The same-day delivery arm of Australia Post, StarTrack Courier, is experiencing a return of big customers – thanks to technology developed by Adiona Tech.
The success story showcases just how much innovative technology can boost traditional businesses, keeping them competitive and most of all, their customers happy.
Embracing tech
Christopher Cano, National Business Improvement and Implementation Manager at StarTrack Courier, welcomed the modernisation of the 200-year-old organisation. He emphasised the importance of embracing technology to remain competitive, noting StarTrack’s adoption of Adiona’s route optimisation system – designed to improve the most complex part of the delivery process: the final leg.
The decision to pursue route optimisation followed the loss of a major long-term client, who cited outdated planning methods as one of the reasons for their departure. However, the client later returned after finding the alternative service provider was subpar. Impressed by StarTrack Courier’s swift adoption of innovative logistics technology, they signed a new multi-year, multi-million-dollar deal.
The tech
Adiona Tech’s AI-driven route planning solutions combine advanced machine learning with real-time traffic data to reduce delivery costs and lower emissions.
Christopher Cano said the client was impressed by the transformation of StarTrack in such a short period of time. “It was only three to four months from when they exited to when we started speaking again,” he said.
“In that time, we went to market, figured out the solution we wanted, went through procurement, and deployed it. Pretty unheard of for a company of our size,” he added.
StarTrack Courier applied Adiona’s optimisation across multiple operations, including daily routing, bulk distribution customers, on-demand courier routes and more.
Customer retention improves
Meanwhile, another customer approached Cano’s team to say they were thinking of leaving StarTrack, and their entire Australia Post account, worth close to $8-10 million.
The customer asked for a 10% reduction in their rates, or to reduce driving time from roughly 135 hours a day to 110 or less.
Using Adiona, the driving hours were recalculated to 115-120 hours daily. While this wasn’t the number the customer wanted, Cano’s team was able to demonstrate that this was a realistic reduction that factored in all business considerations.
“The software helped show them that there can be improvements, but then it also helped underpin what’s realistic,” Cano said.
StarTrack is now looking at other Adiona applications to attract new customers.
“You start future thinking and saying ‘can I use it for demand planning’ or ‘how many drivers do I need’ and ‘based on those extra drivers tell me what’s the most efficient run’,” Cano said.
“So it’s moving away from trying to be reactive to being proactive and preemptive.”
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