Intermec Devices Help Reduce Company’s Operating Costs by 9%

Impulse Worldwide is a London based premium international transport and logistics company. They specialize in door to door deliveries worldwide, making over 150,000 deliveries a year.

Since it was founded in 1988, Impulse used a paper based system that required employees to process all of their information by hand. The only communication between the drivers and the distribution centre was a two-way radio, which meant that all of the delivery or pickup information obtained throughout the day had to be manually entered after the driver’s route was over. Employees were working at night to ensure that the data was entered so that the packages could be shipped on time. The drivers were also required to plan and modify their own routes to fit in all pickups.

The solution to their problems was the Intermec CN3. Each of the company’s drivers received one of these handheld devices. As with any major change in operation, the employees were skeptical about switching to a more technological approach. In addition to these obvious concerns, the new handhelds would need to be compatible with the existing IT infrastructure and barcode printers. Impulse chose Intermec over its competitors mostly because it was much easier to use, but also because of its extensive range of compact multi-functional devices. The Intermec CN3 had the built-in barcode scanning capabilities that Impulse needed for daily operations as well as a GPS system, which allows the operator to pre-plan the driver’s daily route. The signature capture program was also helpful in providing proof of delivery.

Now, Impulse has the ability to track shipments from the moment they are picked up to the exact time of delivery.
All package information is updated automatically using the barcode scanner and customers are able to see the digital
version of the receiver’s signature online. Delivery mistakes are a thing of the past as the new devices leave less room for human error.

Since the introduction of the CN3 to the company, Impulse Worldwide has seen a 9% decrease in operating costs thanks to the new GPS route planning capabilities. Because the routes are no longer “plan-as-you-go,” the drivers don’t waste as much fuel as they did before. The company no longer has to pay employees to work nights entering data because the data is automatically entered every time a package is scanned.

These benefits have allowed Impulse to deal with larger companies than it could previously, enabling it to compete directly with the leading courier companies in country.