Case Study: American Electric Supply Decreasing Delivery Costs

American Electric Supply, Inc. (AES) was founded in 1984 with a handful of employees and a goal of building a company that was customer service oriented. Over the past 21 years, AES has grown to be a premiere provider of industrial and commercial electrical products in Southern California. With about 100 employees, a fleet of 20 trucks – from pickups to 20' stake-beds - and excellent buying power, it provides customers with quality products for a competitive price and delivers them to the job site or shop. Its warehouse operates around the clock from 10:00 pm on Sunday through 11:00 pm on Friday. AES makes about 130 deliveries per day.

Even with its past successes, AES had a challenge. Delivery manifests for each day were hand written the night before and then trucks were sent on their way. Each truck was outfitted with a GPS tracking unit, which conveyed its location to a company computer. If a route change was needed, the dispatcher could then locate an address in its service region and re-route the truck closest to the desired location for a delivery. But, this manual approach caused considerable duplication of effort, delays, wasted time, fuel and frustration by drivers and customers alike.