From February through Labor Day this year, consumers of bottled water in at least four western states will have Weber Distribution to thank for slaking their thirst. Weber, a leading West Coast provider of dedicated warehousing and transportation logistics, says that back in February it began warehousing 71,000 pallets of Nestlé water for distribution throughout Utah, Colorado, Nevada and Arizona.

Produced in Cabazon and Ontario, California, the water was shipped to Weber's new 575,000-square-foot facility in Redlands, California, through April to gear up for the spring and summer holidays, including Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day.

Weber also adds value for Nestlé by providing inventory control through regular cycle counts, order processing, label creation, and by ensuring retail compliance associated with each order that is shipped.

Weber's comprehensive Retail Compliance program manages all of the major retailers' specific routing, shipping and labeling requirements.

At the heart of the compliance program is a custom-designed internal web site that allows all of Weber's warehouses to quickly reference every major retailers' most recent routing and shipping requirements, without having to individually review and interpret routing and vendor guides.

Nestlé Waters North America Inc. brands include Pure Life, Arrowhead, Calistoga, Perrier, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Ozarka, Poland Spring, Zephyrhills, San Pellegrino, Acqua Panna, and Contrex.

In a separate development, Poland Spring reportedly has reduced idle time by 41 percent and is on track to save more than $21,000 in fuel in 2008, thanks to Cadec Global's advanced fleet management software.

The Nestle Waters company has been using Cadec's Mobius TTS fleet management software and on-board computers (OBCs) in its fleet of 40 trucks for the previous year, primarily for its paperless logging capabilities.

In January 2008, it expanded its use of Mobius to include tracking idle time. The fleet management team filtered the data by driver and posted the results, and according to Chris McKenna, fleet manager for Poland Spring, "Driver behavior started to change almost immediately."

The 41-percent reduction in idle time-a total of 2,300 hours from January through May-is the equivalent of taking 12 cars off the road in terms of carbon emissions, according to Cadec officials.

"Results have exceeded our expectations, and we were able to affect change much more quickly than we thought possible," says McKenna. "We can pull these reports up within seconds. The data was already there. Cadec makes it very easy for us to manage the program-they have been a terrific partner for Poland Spring."

Visit  www.cadec.com and www.weberd.com