Floral delivery company uses Prophesy Dispatch

Prophesy Transportation Solutions Inc, an Accellos division, has released a case study of its client Delaware Valley Floral Group. This profile explains how the New Jersey-based, family-owned-and-operated company has eased processes by using Prophesy Dispatch.

Delaware Valley Floral Group opened September 22, 1959. The company was founded by Robert and Doris Wilkins, grandparents of John Scott Wilkins, executive vice-president. In 1959, the company consisted of only a few workers; now the company has more than 400 employees.

The organization represents several divisions: Delaware Valley Wholesale Florist, Flower Transfer Logistics, FreshBlooms, and Transflora. The original location of the company was in Pitman NJ, but it is now headquartered in Sewell NJ. It also has business operations in Baltimore MD, Edison NJ, Cromwell CT, Miami FL, and Oxnard CA.

Delaware Valley Wholesale Florist has been providing professional retail florists with fresh cut flowers and greens, floral supplies, and botanicals. Because of Delaware Valley Wholesale Florists’ reach, it can serve areas stretching from Boston MA to Alexandria VA every day.

Flower Transfer Logistics is a trucking and 3PL division that was formed about 20 years ago and has been steadily growing since. Currently it owns 100 local fleet delivery trucks and 22 tractor trailers that run long hauls to areas in Florida as well as California, Mexico, Texas, and Canada each week.

As the Flower Transfer Logistics division grew, management began looking into technology that would help better run the organization. Before purchasing a trucking system, the company had been using an in-house ERP system primarily designed for warehousing. Though this system was not ideal for the Flower Transfer Logistics trucking division, the staff adapted to it as best they could, in order to do basic billing for trucking. Aside from completing billing within this ERP system, the staff used manual methods like Excel spreadsheets and whiteboards to complete organizational tasks on a day-to-day basis.

John Scott Wilkins was prompted to look for a dispatching system because he knew Flower Transfer Logistics would continue to grow and the manual processes the company had been using would not allow that growth.

“We looked for solutions that would offer us the ability to sustain growth and track monetary expenses and cost per mile. We had virtually no capability to do this with our old processes and knew that we had to be able to if we wanted to continue moving forward in the industry,” said Wilkins.

Wilkins had researched six systems, but once he attended a live Internet demonstration of Prophesy DispatchSeries with National Sales Representative, Jay Votzakis, he was instantly hooked.

“I loved the design and layout of the dispatch board,” said Wilkins. “Everything was simple, clean, and easy to understand, which is exactly what we needed.”

Wilkins admitted that he realized the other products were too complex for the size of his company and Prophesy seemed like the perfect fit after his product demonstration.

In February 2010, the Delaware Valley Floral Group bought a 10-user version of Prophesy Dispatch with third-party accounting interface as well as modules for IFTA fuel tax reporting, commercial mileage & routing, SQL database, driver management, fuel card interface, and document imaging.

Delaware Valley Floral Group implemented the software package with the help of its in-house IT staff. Training and implementation consultant Kim Manzone conducted the training on the Prophesy Dispatch system and modules.

The Flower Transfer Logistics team was also asked to be part of a pilot group to test and review the new the Prophesy Reconsolidation module. Wilkins was more than willing to test the product and was thrilled with the new capabilities it offered. In April 2010, Delaware Valley opted to move forward with the new Cross-Docking and Reconsolidation Module for Dispatch.

Wilkins said, “The reconsolidation module was a lifesaver for the company. We hadn’t been offered a module like this by any other software companies that we looked at.”

The results Wilkins and the Flower Transfer Logistics staff achieved from the dispatch system were remarkable. After learning the system, the company was able to account for loads and overall expenses better than ever.

Within the past two years, the Delaware Valley Floral Group has made a stronger commitment to warehousing and cold storage as well as e-commerce. The company has also increased its trucking base and will continue to look for innovative ways to grow substantially.

More details on Delaware Valley Floral Group can be found at www.dvwf.com/.

For more information about Prophesy’s Total Solution for Trucking, e-mail [email protected] or call 800-776-6706.