To achieve new sustainability and safety progress, United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) has adopted Samsara vehicle telematics, asset gateways, environmental monitors and video-based safety.
“The safety, efficiency and sustainability improvements UNFI will make with Samsara will help us change our business for the better,” said Gregory Tieder, senior director of corporate logistics at the Providence, Rhode Island-based company.
“A core part of UNFI’s customer and supplier-centric strategy is continuous improvement and better efficiency.”
Reducing emissions, waste
According to UNFI, the majority of its direct emissions come from its fleet. By the end of its fiscal year 2030, the company aims to sharply reduce Scope 1 and 3 emissions from transportation.
UNFI has developed an electric vehicle (EV) blueprint, covering multiple California distribution centers and fleets, to better understand where EVs can benefit its operations. It is also using technology, such as Samsara Vehicle Telematics, to improve customer deliveries and reduce idling and other fuel-wasting behaviors in its internal combustion engine-powered trucks.
The company’s goal is to achieve zero waste to landfills from distribution centers by fiscal year 2030. UNFI transports about 41,000 pounds of food daily, and temperature control is critical for product freshness and safety. Each trailer has multiple temperature zones to accommodate the variety of products supplied to its customers on a single route.
UNFI uses Samsara Environmental Monitors to ensure food safety and reduce waste from load loss. In addition to the sustainability benefits, these outcomes mean decreased costs for UNFI and a better experience for its customers who rely on UNFI’s products to nourish their communities.
Increasing employee safety
Another of UNFI’s goals is to ensure all 30,000 workers arrive home safely at the end of the day.
“UNFI operates 24/7 to meet the needs of our customers. They expect on-time deliveries despite poor weather, heavy traffic and other challenges we face on the road,” Tieder said.
“High-quality service creates complexity, but we won’t compromise on safety. Samsara helps us to reliably deliver for our customers while also strengthening our safety practices.”
UNFI drivers deliver more than 2 million cases daily to its customers, which makes efficient use of transportation assets critical. By equipping its trailers with Samsara Asset Gateways, UNFI views their locations in real time. This improved visibility is expected to result in higher utilization of assets, cost savings and timely service for its customers.
“UNFI is taking incredible steps to improve North America’s food system, accelerate its sustainability efforts, and increase associate safety,” said Lara Caimi, president of worldwide field operations at Samsara.
“Every day, we see how transformative it is for large, complex organizations to use a single platform to manage and optimize their operations with Samsara. We can’t wait to see what UNFI and Samsara accomplish together.”
Read more wholesaler and distributor news from The Shelby Report.
About Samsara
Samsara is the pioneer of the Connected Operations Cloud, which is a platform that enables organizations that depend on physical operations to harness Internet of Things data to develop actionable insights and improve their operations. With tens of thousands of customers across North America and Europe, Samsara is a technology partner to the people who keep our global economy running, including leading organizations across construction, transportation and warehousing, field services, manufacturing, retail, logistics and the public sector.
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