York Motor Factors goes digital
For over five decades, York Motor Factors (YMF) has been supplying parts, consumables and accessories to trade and retail customers. With seven branches across North Yorkshire, order volumes have continued to grow in the past few years. Consequently, it was time upgrade its delivery processes – by implementing ePOD, an app integrated with Autopart.
Previously, drivers would record deliveries on paper and input the details into a terminal back at base. Not only was this time-consuming, but it often led to errors, unclear records and a lack of visibility.
YMF Chairman, Tom O’Brien, said: “Each of our drivers would manually add the delivery info into a terminal back on site. Times were recorded to paper and often, the handwriting was difficult to read. Unforced errors were happening and, honestly, we couldn’t always fully trust our data.”
Customer queries became unnecessarily complex, often involving multiple team members chasing the same information. What should have been a quick update could take five conversations and delay resolution.
As a result, the business decided to implement ePOD, which allowed YMF’s drivers to log deliveries in real time using a mobile device. They can now capture signatures, take supporting photos, timestamp deliveries and record GPS locations on the spot – all without needing to return to base to input data.
Tom reported: “For our drivers, ePOD was highly intuitive and easy to use – we were up and running within a day.”
The shift was immediate and operational visibility improved overnight, according to Tom: “What would have taken five different conversations with four different team members, we can now resolve through one real-time call.”
Teams could now see which deliveries had been completed while drivers were still on the road creating faster, more confident responses to customer queries.
Customer service wasn’t the only area to benefit. Internally, the business gained a much clearer audit trail. Paper logs were replaced with accurate digital records, reducing confusion and admin workload.
Tom continued: “It’s helped auditing and tracking by continually providing greater clarity. We’ve taken away the guesswork and that’s had a real impact on data quality.”
Having seen strong results at its busiest sites, YMF is now rolling ePOD out across all branches.
Tom concluded: “We’ve made the biggest impact with our largest sites first and seen instant value. We’re now moving forward with the rest of the rollout.”
YMF is now also looking into additional tools within Klipboard’s platform to support its wider digital transformation. From real-time visibility to streamlined communication, the product has become a critical part of YMF Car Parts’ move towards smarter, more efficient operations.
