Tesco

As the UK's largest supermarket with over 4,250 stores, Tesco manages one of the most complex retail supply chains in the world — moving products across a global rail and road logistics network spanning thousands of containers. Before deploying a dedicated visibility platform, the company depended on third-party data to track container movements across multiple zones, terminals, and distribution points. This created significant blind spots: deliveries could not be verified in real time, locating shipments required coordination across multiple departments, and resolving transit issues was slow and reactive. The cumulative effect was elevated dwell times, inventory inaccuracies across store networks, and structural inefficiency embedded throughout last-mile operations.

Tesco partnered with Roambee to deploy an AI-powered supply chain visibility platform across its entire UK container fleet. The rollout involved equipping every container with solar-powered IoT sensors capable of transmitting location and status data continuously — without reliance on mains power or manual check-ins. These edge devices feed real-time signals into Roambee's platform, which integrates directly with Tesco's existing scheduling systems to monitor container movement, arrival and departure times, dwell times, and ETAs at each point in the network. The platform also surfaces real-time security signals — flagging route deviations, unplanned stoppages, and delays — enabling proactive intervention before issues escalate. Across more than 23,000 unique journeys covering 6.21 million miles of rail and road, the system provides continuous, end-to-end visibility without manual coordination.

Tesco achieved measurable improvements across its container logistics network following the Roambee deployment:

• 23,000+ unique container journeys tracked in real time across rail and road
• 6.21 million miles of supply chain network covered with continuous visibility
• 3,000 locations reached improved stock accuracy

Beyond the headline numbers, the operational shift was significant. Tesco eliminated its dependence on third-party data for delivery confirmation, enabling supply chain and operations leaders to verify arrivals directly. Ben Smith, Head of Primary, Global and Rail Logistics at Tesco, noted the platform reduced delivery errors, cut dwell times, and removed the need to contact multiple departments to locate products in transit — compressing issue resolution to near-real-time.

• Solar-powered IoT sensors make 24/7 container tracking viable on less predictable transport modes like rail, where infrastructure constraints make wired or battery solutions impractical at scale.
• Replacing third-party data with first-party sensor feeds eliminates confirmation latency — the core bottleneck in reactive issue resolution for large retail networks.
• Real-time visibility only converts to operational efficiency when integrated directly with existing scheduling systems, not when running as a separate monitoring layer.
• Security signals (route deviations, unplanned stoppages) can share the same sensor infrastructure, extending platform ROI without additional hardware.
• For enterprise retailers, a primary measurable gain is reduced inter-departmental coordination overhead, not just improved inventory accuracy.