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Tag: logistics

Flawless logistics at the click of a mouse

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Flawless logistics. Imagine that for a moment – no kinks in the warehouse chain, no costly errors, no unhappy customers, writes Paul Hamblin, editor of Logistics Business Magazine. It’s an enticing prospect, because no logistics process is without flaws in this high-volume age, even those of the admired industry giants. So you have to sit up and take notice when a group of logistics professionals, steeped in warehouse management and IT solutions, believe they can give their clients the nirvana of flawless logistics. It’s all about intelligent video, data analytics and AI. Combine those, and you get facts – and when you have the facts, you have solutions.

Logistics technology specialist SiB Solutions, founded in Sweden in 2017, aims to provide all facts to all stakeholders, incontrovertibly, at the touch of a button. “There is no arguing with having the facts on the table,” says co-founder Staffan Persson (pictured).

In practice, the process is fast and simple. Intelligent video cameras are placed in all relevant warehouse process areas: goods receiving, goods away, picking, packing, consolidation, loading. By complementing the existing WMS, warehouse managers can, in a matter of seconds, examine time-stamped video exactly as they would use, for instance, Google, to establish what might have happened to a given order. It thus enables them to see the full facts in seconds and then make fact-based decisions.

“Let’s say a customer has said an item is broken and the evidence shows that it occurred at the packing stage,” explains Persson. “So, the video will show if it has been packed according to the right process. If yes, then something must be wrong with the packing process, because the item is broken. If the video shows the wrong process was used, the operator can be re-trained. What we are doing is ending the logistics blame game – it allows participants to look for solutions rather than to attach blame.”

Persson reckons there are three keys to this quest for flawless logistics. First, it stops errors in real time, using AI functionality to predict and improve processes for the future. The second is the provision of a time machine – a pin-sharp instant video search facility allowing past actions to be fact-checked visually. Third, and most important, is that the warehouse is thus protected from costly and time-heavy claims and counter-claims. No more blame game.

It’s an ambitious goal, but with customer numbers growing and with SiB Solutions firmly established in the Nordics, Benelux, UK, and the US and now also growing into other markets, its subscription model is finding plenty of satisfied takers.

“Despite having WMS, shelf ID, article ID, established processes, co-worker instructions, metrics, business intelligence systems – even then everyone hurts from costly, reoccuring errors,” points out Head of Sales Europe Donald Houben. “We can show them why that is happening and with our AI capability we can prevent it happening again.”

The business case is convincingly made by the cost savings, he says. “The total direct cost of one mistake in the warehouse is maybe €50,” he muses. “But the indirect cost is 10 or 20 times higher. We have a potential customer in the Netherlands; they know that each mistake costs €1,000. Those are big savings we can make for them.”

The payment model is by monthly subscription, in which everything is included – installation, support, integration, training, maintenance, upgrades.

Implementation time from initial workshop to pressing the Go button takes two to three months, and does not disrupt existing processes.

I wonder if customers might simply stop subscribing after a few months once the SiB Solutions ‘microscope’ has done its work and perfected the warehouse. Not so, says Donald Houben. “Processes change so much in warehouses, with new customers coming in, new products,” he points out. “Without intelligent video analysis, errors will always creep in.”

Panasonic equips The Pallet Network with TOUGHBOOK tablets

Posted on by David Priestman

UK pallet freight delivery network The Pallet Network (TPN) has mobilised its forklift trucks at the company’s three depots with 150 new Panasonic TOUGHBOOK Android tablets, helping to improve productivity and customer service in the competitive logistics industry.

“We had ageing Windows 7 devices mounted in our forklifts that were no longer supported and getting pretty tired,” explained Robert Haigh, IT Director at TPN. “These devices are critical to our operations, so it was clear that they needed to be modernised. As well as upgrading the old hardware, we also knew we could make further improvements by moving to the latest Android platform and deploying new software for our forklift operators to use.”

