ODDBOX, the UK’s food-waste-fighting fruit and veg box subscription service has expanded into Scotland, starting with Glasgow and Edinburgh, in its bid to rescue 150,000 tonnes of fresh produce. With delivery routes planned and tracked by PODFather, ODDBOX is looking to expand its delivery radius to nearly one million households across the Edinburgh, Glasgow, Motherwell and Paisley areas.
Having started life supplying fruit and vegetables to homes across the southeast of England, ODDBOX saw sales rocket during lockdown and with expansion across England and Wales delivery volumes soon exceeded four million boxes. Expansion into Scotland will help ODDBOX achieve its goal of reducing the 66 trillion gallons of water and 8% of global greenhouse gases generated by growing food that is ultimately wasted. With PODFather forming part of the process ODDBOX can be confident that they have the efficient route plans, and paperless delivery processes in place to reduce the carbon footprint across its delivery fleet.
ODDBOX’s food-waste-fighting fruit and veg box delivery scheme, is responsible for rescuing over 6,440 tonnes of surplus fruit and vegetables directly from farms since 2016. Products are collected, checked, and packaged up ready for delivery to customer homes. As reported in October 2021 ODDBOX selected PODFather as the system of choice to help with fleet management and electronic proof of delivery. The cloud-based system and easy to use driver app allows ODDBOX drivers to collect job information, track deliveries, capture notifications, and give teams full visibility of the distribution process.
“When we introduced PODFather we were experiencing a period of dramatic growth and we needed a solution to help us ensure our fruit and veg boxes were being delivered to the right place at the right time,” comments Drew Hutchinson, Logistics Manager at ODDBOX. “As our business expands, and delivery volumes continue to grow, PODFather has proved itself to be a true logistics solution partner, working with us to ensure that planning processes and route execution remain efficient as order volumes rise. There is no way we could be running as we are now if we didn’t have such a solution in place.”
The ODDBOX team use PODFather to plan deliveries, collect vehicle checks, track drivers, issue customer ETA notifications and collect electronic proof of delivery information. All drivers use a rugged handheld, on which they run the PODFather app. Drivers use the app to log vehicle checks, share information with the transport team in real time and capture proof of delivery photographs which are sent to customers; handy as many deliveries are carried out at night, and left unattended.
“We are delighted to see ODDBOX expand into PODFather’s hometown of Edinburgh; you get such a buzz when you see customer vehicles, that you know are running with your software, moving around your hometown,” adds Colin McCreadie, Managing Director at PODFather. “ODDBOX offer a great service and their business ethos, helping to reduce waste, is gaining traction across the UK market. We look forward to continuing our ePOD journey with the team.”
