Value City Department Stores partners with Tom Zosel Associates to implement a Fleet Productivity Program.

The leading retailer enhances delivery performance through the implementation of best practices and a component pay structure for fleet drivers.

CHICAGO -- Value City Department Stores and Tom Zosel Associates (TZA), the leader in providing Optimized Labor Performance solutions for fleet drivers, recently partnered to expand the performance capabilities of Value City's associates and management team by implementing a comprehensive program that would improve performance and reduce costs within the major functional areas of Value City's transportation operations.

Over an eight week period, TZA took a deep look into Value City's delivery procedures and developed labor standards based on engineering techniques using automated time study. These engineered labor standards determined the rate and time required for each delivery activity, including non-drive time, and were used to build a component pay structure. This type of compensation is more fair to both the company and the drivers, because it really takes into account all the elements that can influence the delivery, such as pre and post inspection, delivery times by customer, backhauls by vendor, trailer switches and drop and hook.

"We were looking at ways to maximize the utilization of our resources, while being fair to our drivers and maintaining our high standards of service. TZA's program helped us to use our drivers more efficiently and turned out to be a great success. We have been able to realize annualized savings of $700,000 in labor cost and $265,000 in equipment," said Raymond Shearer, Value City's Transportation Director.

"Typically a company can expect an increase of up to 20% in productivity and considerable savings within the first few weeks of implementation, therefore obtaining a very quick return on investment," said John Platz, TZA's Vice President.

About Value City Department Stores

With more than 110 outlets around the country and sales exceeding $1 billion, Value City Department Stores sells items such as brand-name apparel, shoes, accessories and housewares at a discount. The company is part of the Retail Ventures holding group, which is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol "RVI". Retail Ventures also operates two other subsidiaries, the off-price retailing veteran Filene's Basement and DSW. For more information, visit www.valuecity.com.

About Tom Zosel Associates, LTD.

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Tom Zosel Associates (TZA) is a best practices logistics consulting company. Core competencies include optimized labor performance programs, labor management software for distribution and transportation operations, strategic network planning, material handling engineering, transportation system design, warehouse management system solutions and training programs. TZA's critical advantage is its hands-on operational expertise, which allows it to create and implement innovative solutions for even the most complex distribution challenges. For more information about TZA, visit www.tzaconsulting.com.