14 November, 2022

Chile’s largest port receives 20 Konecranes trucks

Posted on 14 November, 2022 by Keith McKinley

San Antonio Terminal Internacional S.A. (STI) has started to receive delivery of 19 Konecranes Liftace reach stackers and one Konecranes Liftace empty container handler at its operations in the Port of San Antonio in central Chile. The first delivery of six units already arrived in July 2022, the second is due later in the year and the third in early 2023.

SAAM Puertos S.A. is a Chilean multinational company that provides foreign trade services in port terminals, towage and logistics throughout the Americas. Stevedoring Service of America (SSA) Marine is an American multinational that provides terminal, cargo and related services. The two companies jointly own and operate the STI terminal at the Port of San Antonio, the largest port in Chile, and one of the biggest in South America. This demanding work environment requires a large amount of reliable container handling equipment to ensure maximum efficiency. When looking to update their lift truck fleet, STI selected Konecranes, with the support of local dealer TREX, through a rigorous tender process that found the best equipment and services to meet their requirements.

“We continue to make progress in our development plans to increase our efficiency, improve the safety of our workers and have more environmentally friendly machines,” says Rodrigo Galleguillos, General Manager for STI. “In this way, the future of Chile’s main port terminal will be based on long-term sustainability.”

“STI was very precise in what they wanted from their new equipment: quality, durable lift trucks equipped with the latest technology, designed for the highest levels of safety and productivity,” says David Olguín Tobar, Product Manager for TREX. “The Konecranes solution could provide it all. And we back that up with our own attentive local service and long-term after sales care.”

“This is a milestone for us and for the market,” says Andrés Ramirez, Regional Sales Development Manager, Lift Trucks, Konecranes. “In close cooperation with TREX, we’ve worked together with STI to create a ‘true partnership’ concept that will ensure that our machines continue to provide outstanding performance throughout the whole of their life cycle.”

Each of the 19 reach stackers is a Konecranes Liftace 4532 TCE 5. A strong, box-type chassis and a wide drive axle with a long wheelbase provide high stability, safe handling and long-lasting performance. The longitudinal moveable cabin offers drivers comfort, flexibility and ease of access. In compliance with SOLAS, the Konecranes static weighing system provides a Verified Gross Mass for all laden containers. The empty container handler is a Konecranes Liftace 6/7 ECC 9, a powerful, durable and safe yard tool that can lift up to 9 tonnes.

All 20 of the lift trucks are fitted with an HLL (Hydraulic Long-Life) filter system that extends the oil change interval up to a possible 12,000 hours due to its exceptionally fine filtration. With less oil changes, STI can save costs, and there is more uptime as well as less waste oil. An AR (Augmented Reality) 3D sensor and 2D camera with onscreen alerts give wider visibility around the entire truck. Many other features on both trucks enhance performance, safety and minimise downtime.

These reach stackers and the empty container handler are also Smart Connected Lift Trucks. TRUCONNECT Remote Monitoring follows each truck’s performance through information such as operations and usage data, fleet optimisation and the verified container mass measured by the reach stackers. TRUCONNECT Premium adds tire pressure and shock monitoring to the basic analytics. STI can easily access all their fleet information in one convenient location online through the yourKONECRANES.com customer portal.

Bowe invests in MOV.AI

Posted on 14 November, 202229 July, 2025 by David Priestman

Bowe Group, a leading provider of integrated automation technology, has made an $8.2m investment round in MOV.AI – a startup revolutionising Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) development. The round is led by Bowe Group and includes MOV.AI’s existing investors State of Mind Ventures, NFX, and Viola Ventures. The investment reflects Bowe’s strategic view of robotics in the future of automation and is a vote of confidence in MOV.AI’s innovative approach to robot software.

Automation is playing an increasingly important role in the supply chain, specifically in intralogistics, with robots at the forefront of this trend. ABI Research estimates that worldwide shipments of warehouse mobile robots will experience a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of almost 40% from 2021 to 2030, reaching over 500,000 global shipments in 2030.

