are flagged rather than lost.
Review routes, and print.
Each route got a driver, a truck and a date. Then two things came off the printer: the DOT pre-trip checklist, and the route sheet it was stapled to the back of. Then the office made a delivery verification sheet for every store on every route, one copy for the store and one to file.
In the ops lead's own words: “It is a lot of paper.” Now a route is edited on one screen, stops are dragged into order, and dispatching it is one button. It appears on the driver's tablet. Nothing is printed unless somebody wants it printed.
“Really make it easy for the drivers just to carry a tablet and not a clipboard full of paper.”
From here on, the day is on the tablet.
Pre-trip.
Twenty-four items the Department of Transportation requires before a truck moves. On paper it was a column of boxes and a signature at the bottom, on the back of the route sheet.
On the tablet each item is OK or Defect. A defect has to be described before the inspection can close, and the record is on file at HQ, with the driver's signature, before the truck leaves the yard.
The route sheet.
The route sheet was the day: nine stops, a box for time in and time out, a line for pieces and a line for C.O.D. Whatever got written on it was the record, if it got written.
It is the same sheet on the tablet, kept simple on purpose, because the brief was to keep it as easy as it already was. Each stop is a card with the store, the counts and a button that opens directions. Its status changes when the driver taps it, and HQ sees it change.
The first delivery.
The delivery sheet was a form the office printed, one per store. The store signed it and both sides kept a copy. Pieces, dry and frozen, and the invoice total went on by hand.
Now the driver sees what was expected for that store, enters what actually went in, and the manager signs on the glass. A count that does not match what was expected is flagged on the spot, in front of both people, rather than found later in a filing cabinet.
Something arrives damaged.
Say a case comes off the truck with a cut bag. On paper, that was a line in the comments box and a phone call, if anybody made one. The store might dispute it a week later and there would be two versions of what happened.
Now it is a line item with the product, the defect and a photograph, taken at the store, and the manager's signature under it. It is on the HQ deliveries log, flagged, before the truck has left the parking lot.
Post-trip.
The Driver's Vehicle Inspection Report is the form a DOT officer can ask to see. It was a carbon-copy pad, filled in the cab at the end of the day and filed in a drawer, with a section for a trailer these trucks do not have.
On the tablet it is the same checklist, box truck only, because that is what they run. Every defect goes straight to a maintenance queue at HQ with the truck it belongs to, and the whole year of records can be exported as one audit package.
The end of the day.
The clipboard used to come back to the office with everything on it: the invoices, the pick tickets, the signed delivery sheets, the checklist, the DVIR. Somebody filed it.
Now the day is already there. Stops delivered, miles driven, time on the route, issues reported, and a line that says pre-trip, DVIR and every signature are on file. The driver logs out and goes home.
The screen that did not exist.
The office used to find out how the day went when the truck got back. Now they know while it is happening: every driver on the road, every delivery as it lands, every defect, and a driver's license or medical card that is about to expire, flagged thirty days out instead of at the roadside.
Tomorrow's routes are built while today's are still running. The master routes were set up once and get reused. Nothing about the day has to be asked for.
What was built.
Everything below is in the scope and can be checked against it. The figures on the screens above are demo data and are not counted here. There is no figure for hours saved or money made, because we do not have a checked one yet, and a number on this page has to be one you could ask them about.
- 16 screensSeven on the driver's tablet, nine at HQ.
- 24-item DOT pre-tripAnd the post-trip DVIR, box truck only.
- Works without a signalThe route loads in the morning. The rest of the day completes offline and syncs when it can.
- A signature and a photoOn every delivery, and on both inspections.
- A live fleet viewHQ sees each stop as it happens, without refreshing anything.
- One-click DOT audit packageA year of inspection records, exported as one PDF.
- Master routes, set up oncePaste tomorrow's account numbers and they land on their routes.
- On the tablets they already hadA web app that installs like an app. Nothing to buy.
- Nothing new to learnDriver ID and a PIN. The brief was to keep it as easy as the paper, and it is.
- 16 weeksKickoff to production, including the trial in the yard.
More work.
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The clipboard is on a hook in the office.It has been there since the first week, and nobody has taken it down.
Nobody buys a plan they haven't seen.
Nothing here starts with a quote. It starts with a conversation about where the business is and where you want it to get to, and what it takes to close that gap, written down and yours to keep.