Month: June 2019

Two years ago, Dachser acquired a majority share in Irish logistics company Johnston Logistics Ltd. The process of fully integrating it into the Dachser network is now nearing completion with the rebranding and associated name change to Dachser Ireland Ltd. Dachser made the official announcement earlier this week at the transport logistic trade fair in Munich.

Dachser and Johnston Logistics have been partners since 2007. In 2017, Dachser acquired a majority stake in the company, one of the most important logistics providers in the Irish market. Since then, the two companies have gradually become increasingly integrated. In September, Johnston Logistics Ltd. will change its name to Dachser Ireland Ltd. “The rebranding makes the full integration of Johnston Logistics into the Dachser network visible to the outside world. At the same time, the connection to all our systems ensures that the Irish country organization is secure and stable for the future,” explains Dachser CEO Bernhard Simon.

Operational integration complete
Dachser’s yellow and blue trucks are already on the road in Ireland. Operational integration, including the migration to DOMINO and MIKADO, Dachser’s proprietary IT systems for transport and warehouse management, took place back in February. Michael Schilling, COO Road Logistics at Dachser, says: “The integration of an experienced and capable partner such as Johnston Logistics is absolutely in line with one of Dachser’s main interests: we want our customers in Ireland to get the maximum benefit from uniform services and quality standards, fixed transit times, and the closely integrated network of Dachser branches throughout Europe.”

Albert Johnston, Managing Director of Johnston Logistics and soon of Dachser Ireland, adds: “With the integration into the Dachser network, we have found a good, sustainable path for future developments. Both family businesses stand for the same values. And both sides contribute expertise that will ensure further growth—in both our domestic and our export business.”

Johnston Logistics was founded in 1979. In addition to its headquarters in Rathcoole near Dublin, it has locations in Cork in the south and in Limerick on the west coast of Ireland. Its warehousing facilities offer 20,000 pallet spaces. In 2018, the company transported about 346,000 shipments with 120 daily departures. In addition to groupage, Johnston Logistics specialises in dangerous goods transportation and warehousing services for customers in the chemical, pharmaceutical, hardware, plastics and packaging industries. The company currently has 175 direct employees.

Pictured from left: Bernhard Simon, CEO Dachser, Albert Johnston, Managing Director, Johnston Logistics and soon of Dachser Ireland as well as Michael Schilling, COO Road Logistics at Dachser, at transport logistic in Munich.

Respected advisory institution, the Robotics Business Review has named Geek+ Robotics in its annual Top 50 list.The China-founded logistics and supply chain specialist, which is expanding into Europe, has been granted the award for its fast-growing market share and comprehensive intelligent supply chain solutions.

The RBR50 list includes the world’s 50 most influential robotics companies that Robotics Business Review believes are the most noteworthy. Its previous lists have included world-class giant companies like Google, Amazon, Intel, and NVIDIA. This year, the RBR review list selected entries from several different fields and dimensions, breaking down into intelligent mobile robotics, components supplier, collaborative robotics, AI selection, automated driving and robotic infrastructure providers.

“We are very honoured to be named on the RBR50 list, ” said Geek+ CEO Mr. Zheng. “This not only means world-wide recognition for Geek+ products and technology, but it is also a powerful endorsement for customers who have chosen Geek+ robotics products and solutions. It reflects a trend that the market of logistics robots will continue to grow, as more and more customers from various industries are willing to embrace the era of intelligent supply chain. We look forward to continuing to develop cutting-edge AI & Robotic technologies that can help our customers to accelerate the deployment of smart logistics, to achieve outstanding supply chain advantages.”

ArrowXL, the UK’s leading two-person home delivery specialist, is partnering with Paragon to fully automate and streamline its distribution operation. The company has chosen an advanced transport planning solution from Paragon to better manage and enhance its extensive service offering, providing greater delivery choice and improved customer communications.

ArrowXL delivers over two million customer orders every year on behalf of leading retailers and manufacturers. Providing a comprehensive six-day delivery and collections service, with a variety of service levels, the company recognised the need to replace manual and semi-automated transport planning processes with a robust and scalable solution from Paragon. This will enable ArrowXL to support its rapid growth strategy and meet the ever-changing delivery needs of the retail industry.

The Paragon solution will enable ArrowXL to plan its collection and trunking service, as well as its two-man home delivery service which makes 7,000 deliveries a day to addresses nationwide from four distribution hubs. ArrowXL’s fleet of 400 vehicles will be optimised to provide customers with a choice of two-hour time windows across a range of 24-hour, 48-hour, 72-hour and platinum delivery options. Paragon’s transport planning software will also be integrated with ArrowXL’s vehicle tracking system, so the company can monitor planned versus actual performance and access real-time delivery information for its customer service team.