Working with trusted IT services partner Renovotec, the company set about evaluating options and assessed all the leading industry providers alongside Panasonic TOUGHBOOK and its rugged Android A3 tablet. The critical factors in choosing the Panasonic devices were their ruggedness and reliability in the challenging working environment and the ability to run TPN’s in-house developed software application for managing and moving the pallets. In addition, ease of management and long-term support for the devices were other important considerations.

“The Panasonic device immediately stood out as different,” said Robert. “It was a much more polished and complete package in terms of design and robustness.  Ultimately, we now have a solution that is ideal for our working environment and that we can rely upon to do the job, allowing us to concentrate on delivering a fast, transparent and competitive service to our customers.”

CLICK HERE to view the video.

 

Next-generation track-and-trace

Posted on by David Priestman

When every shipment matters, it adds real value to have critical real-time location and environment information at immediate hand. Logistics Business Magazine’s editor Paul Hamblin meets a track-and-trace solution with a vital extra dimension.

Track and Trace technology is now firmly moving to the next level with the increasing adoption of applications that offer much more than basic location guidance. US-founded Tive is a good example, promising real-time shipment updates including such in-depth information as location, temperature, light and shock readings. That makes it a very useful resource for fresh food and beverage, pharma and critical-shipment logistics providers, where correct regulated temperature and physical stability are vital to a successful passage. The Tive logic is that with this data immediately available to carrier and shipper alike, a cargo under threat can be saved, to the benefit of all parties.

Tive’s model seems to be finding plenty of traction, with over 100 global customers including logistics giants such as DSV, and Hellmann Worldwide Logistics. It raised $12m in series A capital funding at the back end of 2020 with a second round recently raising a further $54m.

Even London’s world-renowned National Gallery uses Tive to give reassurance when dispatching and receiving priceless artworks.

Jim Waters, Vice President, Global Marketing, tells me an entertaining tale from his office in Boston, Massachusetts about the company’s genesis. In 2015, founder Krenar Komoni – a native of Kosovo but an American citizen also now based in Boston – was intrigued by the inordinate length of time his father-in-law spent all day, including over dinner with the family, on the phone calling colleagues to check the status or locations of his business shipments. Komoni began to muse on the enormous value that could be delivered to organisations and individuals if such crucial information could be sourced at the touch of a button. And that’s precisely what he has now delivered.

A Tive journey begins at the touch of a small green button, attached to playing-card sized (96mm x 58mm, depth 19mm) plastic backing. Attach the tracker, usually via 3M adhesive (though one global multimodal freight client uses magnets) to the last pallet to go in the container. Press the button and data is transmitted in real time to Tive’s global-based data management team.

Jim Waters: “There’s method in applying the technology to the rear pallet. The temperature-control unit – or reefer – is at the front, meaning that the reading being sent back covers the whole truck, not just the front, therefore providing more reliable readings.”

From that point, temperature, light, shock and humidity are all recorded at every stage of the multimodal journey (road, sea, air and rail). Temperature accuracy is guaranteed to within ±0.5°C within a range of -20 to 60°C. Location tracking is accurate to within 10m using WiFi, GPS or Mobile network with 2G (now largely a legacy system) to 5G all covered. Shock sensitivity can be traced up to 12G impact, but with sensitivity as low as 0.5G, the team can deduce a pothole in the road as equally as a calamitous drop from a high-bay shelf.

“It’s about collaboration,” says Jim Waters. “We are there to work with the carrier and their customer to help save the shipment in the event of an excursion. We can point out where a temperature threshold might have been exceeded, if only for a few moments. If a delivery of fresh grapes is rotten within two days of arrival, we can tell all parties if something happened on the journey to make that fruit rot faster than it should have.”

Critical journeys are another must-have. “I can tell you hair-raising stories about hearts, livers and kidneys left on the tarmac when they should have been on an aircraft that has just taken off without them,” he reveals.

Tive can be customised to suit customer needs – it’s available with a lithium/non-lithium battery according to customer preference, and while single-use are in operation with many clients, a multi-use version for circular logistics processes offers cost savings.

