Gold Coast Eagle Distributing

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Gold Coast Eagle Increases On-Time Deliveries While Cutting Overtime

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In a time when reliable labor is harder to find than ever, Gold Coast Eagle Distributing faced a significant challenge. The Sarasota-based beverage distributor was running its operation around the clock, pushing employees to their limits with overtime shifts and six-day workweeks. The strain was so severe that even managers and sales staff were pitching in to build orders on the warehouse floor just to keep trucks loaded and deliveries on schedule.

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“It put a strain on our sales department and our managers, including myself, having to come in and build the orders,” says Steve MacMunn, Operations Manager at Gold Coast Eagle. “We have to get the product built or the pallets built, loaded on the truck, and delivered. If not, we don't make money, and then the rest of us don't get paid.”

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Staffing night shifts, in particular, became a recurring headache. Qualified applicants weren’t coming in the door, and turnover among traditional hires was high. “Trying to find help at night, especially building orders, with people with CDLs, people just not applying for jobs — that’s been the biggest problem for about a year and a half,” explains MacMunn.

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A New Approach to Labor

After learning that another beverage wholesaler was using Veryable, MacMunn and his team decided to explore on-demand labor to fill the gaps. Unlike traditional staffing models, Veryable offered the ability to quickly post daily work opportunities and have pre-vetted operators bid for the shifts.

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“That was the biggest thing for me — the fact that it’s daily,” says MacMunn. “You’re actually going out and finding them yourself. It gave us more control, a little more ability to choose the people ourselves, instead of having somebody just show up two weeks later with three people.”

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Gold Coast Eagle began to build its labor pool through Veryable, much like a sports team forms a bench of reliable players. MacMunn would bring in a new operator, give them a couple of days to learn the ropes, and then retain those who performed well in a labor pool for future opportunities.

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“Being able to know the person and know what they’re capable of means a lot,” MacMunn says. “You get to know these people and their names, and they know me. They know I’m out there, talking to them. I like to put my face to the name and vice versa, so it’s not just ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ — it’s ‘Hey Dennis, how are you today?’”

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This sense of familiarity and relationship-building with on-demand operators helped MacMunn’s full-time team feel more confident bringing these workers into the mix, creating a more seamless warehouse environment.

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Operational Turnaround

The results were immediate. Where previously Gold Coast Eagle was struggling to get enough people to build orders and ship on time, the labor pool approach gave them a flexible and responsive workforce that could ramp up at a moment’s notice.

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“Now we’re getting our orders built and we’re getting them built on time, so they can be loaded on time, so they can be delivered,” MacMunn says. “Where before, we were having a hard time getting everything done and getting the trucks out on time, now we’re getting them out not only on time, but early — and some nights, very early.”

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In addition to dramatically improving on-time deliveries, Gold Coast Eagle reduced its reliance on overtime, slashing excess labor costs and improving morale for full-time staff. “Our employees were having to work a lot of overtime and six-day weeks with managers coming in,” MacMunn says. “We’ve gotten all of that squashed, so people have a better quality of life at home.”

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A True Partnership

Throughout the transition, the Veryable team remained close at hand, providing support and strategic advice to help Gold Coast Eagle maximize the benefits of on-demand labor.

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“It’s really been a good, strong partnership,” MacMunn emphasizes. “It’s not just fly by night — you’re going to use my product and never see me again. They’ve stuck with us as a partner, and I think that’s huge. That’s the way we are as a company at Gold Coast Eagle. I just want to say everybody I’ve worked with has been great.”

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Today, thanks to its flexible and scalable labor pool, Gold Coast Eagle has eliminated the chaos of labor shortages, restored work-life balance for its core employees, and improved its ability to keep customers satisfied with consistent, on-time deliveries.