Top 100 Furniture Company, Sofa Express, improves market efficiency and saves 20% in fuel costs by adding the "Warehouse on Wheels" System.

Furniture World Magazine

Top 100 furniture company Sofa Express, based in Groveport, Ohio (a suburb of Columbus) recently added a demountable truck body system to service their Indianapolis market. The Indianapolis market is 180 miles away from their Groveport distribution center. The demountable truck body system called the "Warehouse on Wheels" now enables Sofa Express to load two, 26’ truck bodies at their Groveport distribution center today for delivery in Indianapolis tomorrow. The bodies are specially designed with front and rear roll up doors that allow the front body to be loaded through the rear body. These bodies are loaded while mounted onto a specially designed 53’ demountable semi-trailer. During off peak hours, the bodies are line-hauled to a switching facility in Indianapolis. When the transfer driver reaches Indianapolis, he simply demounts the two fully loaded bodies and picks up two empty bodies from the previous day’s deliveries. The driver then heads back to Groveport where the process will begin again the following day. In the morning, local Indianapolis delivery drivers mount the pre-loaded bodies onto their 26’ non-CDL delivery trucks. Bodies are mounted in a matter of minutes because the local delivery trucks are equipped with a Demountable Concepts’ hydraulic chassis lift system. The system now provides the ability to offer next day deliveries in a market 180 miles away with no local inventory, no double handling of furniture, early first delivery and reduced overall costs. The demountable body system has provided immediate savings for Sofa Express. Fuel costs have been reduced by 20%. Before implementing the demountable system, separate trucks were driven from Groveport to Indianapolis. Now, the same amount of furniture can be transferred with a single shuttle run. The benefits of the system are many. By transferring furniture at night and having local trucks stationed in Indianapolis, deliveries can begin early. Drivers do not have to drive long distances because they are stationed in the local market. In addition, by having experienced "professional" loaders at the distribution center, the drivers can focus on providing timely, high quality delivery and completion of the revenue cycle. They no longer load their own trucks prior to commencing their daily delivery route. According to Todd McDonald, Controller for Sofa Express, "The Demountable System will allow us to expand into markets at least 250 miles away from our distribution center without adding any local inventory or additional warehouses." McDonald continues," Implementing the system was easy. Demountable Concepts, Inc., the manufacturer of the demountable system provided us with a high-quality, well-made product. Upon delivery of our new equipment, Demountable Concepts provided our staff with complete hands-on training. Our drivers were mounting and demounting bodies comfortably in only a matter of hours." According to Rustin Cassway, Vice President of Demountable Concepts, Inc., the manufacturer of the Warehouse on Wheels system, "Our systems are benefiting many top 100 furniture companies. Among our success stories, Levin Furniture (#66 on the top 100) eliminated an entire warehouse and shuttles all Cleveland deliveries from their Pennsylvania distribution center. Star Furniture (#4 on the top 100) used the Warehouse on Wheels concept to expand their markets to Austin and San Antonio. Bob’s Discount Furniture (#50 on the top 100) services 18 New England stores out of one distribution center in Taftville, CT, with over 60 demountable bodies in their fleet". For more information on Demountable Truck Body Systems and ‘Warehouse on Wheels", contact: info@demount.com