DC Velocity - September 2011

be unloaded.”
And yet, Altieri still had trepidations
about handing over delivery responsibili-
ty to 3PD. “When 3PD came on board, we
were very nervous about turning the
whole thing over to not only a third-party
provider but to one that then goes out
and gets a subcontractor to work for it,”
he says.

But it turns out the Windowrama executive had nothing to worry about. “The [subcontractors] take responsibility,” says Altieri, noting that he can count on them to load the product correctly, show up on time, and provide prompt, courteous service.

In fact, the difference in service is
“night and day,” according to Altieri. “Our
customers are thrilled,” he says. “They get
phone calls an hour before the [truck]
arrives, and they get uniformed, proper,
professional drivers.”
Altieri especially likes the survey system
3PD uses to evaluate its delivery teams,
noting that it’s the first thing he looks at
every morning. Following each delivery,
the 3PL e-mails the customer asking it to
rate the overall delivery experience: Was it
on time? Did the drivers call ahead? If you
needed another delivery, would you want
the same team? According to O’Shea, the
survey elicits a 45-percent response rate.

Another big advantage of 3PD’s model
is its flexibility. In contrast to its previous
arrangement, Windowrama is not
required to maintain a fleet of 21 trucks;
instead, 3PD offers a variable pricing
model that allows the client to pay for
only those trucks and delivery teams it
actually uses. “It really worked well for us
when the economy came tumbling
down,” says Altieri. “We were running 20
to 21 trucks a day; now we’re down to 12
to 13 trucks per day. That’s a big deal, and
adds up to lots of dollars in savings.”
And by lots of dollars, Altieri means $2
million. “We expected to save about $1
million by switching to 3PD and taking
advantage of its network redesign, rout-
ing, and customer service expertise,” says
Altieri. “And we would have been really,
really happy with that. But in the end, the
pricing model ended up being an equally
significant part of the equation, so we
wound up saving $2 million instead.” ;

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