Mobile Solution Helps Cargus Improve Transparency and Enhance Customer Service
As one of Romania's largest courier companies, Cargus embarked on a digital transformation to provide customers with more transparency and control over their deliveries.
Zebra Success Story: Cargus SRL
Overview: Courier Challenge
Create an advanced mobile platform to help Cargus seamlessly cope with the high increase in demand for delivery services and ensure that customers are constantly updated on the status of their delivery, with the option to change the destination ‘in-flight’ if they need to.
Benefits / Outcomes
- Customers have real-time visibility over orders and deliveries
- Customers can divert packages to SHIP & GO points if they are not going to be available to collect them at the original destination during the scheduled delivery window
- Greater delivery predictability and visibility are improving customer loyalty and satisfaction
- Couriers are processing more packages per day
- Cargus has the capacity to seamlessly adjust to demand peaks, such as Black Friday
- Courier training and on-boarding time is reduced as the solution is easy to use
About Cargus SRL
As e-commerce sales grow, demand for delivery services in Romania is soaring, and customers’ expectations are shifting. People expect their goods to be delivered ever more quickly and with flawless accuracy. Cargus, as one of Romania’s largest courier companies, is at the epicentre of the drive to fulfil orders, managing a 20% increase in shopping volumes in 2021 alone.
Cargus has 5,000 employees, including 2,450 couriers, through its network of five sorting hubs, 45 warehouses and over 900 ‘SHIP & GO points where customers can drop off and pick up parcels. On average, Cargus handles over 300 packages a second and anticipates the need to be even more efficient. With e-commerce in Romania expected to grow at around 9% per year until 2025,1 Cargus has embarked on an ambitious digital transformation program. The program will keep Cargus one step ahead of demand while providing customers with more transparency and control over their deliveries.
The Challenge
In addition to enhancing automation in its warehouses, Cargus focused on two key areas to help optimise efficiencies. The first was improving transparency for customers to allow them to better track and trace their orders and, ultimately, enhance first-time delivery rates. To achieve this, it invested heavily in its new Cargus Mobile app for customers. Among a range of features, the app informs customers of expected delivery times and allows them to divert packages to SHIP & GO points if that’s more convenient. Customers also receive confirmed delivery notifications.
Second, Cargus looked at equipping its couriers with an advanced mobile solution, as its previous mobile devices were being retired. Couriers also needed a way to easily capture more data, keep people informed on delivery progress and take card payments from customers while in the field.
Cargus realised that, to achieve its goals, the mobile computing devices must be rugged, robust, backed by expert service and support and easy to manage remotely by its own IT team. The devices also needed to run on an enterprise Android™ operating system (OS) to help ensure solution longevity and enable future application development.
The Solution
After a competitive tender, Cargus commissioned mobility expert Smart ID, a Zebra Premier Solution Partner, to help it select and deploy its new devices. Smart ID specialises in creating innovative mobile solutions for companies operating in highly intensive environments and has deep expertise in working with courier companies. The consultancy team is experienced, with in depth Zebra product knowledge, maintenance and technical support.
Commenting on the decision to appoint Smart ID, Felix Crăciunescu, CIO, Cargus says: “Smart ID submitted the best proposals. In addition, it has an experienced team, provides good customer service and is always ready and available to help beyond contractual obligations.”
Following a review of a range of possible mobile devices, Cargus selected the Zebra TC57 all-touch rugged handheld computer for its couriers. The TC57 was preferred for its mix of job-specific features along with its blend of smartphone looks and usability and rugged design, which is critical to surviving life on the road.
The mobile solution is used constantly by couriers, from confirming they’ve picked up parcels from the warehouse and loaded them into their vehicles to confirming final delivery. They can also stay in touch with dispatch using text messages or push-to-talk (PTT) calls, and with customers through voice, texts or emails.
Cargus’ bespoke mobile application uses GPS data from the device to provide customers with a continuous view of delivery progress. This concurrent insight, and the option to divert a delivery to a SHIP & GO location, helps improve first-time delivery rates and enhances customer loyalty. In addition, the innovative mobile payment system, which uses near field communications (NFC), allows customers to tap their cards on the TC57 and enter their pin numbers on its touchscreen. Secure point-of-sale software processes each transaction through an authorised payment agent.
Crăciunescu says, “Our mobile solution improves the relationship with our customers and is increasing customer satisfaction and retention. Thanks to features like the intuitive touchscreen and powerful barcode scanner, our couriers are more efficient and productive, we have cut average delivery times and our service is more predictable. This predictability is, we believe, a unique aspect to our service. The technology has also helped us streamline workflows and, with access to more data anywhere and everywhere, we have a highly flexible mobile platform to adjust to changes in the business environment. A good example is Black Friday. We can now scale to meet the demands of this busy time easily and effortlessly."
The Zebra Difference: Outcome and Benefits
A True Enterprise Solution
Given that the mobile solution is a vital companion for couriers, Smart ID recommended that Cargus invest in a Zebra OneCare™ Select Maintenance Plan. This provides true enterprise-class support, with each device covered for accidental damage or normal wear and tear. Continuous, 24/7, live agent technical support is available too.
Agents can use the SOTI® MobiControl Enterprise Mobility Management Solution to remotely triage devices and carry out some checks and setting changes that immediately resolve most problems. However, on the rare occasion that a device fails, a courier is given a spare to use while their unit is repaired at a Zebra Technical Support Centre.
In addition, Cargus relies on Zebra LifeGuard™ for Android. This provides Android security patches and updates way beyond the typical 36 months offered via standard OS support and will help protect Cargus’ investment in its mobile solution long into the future.
Ready for the Future
One of the many reasons why Cargus deployed an Android solution is the flexibility it provides to easily add new applications. This is already paying dividends with the recent addition of the smart mobile payment. It was launched following research by Cargus, which found that 65% of its customers want to pay for their delivery charges at the point they receive their packages.
As Crăciunescu confirmed, “Zebra is helping us deliver solutions that meet our customers’ needs today. We also have the platform in place to offer new services well into the future to help us set a new delivery standard in Romania.”
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