ArcLogistics Delivers for Continental Courier

Continental Courier, Broadview, Illinois

Continental Courier, a courier and messenger company based in Broadview, Illinois, is using ArcLogistics to turn guesswork into fact-based decision making. Continental Courier provides two types of services: scheduled work, which is routine deliveries made for an existing customer, and on-demand work, whereby the company receives a request for a one-time delivery. Scheduled work comprises about 90 percent of the firm's Business, with on-demand services making up the other 10 percent.

Routes are driven by about 65 to 70 drivers. The company specializes in interoffice deliveries for companies that have multiple locations in Illinois and surrounding states. They operate a mixture of vehicles, from station wagons to straight trucks, and carry small to midsized packages.

Before selecting ArcLogistics, Continental Courier used manual techniques to route its vehicles. Steven Johnson, systems manager, jokes, "We did routing the scientific way of having a big map on the wall and using pins."

Continental Courier is now using ArcLogistics for all of the bids and estimates it prepares for prospective customers. When approached by a potential customer, Continental Courier prepares a variety of bids representing the available options. As a general rule, the more that Continental Courier can fit a new customer's deliveries into its existing routes, the lower the cost will be to the customer.

Another factor that lowers the cost is flexibility in time windows. ArcLogistics allows Continental Courier to quickly present several options, allowing the customer to select the optimum combination of service and cost. "We've had some very large bids, and it helps us prepare them in half the time," says Johnson. "The software provides us with data that is based on fact and not hunches."

Johnson says he can also use the software to find out what their costs would be to meet the customer's needs. "We know what our routes are, and we know what time the vehicles will make each stop," says Johnson. "We can ask the software to tell us what it would take to go 15 minutes west when we normally wouldn't, and we can see it on the map."