New tracking feature for Cybake prevents bread basket theft
We’ve added a new tracking feature to Cybake® that gives bakeries the power to track and retrieve their delivery baskets. Subscribers can now take back control of their equipment and decrease their costs.
As we all know, bread basket theft has always been a big problem. Back in 1998, for example, Allied Bakeries was losing an incredible 1.25 million bread baskets a year, costing the company around £4.25 million. At the time, this led to a big crackdown and public awareness campaign.
While the scale of basket theft may not be quite as large as it was 22 years ago, mainly due to the use of expensive tracking technology by the industry’s giants, it is still a major issue. The average order of new baskets now costs a bakery around £2000 while, in more recent years, there have been criminal prosecutions for thieves who steal huge amounts of them simply to sell on the high-grade plastic for recycling.
The amount of bread baskets that have gone – and still go – missing is simply staggering. One way or another, they have become common domestic storage items in the UK. But every basket that disappears is, or was, serious money lost for a bakery business.
Independent commercial bakeries are hardest hit as they make multiple drop-offs every day. Keeping track of which baskets belong to them and making sure that they get their own baskets back on collection is extremely difficult.
Our new basket tracking feature (see screenshot above) allows delivery drivers to record what baskets were delivered and collected at any given time. In doing this, Cybake subscribers can assess and track baskets at all times.
Bread baskets that have been “disappeared”, returned to other bakers, or broken, can easily cost even a fairly modest bakery several thousands of pounds every year. By showing customers how many of their baskets they are currently holding on their invoices, Cybake subscribers can avoid unnecessary costs and invoice those who do not return baskets.
Subscribers can now also assign a value to the basket so customers always know what the basket could cost them.
Cybake’s new bread basket tracking feature is a nice and easy, low-cost way of dealing with an issue that has been a bugbear for bakers for years.
If you would like to activate Cybake’s basket tracking feature then please give Cybake product specialist Andrew Throup a shout via our contact page, our chat feature at the bottom right of this page, or by dropping him a line at andrew.throup@redblacksoftware.co.uk
Jane Tyler is the managing director of Cybake and was the bakery software’s original creator. She is a regular speaker at food and technology conferences and is also known for championing the cause of food waste reduction.