To date, developing – and more importantly, deploying – Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) has been an expensive and time-consuming task, due to monolithic, inflexible robot software that is tightly coupled with robot hardware.

“We are extremely bullish on MOV.AI’s ability to modernise the robotics market, a market that is a key pillar in modern industrial automation and is poised for hypergrowth,” said Joachim Koschier, Bowe Group Managing Director. “The MOV.AI Robotics Engine Platform enables smooth human-robot collaboration in automation projects – something that Bowe Group experienced first-hand as a customer.

“The digital transformation occurring in the intralogistics space requires flexibility, operational agility, and maintainability. MOV.AI provides the complete infrastructure and tools required to create and operate fleets of any AMR.”

MOV.AI’s Robotics Engine Platform changes how AMRs are built, separating software from hardware and offering both AMR manufacturers and automation integrators the enterprise-grade tools they need for advanced automation. The Robotics Engine Platform helps AMR manufacturers quickly develop and differentiate their robots. Automation integrators can deploy in days, not months, and ensure secure, uninterrupted operation in constantly changing business and operational environments.

“We are excited to have such an innovative leader as Bowe Group join our strong group of investors and lead this round,” said MOV.AI CEO Motti Kushnir. “The pressure on supply chains creates an opportunity for AMR manufacturers and automation integrators, who need to develop and deploy robots that meet customer needs quickly. Bowe Group is a leader in the world of intralogistics and automation. Their knowledge and expertise will drive forward MOV.AI’s ability to meet customer needs and extend our market reach.

“We are thankful to our investors – State of Mind Ventures, NFX, Viola Ventures, and now Bowe Group – for their ongoing belief in our vision and in our ability to execute it. Their confidence as evidenced in this round is helping us drive change in the market and provide our customers with a much-needed solution.”

Following the investment, Joachim Koschier, Bowe Group Managing Director, and Mike Swift, Managing Director of Red Ledge North America, will be joining the MOV.AI board of directors. The company will use the proceeds from the round to accelerate product delivery, meet the demands of more customers, and engage with the ROS developer community.

Asset Alliance Group supplies Furniture Village with trucks

Posted on 14 November, 2022 by Keith McKinley

The UK’s largest independent furniture retailer, Furniture Village, has extended its six-year relationship with Asset Alliance Group by refreshing part of its home delivery fleet with 15 MAN and eight DAF trucks.

The 7.5 tonne DAF LF 180 and MAN TGL 7.190 vehicles, supplied on a five-year full-service contract hire agreement, will each make around 10 deliveries per day from 15 distribution hubs nationwide.

The new trucks are part of a 76-strong home delivery fleet run by the company, which opened its first store in Abingdon in 1989 and will open its 55th store in Colchester later this year.

Group Logistics Controller at Furniture Village, Carl Hood, says: “Our shiny new blue vehicles really grab attention. They are great for business and growing the reputation of the company.

“If you have nice trucks with smartly dressed drivers, people better understand that you’ll handle their furniture in a professional manner.”

After five years of running delivery trucks with manual transmission, Furniture Village specified automatic gearboxes on the new vehicles to satisfy drivers’ preferences.

Each is fitted with a tuck-away tail-lift to help teams manage heavier items of furniture, as well as a Spillard camera system to assist drivers with inner-city deliveries.

The Slough-based furniture retailer already runs a core fleet of trucks supplied by Asset Alliance Group, after taking its first vehicles from the business in 2016.

Hood says: “We are repeat customers for good reason. What’s great about Asset Alliance Group is the team’s excellent communication and ability to help us source whatever we need to maintain our high-quality home delivery fleet.

“They offer competitive rates and an unmatched level of customer service, so we’re only too happy to continue our strong relationship with the company.”

Five ways to maximise Black Friday sales

Posted on 14 November, 20224 August, 2025 by Peter MacLeod

Black Friday has moved from a single day to an almost week-long event of retail sales and promotions. Consumers now expect physical and online stores to take part and the build-up can be almost as big as the event itself.

