The company rolled VanLinx out to its second location in June. Rollout was put on hold during the busy summer months, but the final location will be rolled out by year-end.

Slip into the driver's seat with VanLinx
Rosenberger Ice currently uses 40 Palm VII handhelds running VanLinx software. Each production site uses one Palm VII for "customer pick-up" sales made at the dock, and each delivery truck has one Palm VII for its driver. Delivery drivers like Jeff Borchelt, shown in Figure A, use the handhelds every day to make deliveries, record sales information, and simplify payments reconciliation.

FIGURE A

Driver Jeff Borchelt shows off his Palm VII handheld running VanLinx. Click picture for a larger image.

For example, on Monday afternoon the dispatcher sets up the routes for Tuesday and saves them in the appropriate file. Later that day when the drivers return from their routes, they perform a HotSync operation between their Palm handhelds and their PCs. They immediately get a report that shows all their stops, sales, cash, checks, and credit sales for the day. They count the money and checks. If it agrees, they're done, and they go home.

The next morning they come in at 6:00 am and perform a HotSync operation again to get the day's route. For each stop they're to make, the screen shows what the customer usually buys and the price per item. The driver simply inputs the quantity. If the customer needs a paper copy, the driver beams the information to the printer in the truck. When the driver returns Tuesday afternoon, he performs a HotSync operation and the cycle goes on. Every day a file is created on the VanLinx server and sent electronically to the corporate server for integration into the general ledger system.

If Rosenberger Ice sends a route change to a driver, the change automatically becomes part of his route, and he has no extra work to do. The driver can do the administrative part of the delivery in about five minutes versus 15 minutes before. Those ten minutes can be used to add another stop to the route without overtime.

The system also has the capability to accept electronic signatures, though Rosenberger isn't using that functionality yet. "It is a matter of getting customers comfortable with the idea," Gorman explains.

Handheld ice delivery packs powerful payback
With payback for their handheld solution achieved in less than one year, Rosenberger Ice has successfully met all of the goals it defined for its Palm OS-based delivery solution. The company has cut one full time and one part time position by eliminating data entry from the order and delivery process. The company also lowered overtime across the board and cut driver administrative work by two-thirds.

"Our accounting data is more timely and accurate because drivers no longer need to hand-calculate charges. We can create reports for sales by customer and sales history by date by customer. And, since each delivery is date and time stamped we can generate reports on driver productivity, pounds delivered by driver by day, and truck mileage for government reporting," Gorman added. The company can also create custom reports as needed.