Food is emotion. Huuskes, a company originally from Enschede, knows better than anyone that it also involves a large logistical responsibility. The company, whose mission is 'tasty food with ease', has been working according to three important values for decades: freshness, customer focus and delivery reliability.
CONTINUOUS INNOVATION
Harrie Reink, Logistics Manager at Huuskes, explains how the company has organised its logistics processes so that it can offer its customers customised deliveries. Harrie: “Huuskes is a very innovative company that thinks with its customers. We deliver to our customers everything you can buy in the supermarket as a private individual. From fresh items and meals to cleaning supplies. Customers demand a total supplier.
To meet customer needs, for example, a nursing home with its own kitchen can order bagged potatoes from us, but also potatoes as a component in a meal and everything in between. In the home market, where people are connected to a care facility but still live independently, the Eten & Zo Thuis web shop offers the possibility of ordering meals. These meals are delivered to the care facility, or in collaboration with PostNL, in a cooler. However, that requires solid logistical preparation”.
STEERING BASED ON FACTS
Huuskes has therefore been working with equipment from GPS-Buddy for over 10 years now. Initially to see where the vehicles were and to make route reports. As services have expanded over the years, so has the investment in smart technology. The modular structure of the GPS-Buddy systems allowed Huuskes to add new functionality incrementally, in line with the company's growth. For example, the company also uses temperature sensors, a CANbus link and a digital tachograph link. On the one hand, to meet specific requirements, and on the other hand, to minimise the administrative burden.
Harrie: "We use the digital tachograph link because then we don't have to send someone out to read out the tachographs each time. We can now just download that information in the office. It is an efficient way to meet the legal obligations. Also, this way, we know which driver is driving the vehicle. As our customers increasingly return to their core business of providing care, our service even goes so far that the driver even delivers the items to the ward". However, this far-reaching service also has consequences. "When a driver is delivering, that vehicle is often stationary for a bit longer, in some cases up to an hour. We therefore have temperature sensors in these vehicles with an alarm notification. If the temperature deviates too much and comes close to the limit values, we receive that notification and intervene. In addition, we can provide our customers with reports showing the temperature of the products during delivery. This is crucial information in order to meet HACCP guidelines."
SUSTAINABLE PROGRESS
In addition to HACCP guidelines and rest and driving time legislation, the company is seeing more and more European tenders requiring environmental certificates. Huuskes is closely monitoring this development as well. Harrie: "As a company, we consider environmental sustainability very important. We deliver throughout the Netherlands from four distribution centres. Transport to and from the distribution centre takes place by means of LHV combinations (Long Heavy Vehicle 25 metres) with which we can carry one and a half times as much in one trip. The environmental impact of our fleet is an element that increasingly plays a role in European tenders. We think that is an important aspect and therefore choose to comply with those specific environmental certifications. For example, thanks to the GPS-Buddy CANbus link, we have good insight into fuel consumption.
Consumption, however, depends on many factors; for example, does someone drive a lot of short trips in urban areas or a lot on provincial roads and motorways? The CANbus link also gives us good insight into the driving behaviour of the drivers. By combining that data, we can also respond to the drivers' driving behaviour, if necessary". Currently, Huuskes is busy implementing an ERP system, and once that is completed, the GPS-Buddy Driver App will also be implemented. This allows tasks to be passed directly to the driver and makes communication between the office and drivers even more efficient. This allows Huuskes to continuously focus on its core values: fresh, customer focus and delivery reliability.
