With time an important factor in vehicle downtime, American Tire Distributors (ATD) has been working to improve the time for customers to receive replacement tires.
The latest tool in that process is the OneRail delivery orchestration platform. OneRail offers a cloud-based platform for same-day and on-demand delivery of goods. ATD plans to leverage OneRail’s 4.6 million driver network to expand its ATD Express expedited tire delivery program.
ATD trialed OneRail in 19 of its 115 markets before making the decision to roll it out across all its North American markets.
“OneRail provided the dependability, speed, service and unit economics required to begin offering this program to our customers nationally,” Dennis Hatchett, senior vice president of supply chain operations at ATD, said. “OneRail’s unique approach merging an aggregated pool of couriers with delivery automation technology and logistics management services supports ATD’s mission to develop a more cost-effective and flexible supply chain ecosystem.”
OneRail connects the order from the point of sale, e-commerce or enterprise resource planning system to its delivery network in real time, quickly identifying a delivery driver.
“ATD is a true partner. We’re very thankful for their vision and commitment to drive digital transformation of the supply chain,” OneRail founder and CEO Bill Catania said. “As we advance from phase one to a full national rollout, the OneRail team and our courier partners are committed to providing the highest level of service and support to ATD and its customers.”
Once an order is received, it is routed through ATD’s Oracle system to the OneRail platform, where it is matched with more than 100 delivery companies that collectively manage over 4.5 million drivers.
The ATD Express program was designed to provide ATD’s customers with instant access to inventory from a regional ATD distribution center in 90 minutes or less. Orders are accepted through the ATD Online portal.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put increasing pressure on businesses to serve essential customers, and the tire replacement business is no different. Earlier this year, ATD highlighted two of its technology tools – an app, ATDMobile, and an e-commerce shop, TireSeller – as providing critical tools for tire distributors.
In the months immediately after the pandemic began, ATD saw a 50% increase in use of ATDMobile.
“That application enables our customers to meet consumers outside of their stores, using a phone or a tablet,” COO Owen Schianois was quoted as saying in a blog posting. “They can check inventory and pricing right there.”
ATDMobile allows the user to see the tire through a visualizer feature before purchasing.
TireSellers allows dealers to complete purchases online.
“Through a lot of those tools and others that we are making available to our customers, I think it’s helped our customers respond to some of the changing consumer behavior. … It really seems to resonate, and we’ve had tremendous feedback from our customers saying this is helpful,” Schiano said.
The company is also building a micro-learning site to educate the ATD sales team and to help train ATD’s tire dealers. There is also a tool in the works to help dealers better manage inventory, Schiano said.
“Most of our tire retailers do keep a certain amount of inventory on hand,” Schiano said. “We’re working on tools that can help them make better decisions based on what we know about that market, what our advanced analytics team is able to gather and based on what they’re actually selling. So we can help them identify where they over index and where they under index.”
ATD has more than 140 distribution centers serving 80,000 customers across the U.S. and Canada.
Click for more FreightWaves articles by Brian Straight.
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