Oddbox expands in Scotland with help from PodFather

Oddbox, the anti-waste fruit and veg box subscription service, has announced its expansion into Scotland, where it aims to boost its delivery radius to nearly 1m households using routes planned and tracked by PodFather.

Starting initially in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Oddbox aims to expand its Scottish operations to Motherwell and Paisley.

The company saw sales rocket during the Covid-19 lockdown, with delivery volumes exceeding 4m boxes following expansion across England and Wales.

Since 2016, Oddbox claims to have rescued over 6,440 tonnes of surplus fruit and vegetables directly from farms.

“Expansion into Scotland will help Oddbox achieve its goal of reducing the 66tr gallons of water and 8 per cent of global greenhouse gases generated by growing food that is ultimately wasted,” the company stated.

PodFather’s route plans and paperless delivery processes are designed to increase efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of the fleet.

“The cloud-based system and easy-to-use driver app allow Oddbox drivers to collect job information, track deliveries, capture notifications, and give teams full visibility of the distribution process,” Oddbox explained.

“When we introduced PodFather we were experiencing a period of dramatic growth and we needed a solution to help us ensure our fruit and veg boxes were being delivered to the right place at the right time,” said Drew Hutchinson, logistics manager at Oddbox.

He said there was no way the company could be running as it currently is without such a solution in place.

“As our business expands, and delivery volumes continue to grow, PodFather has proved itself to be a true logistics solution partner,” he explained, “working with us to ensure that planning processes and route execution remain efficient as order volumes rise.”

The Oddbox team, he said, uses PodFather to “plan deliveries, collect vehicle checks, track drivers, issue customer ETA notifications and collect electronic proof of delivery information”.

Meanwhile, drivers use the PodFather app to log vehicle checks, share information with the transport team in real time and capture proof of delivery photographs, since many deliveries occur at night and are left unattended.

“We are delighted to see Oddbox expand into PodFather’s hometown of Edinburgh,” said Colin McCreadie, managing director of PodFather. “Oddbox offer a great service and their business ethos, helping to reduce waste, is gaining traction across the UK market.”