Project
Emission-free grocery, food and parcel deliveries across Helsinki and exceptional customer experience
Delivering for some of Finland’s largest supermarkets, A2B is a specialist carrier that has spent the past 12 years putting sustainability at the heart of its delivery operation.
The company was founded in 2010 by owner and managing director Tero Kakko in order to provide emission-free deliveries to businesses across Helsinki. A2B supports deliveries for a number of use cases, including grocery, food boxes, flowers, medicine, parcels and e-commerce.
Today, A2B boasts a fleet of nearly 60 electric or biofuel-powered vehicles, nearly all of which are temperature controlled. It has an annual turnover of more than 4 million EUR, thanks to the growing appeal of its green deliveries in the last mile and the exceptional customer experience that Urbantz helps it deliver at scale.
This killer combination of emission-free deliveries and premium recipient experience have helped the company to establish itself as one of the city’s leading specialist carriers, with a reputation for quality.
For Kakko, the biggest benefits of the Urbantz platform are the recipient experience – a white-labelled and fully configurable track and trace page that enables effective communication in real time – and the information A2B can share with customers.
Urbantz has been a big help for us. It makes it easier for us to sell our services to customers when we have good software. The level of customer experience and the branding opportunities Urbantz brings make our pitch to new customers that much more compelling.
Tero Kakko, founder, owner and managing director – A2B
On a mission to deliver greener logistics
A2B’s pitch is remarkably simple. It offers deliveries that won’t increase a shipper’s carbon footprint with transport-related emissions. In 2010, green logistics was pioneering. Today, it’s necessary, if still not the norm, Kakko explains. The founder has been working in transportation for more than 20 years and sold his previous delivery company to the Norwegian Post.
“We saw an opportunity early on that the business need for greener deliveries was growing,” he says. “In the beginning it was a nice differentiator, but of course we also firmly believe that green is good, both for the environment and for business.”
Kakko has seen a ‘dramatic change in people’s minds and thinking’ towards sustainable logistics over the past three years. The company’s fleet runs on a combination of domestically produced biogas from waste and electricity generated by wind power. It’s also branching into cargo bikes for even greener deliveries of post and magazines in and around the heart of the city. “Wind and muscle power,” Kakko jokes.
Ensuring efficient deliveries every time
In Urbantz, he has found a like-minded partner with a modern delivery management platform that helps A2B scale its activity sustainably and minimise total fleet mileage. Our dynamic route planner ensures that vans are loaded optimally and routes are as efficient as possible.
“Urbantz works well, which is the most important thing,” says Kakko. “The drivers app is easy to use and the route planning is effective. The platform is very flexible and it has everything we need for home deliveries.”
Using the Urbantz platform, A2B’s dispatchers save valuable time in route planning, which frees them up to make more strategic decisions as the day unfolds.
Because they easily oversee everything that’s happening across the field in real time, they are better positioned to amend routes due to unforeseen scenarios, support drivers and resolve issues before they cause delays.
“The team can see if a driver is late or delayed,” explains Kakko. “This is one of our North star metrics. Urbantz tracks it and it gives an easy indication of how well our drivers are performing. And when we see deliveries completed on time, this is the ROI that Urbantz brings us.”
‘No one-hit wonder’: A2B’s premium delivery experience
But for Kakko, the killer feature that Urbantz brings to A2B isn’t about sustainability or efficiency. It’s the premium customer experience we enable carriers to offer their senders and recipients – through branded track and trace, real-time communication and configurable workflows.
Together with our dynamic route planning, which ensures the most efficient possible deliveries, the Urbantz platform provides A2B with the means to become an extension of each of the brands it represents – ensuring higher-quality delivery experiences that are also eco-friendly.
“Before we could send a text message. This is much more than that, it’s something you can visualise,” explains Kakko.
“Urbantz helps us deliver efficiently. But it brings real additional value by providing a crucial layer between us, customers and consignees.
“It’s a route planner and it’s also a communication tool. Efficiency comes from good route planning, but it’s the information we communicate to consumers about their deliveries that really sets us apart from the competition.
“When we started, the ability for a recipient to be able to check the location and ETA of their delivery was still a relatively new phenomenon in Finland. Nowadays it is the norm. We didn’t have it before. Urbantz gives us that functionality right out of the box.”
Urbantz helps us deliver efficiently. But it brings real additional value by providing a crucial layer between us, customers and consignees.
It’s a route planner and it’s also a communication tool. Efficiency comes from good route planning, but it’s the information we communicate to consumers about their deliveries that really sets us apart from the competition.
Tero Kakko, founder, owner and managing director – A2B
Summary
A2B has developed the eco credentials to turn heads across Helsinki’s bustling logistics sector.
In Urbantz, it has found a platform that helps it efficiently scale its emission-free delivery operations while also providing a fully white-labelled delivery experience to consignees.
This combination is helping the carrier to win new customers and further scale its business. “With Urbantz, we have a great opportunity to grow and offer home deliveries to more businesses,” concludes Kakko.