Small businesses need to be able to react quickly when things change to stay ahead of the competition. The owners of Papa’s Fuels & Lawn Care have mastered the art of switching their service offerings as seasons change.
As home heating oil delivery and landscape company in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, customers depend on Papa’s heating oil deliveries to keep their furnaces running during the cold New England winters. In the warm spring and summer months, however, work shifts to lawn care and landscaping.
But whatever the weather, Papa’s employees need efficient routes to make sure the work gets done and the deliveries are made. So, four years ago, they found MyRouteOnline. Online route planning helps them transition faster, so those seasonal changes don’t hurt the bottom line.
“We were attempting to get better routes for our drivers (whether delivering oil or mowing lawns) to save time, fuel and to locate our drivers based on route,” said Sarah Johnson, the company’s office manager.
MyRouteOnline met the company’s requirements in three areas: cost, ease of use and customer service.
Depending on the time of year, the company employs between 4-12 people. In the summer, the company creates approximately 3-6 routes/week and in the winter 12-15 routes/week. There’s usually 20-40 stops on a route, which don’t change often.
“Our goal is to set a route as efficiently as possible and stick with it, unless there’s a customer emergency,” Sarah explained.
One of the biggest benefits is now the company has multiple people who can create the quickest routes. “Everyone in the office is trained on how to use MyRouteOnline.com, whereas before, only one individual had the task,” Sarah explained.
Addresses are manually entered into MyRouteOnline. For landscaping crews, the routes are printed. For home heating oil deliveries, tickets are placed in order of the route and the driver enters them into a GPS.
The result is an impressive time savings of 5-6 labor hours/week, and 12% less in fuel consumption—which is even more significant when it’s multiplied by four years of using the routing service.
“Though there is a monthly fee, with more efficient routes, we saved on mileage and cost of fueling,” Sarah said. “MyRouteOnline.com is a great site and routing service. We are very pleased.”