Customer Stories > Dairy Farmers of America

Modernizing 3,500 Drivers Without Missing a Beat

DFA Case Study: 75% Cost Reduction and $1.5M Saved with Skyllful

Last updated March 2026

$1.5M

Estimated savings in the first year

75%

Reduction in deployment training costs

Western MOD 0125 1
DFA Logo Color

About

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) is a national dairy cooperative owned by nearly 11,000 family farmer-owners across the United States. DFA Dairy Brands, the organization's consumer products division, operates a fleet of 3,500+ route distribution drivers responsible for delivering milk and dairy products to retailers and foodservice customers nationwide.

Industry

Food & Beverage

Use Case

Tech Deployment

Software

DSD AFS by Telus

Get a Demo

Summary

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a national dairy cooperative with nearly 11,000 family farmer-owners, needed to deploy new mobile software, DSD AFS by Telus, to 3,500+ drivers without inflating costs or disrupting daily operations. By replacing manual, in-person training with Skyllful's mobile simulation platform, DFA cut deployment training costs by 75%, eliminated ride-alongs and onsite trainers, and saved an estimated $1.5 million in the first year, including $476,000 in training resources, $651,000 in travel and lodging, and $480,000 in reduced tech support and downtime costs.

“If we had to go and put boots on the ground at all of those locations, our timeframe to roll out DSDi would’ve been extended way beyond what we needed. We needed to find a new and innovative way to get the training into the hands of our resources.” 

Mike Yeates
IT Director, Business Analysis at DFA Dairy Brands

The Challenge

Legacy Systems and Manual Training Across 3,500 Drivers

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) was dealing with:

  • Billing and workflow inefficiencies caused by legacy software and overlapping systems from multiple acquisitions
  • Three separate in-cab devices, each requiring its own process and training
  • A manual training model that relied on field trainers, PowerPoint decks, and in-person ride-alongs, an approach that was costly and hard to keep consistent 

Adding to the challenge, the team had accepted that retraining was inevitable, even building “cycle-back training” into their project plans. 

The Skyllful Solution

Mobile Simulation Training for Route Distribution Drivers

Skyllful replaced DFA’s legacy training with a fully digital experience: 

  • Role-specific lessons delivered directly to drivers’ mobile devices
  • Self-paced content that could be accessed in the flow of work, like during unscheduled (or unplanned) downtime at customer sites
  • A remote-first rollout that required little onsite IT presence or travel 

This not only enabled the deployment to stay on track during COVID, it helped DFA scale faster and smarter than ever before. 

“The main purpose of bringing Skyllful in was to get the project done with fewer people and T&E. Better, faster—and we are achieving that.” 

Mike Yeates
IT Director, Business Analysis at DFA Dairy Brands

The Validated ROI

75% Cost Reduction and $1.5M in Estimated First-Year Savings

Before becoming a customer, Dairy Farmers of America went through Skyllful’s Business Impact Validation process, in which Skyllful maps a prospect’s current-state training costs against its deployment model to identify concrete savings opportunities. For DFA, the analysis revealed significant savings across four categories.

The results:

device icon

$476,000 Saved on Training Resources

Progress icon

$651,000 Saved on Travel and Lodging

support-icon

$480,000 Saved in Reduced Tech Support & Downtime Costs

Content

Training Downtime Costs Reduced to $0

DFA validated these projections against their actual deployment experience and has remained a Skyllful customer for more than five years since, expanding the partnership beyond the initial rollout to cover additional platforms and health and safety training.

Continued Partnership

How DFA Expanded Skyllful Across Its Mobile Tech Stack

What began as a project to support a major tech rollout has since grown into a long-term relationship. Today, Skyllful helps DFA train and support drivers across a broader mobile tech stack, including: 

  • GreenMile by Descartes
  • Samsara
  • DSD AFS by Telus 

Skyllful has also expanded to support health and safety training, helping DFA reduce incidents, improve compliance, and onboard new drivers faster, all without ever needing to bring them into a classroom. 

“When I realized drivers were taking Skyllful training at places like Target before a delivery, because that site had special instructions, that was the turning point. It was clear this wasn’t just ‘check-the-box’ training. It was making a difference.” 

Tom Ehrman
VP at DFA Dairy Brands

Results at a Glance

  • 75% reduction in deployment training costs for DSD AFS by Telus rollout across 3,500 drivers

  • $1.5M+ in estimated first-year savings, including $476,000 in training resources, $651,000 in travel and lodging, and $480,000 in reduced tech support and downtime costs

  • Eliminated multi-day ride-alongs and onsite trainers across all deployment locations

  • Reduced supervisor support burden during and after the DSD AFS by Telus deployment

  • Enabled in-the-moment learning, with drivers accessing Skyllful training on-site at customer locations before deliveries

  • Still in active use five5 years later, now covering DSD AFS by Telus, GreenMile by Descartes, Samsara, and health and safety training

Ready to see how Skyllful could help your next frontline tech deployment? Get a demo.

Read more customer stories

Your business foundation is only as strong as your frontline.

Get a Demo
See Pricing