 

Human-centric design integral to logistics buildings

Posted on by Keith McKinley

To mark the publishing of JLL’s report, ‘Logistics buildings of tomorrow: Labour challenges highlight the importance of human-centric design’, Lisa Graham (pictured), Head of EMEA Industrial & Logistics Research & Strategy, JLL, looks at the need to transform warehouse and distribution centres to attract and retain workers amid a labour shortage crisis.

Labour shortages are a growing challenge faced by businesses globally. This is particularly concerning for occupiers of logistics facilities, especially with heightened competition and growing online demand for goods. It is therefore vital that businesses consider how to stand out amongst competitors to attract and retain skilled employees whilst there is a dwindling labour supply.

JLL’s report, ‘Logistics buildings of tomorrow: Labour challenges highlight the importance of human-centric design’, delves into these challenges and pushes the envelope on warehouse and distribution human-centric design.

The research shines a light on the issues with existing logistics buildings, and the simple design considerations that can transform the wellness of workers and bolster the success of business drastically, therefore attracting the desired skilled labour force

The Problem

In the fallout of the Covid-induced lockdowns of 2020, labour shortages continue to be a primary concern and challenge for businesses across industries, who have been left struggling to find skilled labour to employ. As economic activity recovers and demand for goods surges, these shortages are causing bottlenecks across the supply chain. After contracting by 6% in 2020, the EU economy rebounded last year by 5.2% with the latest forecasts from the Oxford Economics showing continued strong growth of 3.8% in 2022.

With intensified competition for workers over the past two years and the take-up of warehouse space across Europe reaching record highs, demand is pushing greater requirements for labour. While the European logistics market revealed strong levels of demand before the pandemic, in 2020 the take-up for floorspace jumped to 16% and the strong dynamic has been confirmed in 2021, in reaching a new record (34 million sq. m., +35% YoY). The scarcity of labour is one of the most challenging issues facing companies and a key factor influencing a company’s choice of warehouse location,

Large e-fulfilment centres, which operate 24 hours a day, are a significant contributor to the strain on worker levels. Labour intensive due to the speed and intensity of operations and range of tasks that need to be performed,  e-fulfilment centres put a strain on already shrinking labour pools, exacerbated further by an accelerated shift to online shopping during the pandemic.

Post-pandemic, accounting for a higher share of total retail sales, e-commerce is expected to continue to grow and expand to a greater number of product sectors. Therefore, it is vital that e-fulfilment centres transform to attract and retain workers to efficiently meet this growing demand.

The importance of worker engagement in human-centric design

Logistics buildings that support worker wellbeing, whilst also being operationally efficient and environmentally sustainable, are more likely to help companies build and retain their workforces. Integrating wellness features and nurturing employee welfare is crucial if businesses want to stand out in an increasingly competitive market.

In recent years, the term ‘human-centric’ design has gained traction across the property industry, as awareness of worker wellbeing has increased. The term refers to buildings that put people at the centre of the design process. Typically, human-centric design has been more widely adopted in the office sector than within logistics, but now leading develops are now also starting to promote the concept.

To foster this culture of wellness, logistics buildings should incorporate natural lighting, improved air ventilation, and ‘soft’ features which help to increase worker productivity. Soft features like green plants, thermal comfort, sound, the use of materials to brighten interior spaces, more break areas both inside and outside the facility, and accessible design can all contribute to a more enjoyable working environment.

Beyond helping companies provide a wellness environment for their workers in a competitive labour market, human-centric design also provides evidence to developers, corporate occupies and investors that social and environmental considerations are a core priority for the business.

The road ahead

Going forward; occupiers, developers, and investors will need to take advice from experts on the design considerations and locations of logistics buildings to facilitate an understanding of human-centric design.

Through the promotion of worker wellbeing, human-centric buildings have great appeal to both workers and investors alike.

CLICK HERE to read the full report.

Racing to predict the future in transportation logistics

Posted on by David Priestman

Steve Beda (pictured), executive vice president of customer solutions, Trax Technologies, explores the importance of embracing analytics for best-in-class operations.