“To maintain and build on our position as the leading two-person home delivery specialist in the UK, we are committed to innovation and continuous improvement,” explains James Robbins, CIO at ArrowXL. “By investing in the best technology, we are able to remain at the forefront of the home delivery sector. The Paragon solution will allow us to overcome complex transport planning challenges and improve the service we provide to retail and manufacturing customers.”

William Salter, Managing Director of Paragon Software Systems commented: “We are delighted that ArrowXL has chosen to partner with Paragon to deliver the efficiency, visibility and control required to meet the very high levels of service required in this competitive marketplace. Together we are taking a phased approach to meet their requirements now and in the future. This will form an important part of ArrowXL’s £3 million digital transformation and underpin service delivery excellence.”

The current status and new pilot participants of the INFr8 platform were the subject of an event that took place yesterday as part of transport logistic/air cargo Europe Munich. Frankfurt Airport is the first air cargo location worldwide to offer shippers and forwarders digitized dangerous goods processes along the entire supply chain. INFr8 is a jointly developed product of DAKOSY and Fraport.

The electronic declaration of dangerous goods is currently being tested at Frankfurt Airport. The Dangerous Goods Declaration (DGD) required for transport is created digitally via the INFr8 shipping portal and can be shared with all relevant parties. “The paper-based documentation in use until now involved very long lead times and had a high error rate for hazardous goods transports. About 10 percent of all shipments were stopped at the airport due to errors. That’s why we participated in the development of INFr8 – to accelerate processes, make them more reliable and create transparency for everyone involved,” says Bernhard Leßmann, Senior Manager CargoCity Development, Fraport AG.

Due to the positive assessments of all pilot participants, the use of the platform continues to grow. The pilot group already includes a number of well-known shippers, logistics service providers, Customs declarations agents, handling agents and the airline Lufthansa Cargo. The newest testers are AaDC GmbH and KLEX Klaus Exportverpackungen GmbH. The legally-required DGD is digitized and standardized with the use of INFr8. “Each participant can now use an interface to declare dangerous goods on the platform and at the end a quality-assured eDGD is created, which can then be transmitted to the airline or handling agent. INFr8 is not limited to Frankfurt Airport, but rather has an international focus,” explains Dirk Gladiator, authorized officer of DAKOSY. The company is currently in discussions with other airports regarding the use of the shipping portal.

The Romanian industrial and logistics market has grown remarkably, as far as the intensity of both developments and national freight transport is concerned. According to the real estate consultancy company Colliers International, the most active logistics hubs besides Bucharest are Constanta – the eastern most urban center, Alba – located almost centrally and Timis – the most western county in Romania, as these four markets together account for almost a quarter of the national goods transported in Romania via roads.

To measure the intensity of transport operations, we looked at how Romanian counties fare compared to national average of 4.1 million tonnes of goods loaded/unloaded per county per year. The figures were calculated using an average for the 2015-2017 period – the most recent detailed figures available – with the rankings likely to have remained largely unchanged during 2018 (the total volume of goods increased by just 4% in 2018 versus 2017). The ranking is dominated by Bucharest (without Ilfov), which makes around 2.5 times more than the national average. The calculations consider only the quantity of goods loaded and unloaded from one county to another as these were available on a regional basis; it is worth noting that in 2018, out of the quantity of total road freight transports of 230 million tonnes, the quantity of goods transported nationally stood at over 180 million tonnes, so over 3 times larger than that of imports/exports.

The strongest logistics hubs nationwide, besides Bucharest, are Constanta, Alba and Timis, followed by Prahova, Ilfov and Cluj. Bucharest and these six most active counties from a logistics standpoint – which are at least 1.5 times above the county average of transported goods – make up one third of the national freight transport (measured by the quantity of goods loaded/unloaded here), whereas the 7 least active – less than half the county average – add up to just about 6% of total. The latter include Vaslui, Giurgiu, Braila, Ialomita, Vrancea, Covasna and Salaj.

“Over the longer run, we expect the current logistics hubs to consolidate as they have grown so much by having a strategic location, a fleshed out local economy and gained somewhat of a tradition in this sense, Still, we want to underscore the fact that the region of Moldova lacks a strong logistics hub, but we expect this to change in several years, especially if current plans to build a highway linking Iasi to Targu Mures are materialized”, Laurentiu Duica, Director Industrial Agency at Colliers International Romania, said.