Do it again, and again, and again the next week — not because something is wrong, but because it is right and it works. Consistency requires doing the same thing over and over in exactly the same way every time. “We stress doing the job right, because that's what it takes to keep the restaurant chain in its competitive position,” says Pete Pruitt, director of transportation for Norco Restaurant Services in The Colony, Texas.
Norco is the distribution arm of the Pizza Inn restaurant chain, delivering 550 stops a week to 385 locations spread across a huge swath of the country from Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the southwest to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on the northwestern corner of the trade area to Gainesville, Florida, in the southeast to Norfolk, Virginia, at the northeastern corner. Although Pizza Inn has restaurants in 20 states, the heaviest concentrations are in Texas with 35% of the total, North Carolina with 14%, and Arkansas with 8%. A look at the company map shows restaurants clustered along the Interstate 30, Interstate 40 corridors. Pizza Inn franchises also operate in 11 foreign countries.
First restaurant in 1958
The company opened its first restaurant in Dallas in 1958 and awarded the first Pizza Inn franchise in 1963. The first buffet restaurant opened in 1969. A public stock sale took place in 1993. Company operating strategy is based on independent franchises; however, it does own four restaurants — two in the Dallas area used for product development and franchisee training as well as general pizza service.
Restaurants fall into three operating concept categories: buffets with the most extensive menus and service, delivery/carry-out locations with limited or no seating, and express locations such as those found in convenience stores and airport food courts. Norco handles the entire network from a single distribution center in The Colony, one of the newer northern suburbs of Dallas.
Norco exists as a means for franchisees to leverage their purchasing power as independent operators. It supplies about 80% of the food and supplies needed to operate a Pizza Inn, including the proprietary sauce, seasonings, and all-in-one flour mixture for dough. Pizza Inn is careful to stress that Norco is a foodservice company, not a commissary for mass production of dough. Instead, dough is made fresh daily in each restaurant and never frozen with the single exception of certain products used in express locations. Norco delivers to every location at least once a week.
Restaurant operators have the option of two deliveries a week if they meet certain minimum volume thresholds with each order. Most operators prefer a single delivery, because handling an inbound delivery disrupts regular restaurant routines, Pruitt says.
Norco sells almost everything a restaurant uses, including a limited produce line, restaurant supplies and cleaning materials, kitchen equipment, and even employee uniforms. However, total inventory is much smaller than that of broadline foodservice houses. The 100,000 sq ft warehouse handles 480 line items of inventory, says Reuben Palomo, warehouse manager.
27 weekly routes
The distribution center operates with nine workers on a single shift six days a week. In addition to selecting roughly 95,000 cases for 27 outbound routes weekly, the warehouse crew handles an average of 45 inbound deliveries every week. The warehouse has 65,000 sq ft of dry storage and 35,000 sq ft for freezer and cooler space. The dry warehouse has 12 doors, while the temperature controlled portion of the facility has 10 doors.
Inbound carriers can rely on spending minimal time at the Norco dock. Palomo says the warehouse crew handles most inbound deliveries in 30 minutes or less. More than half the inbound freight, 60%, comes in as LTL shipments. “We have recently tried to move away from taking in truckloads as a way to drive down inventory costs,” he says.
Outbound freight gets handled just about as fast. Palomo says that two to four hours lead-time provides plenty of cushion to select orders and check them carefully before departure. Order selection uses a paperless radio frequency system and includes a 100% verification of outbound loads. Norco dedicates two warehouse workers to checking outbound orders for quality control.
Multi-temp trailers
To deliver the entire product line with a single stop, Norco uses refrigerated trailers with three temperature zones — 0° F in the nose for frozen product such as cheese, which arrives at Norco frozen, 36° F for produce and certain meat products, and an ambient compartment in the rear for dry groceries, supplies, and equipment. Folding bulkheads from Randall Manufacturing separate the compartments.
Routes average 10 to 12 stops per load with each restaurant receiving from 60 to 150 pieces. Essentially, the same truck runs the same route week after week. These stable routes are revised once a year and put up for bid among drivers based on seniority. In general, drivers take about two weeks to learn a new route. Part of that learning process can be making suggestions for changing the route to make it more efficient. Customer service has to approve any route changes suggested by drivers.