Not that long ago data analytics was the purview of political wonks, dusty academics, and financial analysts crunching numbers to beat the markets. Then things changed as business leaders felt increasing pressure to find new ways to improve performance, deliver shareholder value and meet skyrocketing consumer expectations for products and services. Marketing teams seized analytics as a new, more sophisticated tool for understanding customer sentiment and predicting buying patterns, while operations leaders found ways to use production line sensors and collated data to foresee line failures and areas for improvement. Sadly, transportation logistics has been slower to adopt analytics at scale to the point where, even today, some operators continue to make potentially enormous and impactful decisions for their business based on, in some cases, little more than custom and practice and a well-trained gut. That too has to change.

It is simply not enough anymore, in the ultra-competitive world of transportation with soaring gas prices, global and real-time trucking and shipping complexities and the long shadow of pandemic supply-chain interruptions are still creating staff, capacity, and container shortages. To understand the root causes of all of this, to identify market influencers and potential problems before they bring down an entire network, global transportation executives now need access to both comprehensive data and sophisticated analytics capabilities. Embracing both will do one crucially important thing for every business: help us see the future. Or at least make data-driven decisions today that lead to efficiencies tomorrow and success for the long haul.

As we begin the process of due diligence and adoption, let’s take a look at the four core types of data analytics and just what they do for supply chain efficiency.

1. Descriptive Analytics – a Foundational Understanding

You can’t look ahead without understanding where you came from and there’s absolutely no way to improve performance without pinpointing what’s working well or identifying where problems or weaknesses may be emerging. For both of these critical performance benchmarks, we need Descriptive Analytics. This is quite simply an assessment of current state using historical data. A collection, curation, and analysis of data that shows us what happened over a period of time. The number of deliveries. Volume of goods. The number of carriers, routes, modes, and so forth.

It’s the foundational baseline on which more complex data analytics practices build insights into performance and quality of service.

2. Diagnostic Analytics – Why did that happen? What does that mean?

So we have a list of what happened. But understanding why things occurred, pinpointing the variables and influencers for more nuanced strategic learnings – that’s the role of Diagnostic Analysis. Diagnostic looks beyond baseline operational outcomes to measure performance against goals, deadlines, by mode and geographies, and many other variables. As part of this process look for three key measurement strategies:

Carrier Scorecards

Carrier scorecards are a critical and comprehensive tool for understanding why outcomes happen. For decades scorecards were inconsistent, non-standardised paperwork that captured intelligence but made it incredibly time-consuming and inefficient to analyse or draw strategic insights. Ideally shippers today should enforce the use of electronic, standardised formats with their carrier partners to make analysis consistent and meaningful. From the collection and analysis of scorecard information you should expect to rapidly understand:

  • On-time Delivery: how many packages arrived on time versus missed deadlines – and where? Which carriers? Which markets?
  • Damage Tracking: how many packages arrived broken, damaged, or otherwise contaminated, affecting replacement costs and long-term reputation?
  • Billing Accuracy: do final invoices match estimates? What is the percentage variance? Which carriers are less accurate with their billing and why?
  • Fallouts: how many loads were delivered to warehousing or other points in the network only to be returned due to limited storage and handling capacities?
  • Tender acceptance: what is the acceptance rate among carriers for contracts? If this is low, there may be a perceived problem with stated terms, compensation, or another factor that must be worked out in future negotiations.

Functional Performance Metrics

Quite simply this is the process of data collection and analysis to provide a detailed understanding across the operation. When measuring performance in this way, key indicators typically include shipping times; order accuracy (did the right product ship to the right customer at the right price?); delivery times (are there unforeseen delays between shipping and delivery?); transportation costs; warehousing costs; number of shipments; inventory accuracy and inventory turnover. There can be many other variables too, but measure against these and you’ll build a comprehensive picture of your success in the marketplace.

Cost Analysis

Lastly, how much did everything cost? Is there a discrepancy between budget and actual cost? And where is the variance?  Understanding these factors will help identify weakness in the supply chain for renewed operational improvements in the short term.

