# Makro’s First-Ever Automated Dispatch in 37 Years of Logistics Siam Makro partnered with Locus to automate dispatch across its nationwide store network, reducing logistics costs by 16.7%, saving approximately $1.2 million, and scaling from 6.4 million to 13.8 million dispatched orders in 12 months. Using Locus’s agentic transportation management system, Makro moved from manual store-level dispatch planning to autonomous, continuous, wave-based decisioning across order promising, routing, dispatch, tracking, and settlement. ## Segment and Geography - **Industry:** Wholesale and retail; Online-to-Offline commerce - **Region:** Thailand, with active expansion into four additional countries ## Objectives Makro aimed to: - Build an autonomous, end-to-end order-to-dispatch operating model - Improve rider productivity without increasing planning headcount - Maintain delivery promises as O2O order volume doubled year over year ## Locus Solutions Implemented Locus deployed: - Automated, continuous wave-based dispatch planning and routing across every store - Capacity-aware slot grouping and store-level order promising - Live ETA and delivery tracking embedded in the customer app - A digital audit trail for cash-on-delivery settlement ## Impact - **16.7% reduction in logistics cost** — approximately **$1.2 million saved** - **75% faster dispatch** — from **2 hours to under 30 minutes per store** - **50% more orders per rider per day** — from **10–15 to 18–20** - **2x order volume absorbed in 12 months** — from **6.4 million to 13.8 million orders** > “We needed a partner who could scale with our growth, and Locus delivered. We grew from **500 to 4,000 trucks**, while **Locus enabled a nationwide rollout in just six months** and boosted fleet efficiency by 24%.” > > — Sarun Pipattanapongsopon, Associate Director, Last-Mile Logistics & Supply Chain Transformation, Siam Makro ## Client Overview CP Axtra Public Company Limited, which includes Siam Makro and Lotus’s, is the largest B2B Online-to-Offline retailer in Asia, with $14.6 billion in annual revenue and more than 160 stores across Thailand. The business had been built over 37 years for in-store wholesale, with planning and dispatch handled manually. As digital order volume began doubling year over year, that model could no longer scale. Makro selected Locus to rebuild the decision layer behind its logistics operations, with the goal of creating an autonomous, end-to-end order-to-dispatch chain. ## Business Challenges ### Manual Dispatch Limited Profitability Dispatch planning took two hours per store per day across more than 160 stores. Riders averaged 10 to 15 orders per day, below the network’s true capacity. Every new store or rider added planning complexity rather than increasing throughput. Human planning capacity became the operating ceiling. ### Digital Demand Outpaced the Existing Model Customers increasingly valued speed, reliable delivery slots, and convenience over proximity to a store. Makro’s wholesale-first network and static zone logic were not built for dynamic online order flows. ### Operations Lacked Real-Time Decisioning Store dispatch, picking, and delivery were managed through disconnected tools, without a real-time view across the chain. Decisions about what to dispatch, what to promise, and when to escalate were made manually. ETAs were often estimates rather than live, system-driven commitments. ## Solution Locus introduced agentic decisioning across Makro’s logistics network. Agents and algorithms reason on live operational signals, act within Makro-defined policies, and learn from each delivery. Human teams set policies and manage exceptions rather than executing every dispatch decision manually. ### Automated Dispatch Decisioning Locus agents now run continuous, wave-based dispatch planning across every store, using 30-minute increments, multi-trip routing, and constraint-aware execution. The system accounts for more than 250 real-world rules, including: - Customer slot windows - Task and tour tardiness - Maximum orders per trip - Rider skills - Shift priorities - Route compactness - U-turn restrictions - Fairness across riders This eliminated the two-hour manual planning cycle. Planners shifted from manually creating dispatches to configuring policy and reviewing exceptions. Compliance is embedded into the operating loop through task sequence adherence, proof-of-delivery image capture at the correct location, and auto-end-trip rules. ### Capacity Planning That Flexes With Demand Locus handles slot grouping, slot windows, and capacity-aware order promising at the store level. As O2O demand shifted across regions and seasons, the model adjusted within Makro-defined limits, instead of requiring planners to manually reconfigure zones. Static zone logic was replaced with dynamic, sublocality-based zoning governed by Makro’s policies. ### One System for Order, Dispatch, Delivery, and Settlement Locus manages the customer-facing delivery promise. Its tracking link and live ETA are embedded directly in Makro’s MPro customer app, so customers see the same delivery promise computed by the system. The system also supports exception handling on every order and closes the cash-on-delivery loop through digital settlement. Riders collect payment through TrueMoney and QR via Payment 2.0, with a full audit trail for every recomputation. ## Results ### People Makro’s planners moved from making individual dispatch decisions to governing automated decisioning. - Active rider network grew from **8.2K to 10.9K riders** - Growth was absorbed by the existing planning team - Decades of dispatch judgment were converted into configured policy and learned system behavior ### Resource Productivity The same network began handling more orders faster. - Dispatch time per store fell from **2 hours to under 30 minutes** - Orders per rider per day increased from **10–15 to 18–20** - SLA achievement improved from **under 85% to 86%+** - **32% of stores exceed 90% SLA achievement** - Order volume grew from **6.4 million in 2024 to 13.8 million in 2025** - Makro is on track for **27 million orders in 2026** ### Cost and Rollout Savings were realized in the first cohort and compounded as more stores went live. - Logistics cost reduced by **16.7%** - Approximately **$1.2 million saved** - **150 stores rolled out in 3 months** - Makro and Locus continue to expand the agentic platform across CP Axtra group banners and Southeast Asian markets"