Burd Eggs Saves 30+ Hours a Week in Payroll by Using Circuit for Teams
For the past several years, Zac Burd of Burd Eggs — an Australian free-range egg supplier in Melbourne — has struggled to find a quick and efficient way to optimize his delivery planning.
Before COVID-19 caused him to alter his business, Zac’s company mostly sold its free-range eggs wholesale to businesses within the hospitality industry. This meant delivering eggs from their farm directly to businesses all throughout the Melbourne area.
The obstacles to refining his delivery operations were two-fold:
First, there was the issue of route optimization. Zac tried to handle route optimization himself, but this was time-consuming and ineffective.
Second, there was route monitoring. Zac had tried multiple ways to track his delivery drivers as they completed their routes, including using the tracking features available in apps such as WhatsApp but these processes didn’t integrate naturally with his route planning, so it was hard to reap the benefits of knowing where his drivers were.
After Melbourne went into lockdown due to COVID-19, Zac began to put more of an emphasis on direct-to-consumer deliveries. While Burd Eggs still sells and delivers its signature free-range eggs, they also deliver dairy (such as cream, milk, and yogurt), coffee, non-dairy milks, bread, and more. This helps the folks in and around Melbourne practice social distancing, support local businesses, and continue eating healthy foods.
At the time of lockdown, Burd Eggs was delivering 70% of its orders to individuals and 30% to hotels and other hospitality businesses, but now that restrictions are easing it’s closer to a 50-50 split.
Because of this change, Burd Eggs orders have increased by 30%.
What were once inconveniences — lack of route optimization and route monitoring — were now significant hurdles that needed a solution.
Not using Circuit for Teams? If you manage a team of drivers and want a simple, cost-effective way to keep track of them (while making their routes more efficient), sign up for a free trial.
How Zac Uses Circuit to Manage His Delivery Team
Zac had been using Circuit’s Individual plan for about three months, which allowed his drivers to optimize their daily routes. But with their increased customer orders, Zac needed something to help him optimize routes across several drivers plus a service that allowed him to monitor ongoing routes.
That’s why he upgraded to Circuit for Teams.
Circuit really saves us a lot of time,” Zac said. “But more importantly, it saves us a lot of mental energy. So we might save extra minutes, but more than those saved minutes, I and my time are a lot less exhausted.
Zac plans his routes the night before, and he is responsible for planning a significant number of stops. By using Circuit to plan these routes, he figures he is saving one hour a night.
But that’s just time saved in route planning — he estimated that his drivers are saving an hour a day in finishing their route. Burd Eggs currently has five drivers, which means Zac’s company is saving five hours per day when it comes to making the actual deliveries.
Altogether, by using Circuit, Zac is able to shave roughly 30 hours a week in payroll!
Burd Eggs: Going Forward
Zac thinks his direct-to-consumer delivery business will only grow. He plans to incorporate our Product Recipient feature, which sends tracking information to the customer to let them know when their order is arriving.
He’s also looking to bring on more drivers.
One of the benefits of Circuit for Teams is that it promotes responsibility and commitment at the driver level.
Because of that level of driver-empowerment, Zac is looking to hire contractors who will work in specific geographical areas related to his business.
Thanks to Circuit for Teams, he’s able to expand in a cost-efficient way.
Not using Circuit for Teams? If you manage a team of drivers and want a simple, cost-effective way to keep track of them (while making their routes more efficient), sign up for a free trial.