3. Predictive Analytics – the impact of external data on planning and validation

The data race is on – with all kinds being collected, curated, and analysed across industries, organisations, and businesses. As external data, beyond our logistics operations, becomes more readily available and with real-time information becoming instantly accessible, the role of analytics is rapidly becoming even more critical to day-to-day operations. In predictive analytics, analysis combines external data with owned company data to create context for how we may operate in the moment or over a period of time within geographies, modes, channels, and even by carrier. Even more significantly, predictive analytics, when employed correctly, can predict the outcome of a strategic or operational change and help validate the change prior to execution, limiting risk as much as possible. It’s important again to ensure that data content and capture quality is high to enable accurate modelling using the available data inputs and known constraints to make the most accurate and meaningful prediction.

Major measures for predictive learning include:

GPS Tracking: GPS tracking was one of the earliest data points for operational efficiency analysis and is still important. Real-time tracking of trucks, trailers, and other equipment creates a broad baseline oversight of operations. Knowing at any time where carriers and other equipment are can lead to greater efficiencies and resource optimisation. But it also enables driver and safety performance monitoring, reduces administrative time to manually check-in and monitor locations and progress, and ultimately leads to more end-to-end quality customer service.

Weather Data: Knowing when weather constraints may affect performance, cause delay or even endanger drivers or other assets can be critical, especially when dealing with global shipments across countries and regions. But weather can also impact the supply and demand balance too so planning for it is important even in the short term. Tornadoes and hurricanes, flooding, and deep freezes create massive demand for generators, water, heaters, and lumber to protect against storm damage. A surge in demand creates supply challenges, can spike prices, and have other knock-on effects down the supply chain.

Traffic Data: Look at how major coastal storms can cut off whole towns and cities, or even a major sporting event in a downtown area can cripple a traffic system for hours. Understanding traffic problems, road or modal outages, parking availability, port congestion, or volume issues is an increasingly important factor in best-in-class operations. There’s a huge industry focus happening right now on the use of AI to provide real-time route optimisation – the local, national, and global re-routing of shipments and deliveries based on changes to traffic patterns in the moment. Rightly so, using external traffic data to map clear, efficient routes or make urgent changes can save time, money and protect reputation with customers.

Predictive analysis monitors and models against all of these factors and more to create an impact analysis – what we need to know, do and change to avoid network, shipping, or delivery problems. This enables strategies and data-driven decision-making that will ultimately help reduce the negative impact of external factors beyond our control while optimising operational efficiencies to meet deadlines and stay within budget.

4. Prescriptive Analytics – where are we headed?

The ultimate goal for any best-in-class transportation logistics operation is the transition to, and full adoption, of a Logistics Control Tower strategy. A seamless collection and analysis of high-quality external and internal data collected over time, modelled and used to provide a prescriptive analysis of actions needed and changes to be made.

When the Suez Canal – the world’s largest shipment gateway – was blocked last year, the effect on the local, national and global supply chains was immediate and lasting. Often when a crisis like this occurs, the teams managing logistics just don’t have the manual capabilities to deal with the complexities, scale, or scope of the problem – or the impending and far-reaching impact. They look at reports, shuffle paper, and do their best to make decisions, but only sophisticated data-driven modelling can rectify massive outages or high-impact events.

Or picture this. You are a manufacturer with a delayed ship in Long Beach with raw materials impacting three different finished goods. What do you do? Fortunately, your control tower can see that two of the three will be out of stock before the inbound arrives. One of the finished goods is a high-margin item and sold to one of your top ten customers. Your system assesses the cost for air freight and determines this is just enough to cover the top customer and automatically weighs the cost against the loss of margin on the sale. That is the future of transportation logistics.

Prescriptive data analysis will continue to play an increasingly pivotal role in day-to-day operations, helping make and prioritise decisions. When product inventory is severely limited, can we prioritise delivery to customers that would be most impacted by failure to deliver? Can we instantly measure, understand and rank cost to customers and then prioritise by region for fastest delivery? In this way, shippers can fulfil high-impact orders to big-box retailers like Target while managing other options to cater to smaller customers with a less urgent need. Or is it advisable to ship highest margin products first when carrier capacity is constrained? And if we are facing constraints, is it better to continue with a low-cost carrier or allocate budget to pay spot rate shipping costs? All of these questions and more can be managed and answered with prescriptive analytics using best-in-class master data management standards and AI to predict outcomes and prescribe action.

