Established in 1945 by brothers Harry and Morris Wax, WAXIE Sanitary Supply has grown to be the largest family-owned janitorial supply company in the United States, employing over 800 employees. One of the keys to WAXIE’s success is living their mission every day by keeping the customer the focus of all they do, participating in environmentally sustainable practices, and investing in technology to further their business.

WAXIE has a broad base of customers ranging from local family-owned businesses to regional, state, and government facilities. Their distribution centers vary from 1 to 32 vehicles per location. WAXIE’s routes can present unique challenges due to heavy loads, lower stop densities and large distances, depending upon the geographic areas covered. Adding to the mix is their determined focus on customer service; if a customer places an order before the end of the business day, WAXIE’s service posture is to deliver that order on the following business day.

Prior to the Roadnet Transportation Suite, WAXIE experimented with routing manually as well as using another software solution. "At the time I started with the company, we had a manual routing system. The drivers held all of the tacit knowledge of the customers and routes. When a driver was sick, our customer service level would be affected. We’d also spend a lot of time with the drivers on the phone, finding out where they were and when they’d get to a stop. Every phone call, the driver had to pull over to the side of the road," explained Eric Cohen, Vice President of Logistics for WAXIE Sanitary Supply.

After using another software solution, WAXIE realized they needed a more robust solution that would take into account equipment types, days of the weeks deliveries could be accepted, and include a strong reporting functionality to establish a baseline of improvements to be made in the future.

"Before when we used to route, it was a 12-person operation, over 6 hours, all on overtime. Now, I can log in anywhere- even at home- and route for someone within 45 minutes. If a router or driver is promoted or moves into another position, we don’t have those service failures anymore. It’s not a scramble- everyone knows WAXIE’s customer base through the software," stated Cohen.

After implementing Roadnet^® and MobileCast^®, Cohen was able to look at the projected and actual daily costs of the routes and balance them based on time, reducing overtime and spreading the load evenly among drivers. Since the deployment of Roadnet and Mobilecast, Waxie Sanitary Supply has maintained their current fleet assets and has not had to add vehicles despite continued sales growth.

One of the major benefits WAXIE experienced after implementing Roadnet was their ability to maximize their own fleet. WAXIE supplements their fleet with services from UPS Ground. "We can do a quick cost analysis and find the most optimal delivery network- whether it’s taking small orders and shipping them via UPS Ground or carrying them on a WAXIE vehicle. Last year we would have had to add 29 trucks to our fleet if we stopped using UPS," Cohen explained.

In the future, WAXIE looks forward to further integrating their environment to run completely paperless. WAXIE’s company vision has long been focused on innovation and greening their operations. As a member of the US Green Building Council, they are concerned with promoting healthier buildings and operations. Roadnet assists them in these efforts by helping to balance the truckloads, decreasing the wear and tear on vehicles, fuel costs, and the impact on the environment.

Cohen summarized the benefits of implementing the Roadnet Transportation Suite best, "Companies who do not have a routing solution will never get to the next level- whatever level that is for them. If you are looking to control costs and become more customer-friendly, you need it- no questions asked."