Case Study

Automated dispatch planning cuts cost per order by 26% for ILLA Frontdoor, a leading Egyptian 3PL

ILLA runs its daily deliveries as one decision layer on the Locus agentic TMS.

Summary

ILLA Frontdoor is an Egyptian 3PL serving FMCG and retail clients who each set their own delivery rules. Planning was done manually, order by order, based on experience and spreadsheets. Since going live on the Locus agentic TMS, the day's plan is built within every client's rules automatically, and the fleet needed to cover a day got reduced.

Industry: 3PL. FMCG distribution and last-mile delivery. | Region: Egypt.

Impact Metrics

↓26%

Cost per order

↓12%

Distance per order

~90%

Vehicle volume utilization

Client Overview

ILLA Frontdoor handles sales, distribution, warehousing, and inventory for FMCG and retail companies. It moves products for some of the biggest brands in the world, including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Nestlé. For some clients, ILLA carries goods that have already been sold. For others, it sells and distributes on the brand's behalf.

"We started in 2019, and we were clear from day one that technology would sit at the center of how we operate."

Growth came fast enough for the Financial Times to name ILLA one of Africa's fastest-growing companies. Every client works its own way, and growth on that scale made daily delivery planning the decision ILLA most needed to get right.

"We needed a TMS that could take every one of those customer rules and still find the most efficient way to deliver. That is what stood out about Locus."

Locus is the world's first agentic TMS and has been automating delivery and logistics decisions since 2015. It partnered with ILLA Frontdoor, taking each client's rulebook as configuration, returning the most efficient plan inside it, and showing where cost could come out.

Business Challenges

Every client brings its own delivery rules. Each one sets its own service rules: priority deliveries, slotted windows, vehicles dedicated to a single client, separate vehicles for food and non-food. Chilled, frozen, and ambient product add handling rules on top. Every one of those rules narrows the set of plans that will work.

"Honoring all of those constraints for every customer, every day, is where it gets hard, and it's rarely the most efficient way to do it."

Vehicle assignment ran manually. Planners worked the day's orders onto vehicles and routes one at a time. It ran on planner experience and spreadsheets, and it capped how much volume the team could plan well.

Clients had no way to see their own deliveries. Answering meant going back to the team on the route.

"Many of our customers don't run their own logistics systems, so they look to us to tell them where their order is, when it will arrive, and to prove it was delivered."

Proof of delivery was a paper process. Signed slips came back off the route, were collected and validated at the warehouse, and then submitted to the client. Every confirmation request meant going back through physical paperwork.

How It Works

The Locus agentic TMS runs as ILLA's system of execution across its last-mile delivery operation. Orders come in from each client, and Locus turns them into the day's dispatch plan.

"We set the policies for each customer and product type once. From there, the system decides every route, sequence, and vehicle assignment, honoring those rules while keeping the operation efficient."

Every client's rules become planning constraints, configured once. Route optimization runs against hundreds of live constraints at once, from each client's service rules to every vehicle's volume and weight capacity. Honoring a client's rules no longer costs ILLA the efficient plan. Adding a client or changing a rule re-plans the day without a manual rebuild.

The morning plan is generated, then approved. Planners moved from building routes to reviewing and approving what the system proposes, which is the autonomy level ILLA has set today.

Clients see their own deliveries without asking for them. A client-facing view carries every order from dispatch through to proof of delivery. Real-time visibility runs across the fleet, and execution data comes back from the driver app while the day is still running.

"They log into Locus and see where their delivery is, the ETA, the SLA, and the proof of delivery, right there when they need it."

Proof of delivery is captured at the stop. The driver captures it on the app against the order, and it is in the system from that moment. When a client asks for confirmation, it is already there.

The Results

People

The daily planning work moved into the platform.

Planners review and approve a generated plan each morning.
Client questions about order status, ETA, and delivery confirmation are answered from the system.
Proof of delivery arrives captured, with no paper to collect or validate at the warehouse.

"The honest surprise was how much lighter the day got for our planners."

Resource

The same volume moves on fewer vehicles.

12% less distance across the delivery plans.
Vehicle volume utilization averaged 90%.
A new client is onboarded by configuring its rules, with no new planning process to build.