The Secret Behind Latin America's Biggest Delivery System

Q: What is the added value your company provides?

A: Our software allows more optimal planning for transportation and real-time visibility of what is happening to goods during their journey. Our most popular products are PlannerPro and LastMile. PlannerPro allows clients to devise optimal journeys for product delivery by anticipating and calculating a range of variables that they find important. LastMile is a real-time information provider that tracks delivery trips. Both services allow clients to make better decisions based on more accurate information.  

Q: What variables are used to plan a trip in PlannerPro?

A: This really depends on the area in which the client is active. Examples can range from the quantity of goods to the combination of different goods in one transport, the number of delivery points, how they are dispersed, the work hours of trucks, the start point of trucks, traffic and weather conditions, delays at delivery points and much more. In some areas, trucks cannot enter at a certain time. Other areas are considered dangerous. We work with an equalizer concept, similar to what you see in music with the volume level and bass level. Based on the client’s priorities, we can give more or less importance to certain variables. For example, some clients want to save on the number of trucks used, to decrease the number from 100 to 80 trucks. You can provide those instructions to the system and it will devise an optimal plan.

Q: How are the plans shared with the drivers?

A: Drivers access Beetrack through the LastMile application on their mobile device. There they can see the exact instructions derived from the plan. This way they know when, where and how the trip needs to go. The driver needs to have an Android system with a data plan of at least 2GB, which is very normal. Our platforms run through a robust and fast Amazon webservices cloud, which means that none of the information stays on the driver’s phone. The great value of LastMile is that our clients can add their own specific instructions for the moment of arrival. For example, they can ask the driver to take a photo of the product at the delivery. Or they can ask the customer for a digital signature. Any kind of document or form can be integrated into the LastMile application.

Q: What are the challenges of operating this platform in Mexico?

A: The primary issue in Mexico is the complex state of addresses. There are thousands of streets in the country with the same name. If you do not have the address 100 percent clear, you cannot conduct good planning. In Peru and Ecuador, this issue is not as severe. The way we deal with this is through a normalization process where we integrate maps from different platforms, including Google Maps and Waze. This produces a reliable address point. With both platforms, the error rate is practically 0. Obviously, the address challenge is bigger with B2C deliveries, where a transporter has a continuously changing list of customers.  

Q: What are the average savings clients can get through Beetrack’s solutions?

A: For PlannerPro, it is fairly easy to measure savings, for example, through the reduced use of trucks due to more efficient planning. On average, there is a reduction of 20 percent, which means a company using 10 trucks will use eight instead. For LastMile, how you measure the impact depends on the client. Lala, for example, receives information much faster through PlannerPro regarding points of sale closings. This ensures that the company does not send out deliveries that will not be received. With LastMile, the rate of delivery rejection goes down by 1 to 2 percent in the first three months of use. This is very significant. With B2C clients, our platform informs the client’s customers through an SMS, an email or our application about the status of their delivery. This reduces the number of calls from clients to the service center by 50 percent, at least in the first three months of use. 

Q: What is your strategy to increase your share in the Mexican market?

A: Beetrack is a leader in Latin America, with LastMile covering between 60-70 percent of the market. Forty percent of our clients are big businesses. We set up a team in Mexico in January 2019 and since then, Mexico has gone from 1 percent to 15 percent of our company’s sales. According to pre-COVID-19 numbers, we expect this to double to 30 percent in a year and a half. Our sales will be boosted significantly as big companies move to a pre-sales approach. This is an ongoing trend in the market. In terms of big clients, we already work with Sam’s supermarkets, part of Walmart Mexico. Other large groups and brands we already work with include Best Buy, PPG, Comex, Sams, Inova and Nestlé. We think 80 percent of the retail market could work with us. When we arrived in Mexico, our primary competitor was UNIGIS. However, this company is more focused on long-haul truck transport. Beetrack will soon be launching another product in Mexico that is called FirstMile. This will cater specifically to truck transport, another huge market opportunity in Mexico.

Beetrack provides customized logistics solutions to B2B and B2C clients through its digital platforms PlannerPro, LastMile and FirstMile. These platforms allow for planning of deliveries and real-time visibility of goods