Arhaus Furniture Services Remote Markets More Efficiently With Demountable Truck Body System In the fall of 1999, the Cleveland, Ohio-based Arhaus Furniture realized that the significant growth it had experienced in southern Ohio and western New York had put them in a position to change how they did home delivery in those markets. Up to that point, delivery teams in straight trucks would leave Cleveland early in the morning and drive approximately three to five hours to their first stop. They would not return to Cleveland until late in the evening. If they did not finish their deliveries, they would lay over in hotel rooms. With business levels continuing to rise, mounting overtime hours and sub-par delivery service, Arhaus considered two options for these markets. The first was to open regional warehouses and have the delivery drivers start their day closer to their markets. This would require property, local inventory, warehouse supervision and labor and tractor-trailers to run product from Cleveland. Product handling costs would also increase with the proposed cross-dock operation. The second option was to implement a unique delivery system that more and more furniture retailers are turning to. The "Warehouse on Wheels", by Demountable Concepts, allows a centralized distribution center to maintain control over the loading of product onto straight truck bodies. A specially designed trailer shuttles two loaded bodies at night to the remote markets. Those bodies are then demounted off the trailer. The delivery drivers, now domiciled locally, mount the loaded bodies and immediately begin their deliveries. The trailer mounts the previous day's empties and returns to the distribution center. The decision to implement the Demountable Body System turned out to be the right one. According to John Roddy, Director of Distribution and Logistics at Arhaus, "The system has given our organization the much needed flexibility to handle our strategic growth plan and still maintain a cost-efficient delivery system". Eliminating the need for regional warehouses and having their delivery drivers spending all of their time making deliveries has cut costs and improved service. As John Roddy confirms, "I would be happy to recommend the system to others and look forward to continued dealings with Demountable Concepts." At this time, Arhaus plans on adding more demountable equipment for new markets expected to open later this year.
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