The company is careful to listen to driver suggestions; after all, they are the primary contact between Norco and Pizza Inn restaurant operators. From week to week, routing remains a fairly simple process, Pruitt says, unless a restaurant places an order that is larger than expected. All the orders have to fit to make up a route and, if one order is too big, other routes must be adjusted. The big consideration is making the delivery on the day and at the time the restaurant operator expects it. The restaurant manager must be consulted before major changes to a route are made, he says.
Stable weekly routes
Routes are planned for a consistent 3½-day duration. In general, routes leave home early Tuesday and return by Friday. Routes from Dallas to Houston are the exception. The Houston driver makes two routes a week with 20 stops on the first load and 16 on the second route. Obviously, some of the eastbound routes are longer than a solo driver can handle within the time allotted. To make sure that all restaurants get their scheduled delivery, Norco runs 15 team routes along with 12 routes with solo drivers. The driver crew totals 34 with nine assigned to the solo routes.
In addition to making outbound delivery, Norco has a new and growing backhaul program. As recently as December 2004, the company made no backhauls. After just a year and using only eight trucks, backhaul revenue for local receivers totals more than $1 million. That figure does not count freight hauled for company use that could add as much as $275,000 to $300,000 to the backhaul numbers, Pruitt says.
Holding to such a tight schedule for delivery and backhaul with a small fleet requires confidence that equipment will be available when needed, which is one of the reasons that Norco has always leased its power equipment. “Leasing is the only way to go,” Pruitt says. “We just couldn't afford the potential downtime that goes with a company-owned fleet.”
Weekend fleet service
The fleet is provided on a five-year, full-service lease by Paccar Leasing Company from its location in Grand Prairie, Texas, about 30 miles from Norco's facility. The lease provides two daycab tractors and 19 highway tractors with 63-inch sleepers. PacLease performs service depending on route mileage. Tractors on shorter routes may go in for inspection and service every two to three weeks while equipment on the long routes to Virginia and North Carolina usually get a weekly inspection. Based on Norco operations, PacLease does most of its work on weekends.
Fleet standard for the sleepers is the Peterbilt Model 386 low drag tractor powered by a Caterpillar C15 engine rated at 475 horsepower driving through an Eaton Fuller FRO-16210C 10-speed Roadranger transmission. The 126-inch BBC dimension of the road tractors includes the sleeper. Although a lot of the vehicle specifications match those of basic highway tractors, Norco considered a lot of input from its drivers before selecting the trucks.
For instance, both the drivers and the company wanted the C15 Cat engine. “We all agreed that the C15 would last longer than some of the other engine options,” Pruitt says. “We also wanted to get those engines early to avoid the first versions of the new exhaust emission standards that go into effect in January 2007.”
Aiding driver retention
In addition to doing the job efficiently, driver preference played a big part in truck selection, things like Alcoa aluminum wheels all around. “We wanted trucks that drivers like, because pride in the equipment and the company has a lot to do with driver retention,” Pruitt says. “Once we get these guys trained, we want to keep them, and some of our drivers have been with the company for 23 years. That's a long time considering that restaurant delivery is really a young man's job. It's hard work and requires a lot of upper body strength.”
Leasing has two main attractions for Norco, both related to preventing downtime. In the first place, the lease keeps the fleet supplied with relatively new equipment, which is easy to maintain. The second factor is leasing company support. Road problems get handled quickly through the PacLease franchise network. If a truck has a problem that will sideline it long, PacLease quickly substitutes another tractor.
Norco uses much the same approach to its fleet of 34 trailers. Although, the company owns the trailers and has a one-bay service center on its property, most maintenance and service is provided by contractors. For instance, W & B Service Company in Dallas sends two technicians and two mobile service trucks to Norco nearly every weekend to perform refrigeration service.
Typical trailers at Norco are 46-ft Great Dane multi-temps with Thermo King Spectrum SB units. The host nosemount cools the freezer compartment and a single remote evaporator takes care of the medium temperature compartment. In addition to a ramp under the rear doors, Norco provides trailers with three curbside doors for ease of delivery in cramped restaurant parking areas. Trailers are shorter than typical truckload vans for the same reasons. “Our product line is fairly dense, so we don't need as much interior cube as some foodservice distributors require,” Pruitt says.
In the past, many of the trailers have been purchased used and refurbished with bright new graphics. One new decal shows a big colorful pizza with the tag line, “because kids don't beg for liver and onions.” Norco began buying new trailers with an order of six in 2005.