Take Steps Now To Be Ahead of the Curve

So, the ultimate question: Where is your operation in the analytics race? Are you still reporting on what already happened in the past? Are you beginning to explore the abilities to predict what will happen? Has your organisation fully embraced the transition to a data-driven, analytics-led strategy, and do you have the tools to prescribe the necessary actions or a recommended path forward? Wherever you are on the curve, four fundamental factors must be kept in mind:

  • Be honest with your current state If you are still in “hindsight.” Own it and plan for how to make the necessary changes to “insight.” Don’t try to skip a step in the progression of analytics.
  • Plan how to get access to all needed data (internal, external providers, and public data). You may have to subscribe to services, turn to logistics providers and expert partners, etc.
  • Hire a data scientist or find a good partner to help prove out a few test use cases. When you start out you should always choose the project that has the highest value (return) for the lowest effort (investment). Make sure that you are solving a real challenge that drives value.
  • Take your impact and go after more.

Making a transition to a data-analytics-based operation isn’t simple or instant, but the investment will be invaluable. Embracing data is essential to future success, particularly given the events of the past two years. If the Russia-Ukraine War, global pandemic, supply chain shortages, Suez canal, and increasing environmental events tell us anything it’s that the landscape for our industry has changed fundamentally. Cause and effect is the new norm. Expect obstacles, challenges, and a fluid future where custom and practice must give way quickly to prediction, prescription, and inarguable data-driven action to succeed tomorrow and down the road.

Steve Beda is executive vice president of customer solutions for Trax Technologies, a global leader in Transportation Spend Management solutions. Trax elevates traditional Freight Audit and Payment with a combination of industry leading cloud-based technology solutions and expert services to help enterprises with the world’s more complex supply chains better manage and control their global transportation costs and drive enterprise-wide efficiency and value.

TIMCON head welcomes collaborative approach

Posted on by David Priestman

John Dye (pictured), President of the Timber Packaging & Pallet Association (TIMCON) has commended the increasing trend for wood-based organisations representing different parts of the industry to work closer together, with the shared goals of tackling challenges and improving the position of the sector overall.

TIMCON has developed increasingly close relationships with wood sector associations in the UK and Ireland, as well as government bodies including DEFRA, DAERA and Coillte, during the past decade.

“For several years, TIMCON has sought to work in partnership with a cross-section of the wood industry’s leading associations and spokespeople,” said Dye. “This has formed an extremely strong foundation for progressing our work during the pandemic. It can also now play a central role in tackling the wood industry’s latest challenges, with joined up, collaborative solutions.

“With crises affecting availability and price of raw materials, severe delays and price hikes impacting on international shipping, and staff shortages threatening the viability of many industries, it is more important than ever that we put our heads together across the wood-based sector to find mutually beneficial solutions to these and other issues.”

At its latest general meeting, held in Manchester in March, the organisation welcomed speakers from Coillte; Wood Recyclers Association (WRA); Wood Panel Industries Federation (WPIF); and Timber Development UK (TDUK) – the organisation formed by the recent merger of the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) and Timber Research and Development Association (TRADA).

At the meeting, Clodagh O’Reilly, Sales and Supply Director of Irish state-owned forestry business Coillte spoke about the organisation’s consultation to achieve goals including encouraging the development of Ireland’s forest estate and supplies of sustainable timber and supporting the promotion of timber and forest-based businesses. This, she said, is against the current industry challenges including regulation, price inflation, labour shortages, and political and economic uncertainty.

Charlie Law, Sustainability Director at TDUK gave a presentation on the importance of reuse in the circular economy for wood-based industries. Driven by the Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations (2024), the UK 2050 net zero target and interim target of a 78% reduction (on 1990 levels) by 2035, pressure on sustainable sources of timber is increasing, compounded by the fact that major sources Russia and Belarus are currently not viable, he said.