Alex Borg, Technical Operations Manager at leading fulfilment provider, Zendbox, has shared five ways that eCommerce stores can prepare for the Black Friday sales, and how getting organised is the key to success.

Sweep your website

“With billions spent every year around Black Friday, you don’t want to miss out on sales because of a technically poor website. Audit your entire site to check for any possible problems that increased Black Friday traffic could cause. Start with your site speed; a slow website can turn people off straight away. Things like cleaning up your media library and optimising images can help, but you may also need to consider a fast host to really make your site reliable.”

“Go through every page to make sure there are no broken pages or expired links; no one likes to see a 404 error message when browsing for Black Friday deals. Finally, go through your checkout process. Is it seamless? Could you add more payment methods? Is there a guest checkout and, crucially, is it mobile friendly? Cart abandonment for Black Friday sits at around 77%, so do everything you can to enhance this final step for the user.”

Optimise your content

“There’s no use having great products at bargain prices if customers can’t find them. Read through your current category copy and see if it can be improved to include more keywords around the specific product, or if it could be made shorter and clearer for a better user experience. Update any products with title tags and clear descriptions. Use bullet points if possible. This will make your content informative for your customer but also easier to crawl for search engines.”

“Do this ahead of time. Many people will research what they want to buy on Black Friday and possibly come back to check for a discount during the event itself. You want to get people into the funnel early on so they remember you when the time comes.”

Inventory analysis

“It goes without saying that having enough stock is rule number one for Black Friday. Complete a thorough analysis of everything you have in stock and analyse sales for the previous Black Friday to forecast this year’s sales. Using an automated system will remove the margin for error so now might be a good time to look at an inventory analysis tool if you don’t already have one.”

“You may have decided to run your marketing using a loss leader or a breakeven product. In which case, use sales predictions to decide which products would be most fit for purpose and then check if you have enough available; if not, you can reorder ahead of the Black Friday deadline.”

Customer Service

“Black Friday can be a very hectic time for eCommerce stores, but also for customers too. Many consumers stock up ahead of Christmas or have multiple orders from multiple retailers. Providing excellent customer service could help with initial sales but, more importantly, with repeat custom and loyalty. Troubleshoot any potential problems, such as out of stock products, faulty items or late deliveries and refresh staff training in these areas. Consider adding a chat function to your website, if possible, to provide an initial response to any queries.”

“Delivery is a critical area for all eCommerce businesses. In fact, 63% of consumers cite delivery speed as an important factor when shopping online. Work out how you will cope with the increased shipping demands so that customers aren’t left waiting too long. You might need to use temporary staff or outsource your fulfilment operations to keep buyers happy.”

Marketing

“Now isn’t the time to cut back on marketing. It can be easy to focus on the logistics of Black Friday, but marketing is just as important. Plan ahead for people who are browsing now and waiting for Black Friday discounts by installing a pop-up box on your site. Suggest that by leaving an email address, they’ll be the first to know when an item is reduced for Black Friday. Analyse the items people are searching for most, or what sold in large volumes last year, and create email marketing around this.”

“Lastly, don’t forget social media. Ramp up your marketing efforts in this area and even consider social selling. TikTok has seen exponential growth for sellers on the platform. Black Friday could be just the time to get your teeth into a TikTok Shop or Instagram storefront.”

Home delivery: one size does not fit all

Posted on 14 November, 20227 August, 2025 by David Priestman

One of the key findings of Descartes’ recent study of consumer sentiment of sustainable home delivery practices was that consumers have different delivery expectations when it comes to sustainability. Half of the respondents said that they were quite/very interested in sustainable delivery options. Moreover, the great news about the delivery options favoured by consumers is that they are all lower cost alternatives. The challenge and opportunity, then, is for retailers to recognise that consumers want sustainable delivery choices and that providing choice results in happier customers and a better bottom line while helping the environment, as Chris Jones, EVP, Descartes, outlines.

