Four Wheel Drive Hardware cuts delivery costs with address management tools

Shipping large numbers of parts and catalogs for new as well as vintage Jeeps, Four Wheel Drive Hardware uses new tools from QAS to avoid extra fees for inaccurately addressed packages, the retailer says.

Four Wheel Drive, which serves customers mostly through its catalogs and 4WD.com, bases its reputation on shipping the right products to customers in a timely manner, says Joey White, director of sales operations. But it has long dealt with the problem of paying additional fees to carriers for packages that are inaccurately marked, she says.

“We mail a lot of catalogs and a lot of parts, so it’s very important that we get them out to the right address,” White says. More than just a customer service matter, inaccurate deliveries can run up extensive costs in fees charged by carriers for returned packages and in surcharges from some private carriers placed on residential deliveries, White says.

Four Wheel Drive is using QuickAddress for Multi-Channel Retail, a suite of applications from QAS, a unit of Experian, designed to increase the accuracy of addresses processed on the web or through call centers and to route orders to the least expensive carrier.

One of the applications, QuickAddress Pro Web, uses address data files from the U.S. Postal Service to assure that addresses are accurately entered into web forms by consumers or customer service agents. The system requires addresses to be entered first by ZIP code, then by city, then by street address, and is designed to automatically prompt users when data doesn’t match the USPS database. The system would recognize, for example, that an inaccurately entered city was not associated with the entered ZIP code, or that an inaccurately entered street address was not associated with the entered city and ZIP code.

Another application, Address Type Indicator, automatically routes orders from residential and business addresses to the most appropriate proper carrier. It routes residential addresses, for example, to the USPS because the Postal Service does not charge extra fees for residential deliveries. Four Wheel Drive uses the ATI system to route residential and business orders to the respective departments in its fulfillment center that prepare them, White says.

“The reduction in delivery costs has been significant,” White says, noting that Four Wheel Drive implemented the new QAS system about a year ago. “The system has definitely already paid for itself.”