Aptean Routing & Scheduling Case Study: Marigolds & Onions

Marigolds & Onions is one of the principal catering and event planning businesses in Toronto, catering for corporate, social, and major sporting events all over the Greater Toronto Area. In addition to serving corporate HQs in downtown Toronto, they also cater major sporting events such as the Rogers Cup.

On a typical day, a fleet of 10 vans delivers freshly prepared food and beverages to many customers who all require deliveries within a 15-minute window. It was important that the routing and scheduling software that Marigolds & Onions chose was not only able to generate feasible and efficient routes for the drivers but could also ensure all contracted delivery times were met.

The Challenge

Delivering fresh and unique food on time is critical to the service ethos at Marigolds & Onions. But the outdated processes they had in place were causing a number of operational challenges:

• Manual and complex planning processes

• Limited visibility and control of transportation operation

• Operating tight delivery schedules to meet customer expectations

The Solution

While a manual planning process initially worked well for the company, the growth in demand for its catering services meant that Marigolds & Onions needed an automated planning solution to help it continue to deliver a truly outstanding customer experience, every time. Following a review of the options available in the marketplace, the team chose Aptean’s Routing & Scheduling Paragon Edition software along with Aptean’s Street Level Mapping module.

The Result

In less than 6 months of implementing Aptean Routing & Scheduling software, Marigolds & Onions are benefiting from reduced operating costs, a simplified planning process and improved visibility of all deliveries and collections.

• Reduced fuel usage by 7-9%, resulting in savings of $3k-$5k per month

• Increased visibility of accurate delivery and collection status

• Simplified planning time

• Reduced delivery labor by 20%, saving $15k per month