Essentially, the study underscores that a lot of consumers have sustainable delivery personas. In fact, there are a number of delivery personas that retailers can use to increase loyalty as well as top and bottom line performance. So, what are delivery personas? The concept of buying personas is widely understood in the retail community as a way to maximise sales by serving different types of consumer purchasing experiences. The same thing can be applied to home delivery. Consumers have differing expectations for home delivery and are happier when they can select the delivery option that is most consistent with those expectations.

In working with leading retailers, we previously identified four delivery personas that relate to the speed and precision of a home delivery:

Cost, Cost, Cost: Some consumers are extremely cost-sensitive and will take the slowest delivery service if it saves them money. They are willing to wait days for the product and care less when the delivery arrives during the day.
Parcel Mentality: Typical parcel deliveries are fast, but not necessarily time definite at the point of purchase. The majority of goods such as apparel and other smaller items are delivered this way. These customers are happy with the fast delivery cycle and don’t care if the package is left on the doorstep sometime during the day.
Convenience Matters: Many large format items fit into this category. These consumers don’t value fast; they value a tight time window. For instance, a kitchen renovation purchase (e.g. fridge) is made in advance, but the delivery is made close to the installation date. If delivered too early, the item would consume space in the customer’s home for weeks and risk damage until the appropriate time in the project for its installation.
Time Is Their Currency: There are a class of consumers who are cash rich and time poor. They want their delivery ASAP and won’t sit around waiting all day for it. This may be high-value impulse purchase goods or replacement items, for example. These customers are also most likely to pay for the privilege and it doesn’t take too many of them to offset a significant amount of the overall delivery cost.

Now there is a fifth delivery persona: sustainability.

Clearly, the study identified that consumers want eco-friendly delivery options and are very flexible in terms of delivery choices when they are tied to sustainability efforts. For instance:

Over half (54%) said that they would be willing to accept longer lead times for environmentally friendly deliveries.
Half said that they were quite/very interested in grouping orders for delivery on a specific day of the week (50%) or when the retailer had deliveries in the area (47%)
Almost half (48%) want the retailer to recommend the most environmentally friendly delivery option

All of these options present retailers with the opportunity to lower their delivery costs by reducing the number of deliveries they must make, increasing delivery density, better planning deliveries with longer lead times to improve efficiency and steering customers to eco-friendly – and lower cost – delivery options. In addition, the sustainability persona can be combined with other personas. For instance, identifying the most sustainable options for ‘parcel mentality’ or ‘time is their currency’ deliveries.

Sustainable delivery was so important to some that 20% of respondents said they would pay more for an environmentally-friendly delivery. For Gen Z and Millennials, the number increased to 27%. This may not sound like a significant percentage, but Descartes has worked with retailers who have realised millions of pounds in incremental revenue by up-charging for premium services at that attached rate.

Not only do consumers want eco-friendly delivery options, 42% of those surveyed also want retailers to provide details around the potential environmental consequence of their delivery options. The sustainability message here goes beyond retailers to the logistics industry as a whole (i.e. parcel carriers, LTL carriers, dedicated last mile services providers, etc.) as they will have to be able to provide the carbon footprint of their delivery services and – in a number of cases – do this dynamically for retailers.

Conclusion

Sustainability has now become an important delivery persona option. The key change for retailers to leverage delivery personas is to abandon monolithic, ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches to home delivery, provide consumers with delivery choices that are priced accordingly and let consumers self-select the delivery option that best fits their desires. Consumers will happily select an option that could lead to lower costs or increased revenue for the retailer.

Just as retailers steer consumers during the buying experience, the same can also happen when consumers are choosing a delivery option. The study showed that almost half of the respondents wanted retailers to identify the most sustainable delivery options. How often do consumers want retailers to provide service options that actually lower the retailer’s costs? This is precisely why Descartes named the study “Retailers: Sustainability is Not a Challenge, It’s an Opportunity”.