Direct Freight Express (DFE) has been moving freight around Australia for 33 years. From 70 depots, it handles around a million cartons and 25,000 pallets a week, from Townsville down to Tasmania and across to Perth. Its drivers deliver into some of the country’s biggest businesses, and every one of those sites has its own PPE requirements.
In the first year after handing its uniform program to Badger, DFE cut uniform spend by approximately 30%, lifted availability above 98% and took a near full-time admin job off its own team.
The challenge
DFE was running its uniform program in-house. The team was branding garments, holding stock, distributing it to depots nationally, picking every order and tracking budgets on spreadsheets. It tied up several staff, and for some of them it was close to a full-time job.
Availability was the other problem. When a size or colour ran out, the depot waited until the next ordering round and drivers made do in the meantime. For a business whose drivers are the face of the brand on every customer site, that mattered.
“We have a brand. If that brand doesn’t look good, it’s a reflection on our business. Every driver that’s out on the road is literally a brand ambassador for DFE.”
Rob, Direct Freight Express
The solution
Badger started with an audit of DFE’s existing system, then ran detailed demos of the Badger QuickClick portal. According to Badger’s Dwayne Devenish, DFE saw the value almost immediately, because it solved a problem they already knew they had.
The range was scoped around compliance. Badger kept DFE’s core items and added lines from its own range, including more hi-vis, so every garment meets Australian standards and suits the risks drivers face on customer sites. From there, Badger set up:
- A budget per driver, tracked automatically by the portal
- A custom DFE ordering page showing only the approved range
- Permissions by role, with a head office master account showing total company spend and trends
- A single go-live across every depot, with ordering staff trained at each site
- Monthly spend and usage reporting to key stakeholders
Badger also took over forecasting and stock holding, so depots order directly and Badger picks, packs and ships to each site.
The result
DFE’s uniform spend dropped approximately 30% in year one. The saving doesn’t come from cheaper garments. It comes from the controls in the portal. Every driver has a budget that the portal tracks automatically, so there’s no manual work, no spreadsheets and no reconciling after the fact. Spend is controlled at the point of order rather than reviewed three months later.
With Badger doing the forecasting, the fill rate sits well above 98%, so depots are no longer waiting on the next ordering round. Uniform management, once a big part of Rob’s role, is now management by exception.
“Since we joined Badger, the whole process of ordering uniforms has been completely and utterly streamlined. Every depot now has the capacity to order directly from Badger. We have set budgets by driver so that we don’t overspend, and Badger very quickly picks and packs those orders and has them sent out to our depots for our drivers to wear.”
The drivers have noticed too.
“Everybody loves the uniforms. We’ve never had any issues with any of the embroidery or the quality. It’s great and we’re very happy with it.”
For DFE, a family business, the relationship counts as much as the result. As Rob puts it, “Badger also being a private business, the relationship is excellent. I can see that it’s going to be a very long-term relationship, which is great for both businesses.”
If your uniform program is still running on spreadsheets and staff time, talk to the Badger team about what a portal-managed program could save your business.
