CASE STUDY: Newsquest South London

Client Newsquest South London
Sector Door to Door Newspaper and Leaflet Distribution
Job function Distribution
Task Evaluation of Delivery Timing and Efficiencies

THE CLIENT...
Established in 1994, Newsquest South London is the leading distributor of newspapers and leaflets throughout South London, Surrey and North East Kent, delivering over 2.5million items each week to over 600,000 households.

THE PROBLEM...
Newsquest South London were looking at solutions to best evaluate the accuracy and measurement of the distribution activity which had been largely unchanged in over 10 years.

Traditional methods of telephone research for determining delivery were contracting due to the volume of unavailable telephone numbers, and the quality of recipient response was questionable.

The volume and turnover of delivery staff also required regular update of round timings to ensure compliance with legislation.

THE SOLUTION...
Geoplan supplied the AddressFinder street level mapping and Royal Mail address data and pocket sized tracking devices.

Each of our distributors were assigned a tracking device which they were able to carry with them whilst undertaking deliveries door to door.

A very simplistic device which required limited interaction from the distributor was used to provide GPS tracking of pedestrian activity.

The tracking devices were able to record arrival at multiple destinations, allowing the distributor to indicate arrival at each household in addition to measuring the timing of the activity undertaken.

Download of the information via a USB point allowed the presentation in both data and mapping format for analysis and good visual presentation.

THE BENEFITS...

• Accurate round duration timings based on fact.
• Ability to confidently provide research which confirms that individual households were visited.
• Distributors more accountable for their activity.
• Unique Selling Point to leaflet clients.
• Allows round restructuring for efficiency and cost reduction.
• Improves the reputation of the door to door industry.