Reuse is an important part of mitigating this challenge, said Law. “If we could get to a point where all pallets are part of a reusable system, this could save more than 1.1 million m3 of timber a year,” he said. “This is enough timber to build around 60,000 timber-framed houses, which will store 780,000 tonnes of CO2.”

The general meeting was attended by more than 50 delegates.

“It was great to see so many TIMCON members and colleagues from other wood-based organisations at our first face-to-face meeting this year,” said Dye. “It has always been useful to come together and share information and ideas and it’s now essential that we put our heads together to works on the unprecedented challenges and great opportunities our industry faces in the months ahead.”

TIMCON retained close to 100% of its membership during the past year and it expects further members to join, particularly from the packaging segment of the industry.

 

Norlat launches breakbulk service to USA

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Neustädter Hafen remains an important hub for breakbulk transports to North America: Norlat Shipping Ltd. AS, headquartered in Sarpsborg, Norway, has announced the launch of a regular service from Bremen to ports on the US East coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. The new service will focus on large breakbulk goods such as forestry and steel products. In its recently published timetable, Norlat Shipping revealed that the first departure from Bremen is scheduled for the beginning of June.

The company, with roots going back to 1907, has been operating for some 30 years with its own and chartered ships mainly from Scandinavia to North Africa and the USA. Apart from its headquarters, the company also has branches in Bergen, Norway and in Gothenburg, Sweden.

For BLG LOGISTICS and Neustädter Hafen, the start of this new service sets an important signal: “Transports to North America have always been the backbone of Bremen’s port operations. We’re delighted with Norlat’s decision to regularly use Neustädter Hafen and offer our established customers a new option. It will massively strengthen our position in this operating area,” says Sven Riekers, Head of Sales for the breakbulk activities of the BLG Group.

Commenting on the move, Thomas Johansen, Senior Chartering Manager at Norlat Shipping, says “Many years of personal experience with the terminal, its workforce and the customers served made this an easy decision. We know the structures at the port and value BLG’s operational competence. These are the best conditions to ensure we’ll be able to offer customers an attractive new service.”

 

£9bn per year: the “real cost of Brexit”

Posted on by David Priestman

ParcelHero has weighed up the cost of EU membership versus lost EU exports since Brexit. Forget extra money for the NHS. It says Brexit has cost the UK 9bn a year.

Remember the Brexit bus promise: ‘We send the EU £350 million a week. Let’s fund our NHS instead. Vote leave’? The truth is that quitting the EU means there is £173m a week less to spend on the NHS, says the international delivery expert ParcelHero.

ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: “Far from saving money, the UK is poorer by £9bn a year, or £173 million a week, after leaving the European Union. Comparing the cost of membership to lost EU export trade, Britain is considerably worse off post-Brexit.

“ParcelHero has studied the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data and compared the UK Government’s annual contributions to the EU versus lost EU exports. Examining data for 2018, the last year before pre-Brexit preparations skewed data, and comparing it with 2021 figures, far from bringing in £350m a week to lavish on the NHS, the UK as a whole is £9bn out of pocket.

“The UK Government was scheduled to pay £20bn for its membership contribution to the EU in 2018. However, the UK’s negotiated annual rebate (officially known as the ‘Fontainbleau abatement’) of £4.5bn reduced the cost to £15.5bn.

“Additionally, £4.5bn came back to the UK in credits for programmes such as the EU Agricultural Guarantee Fund (£2.2bn) and the EU European Regional Development Fund (£0.7bn).  Given these figures, the ONS says that the UK Government’s net contribution to the EU – that is, the difference between the money it paid to the EU and the money it received – was £11bn in 2018.

“Compare this to the loss in exports to the EU. The ONS reported that UK exports of goods to the EU fell by £20bn in 2021, compared with 2018, the last period of stable trade.

“Even if we subtract the true (£11bn) cost of EU membership for 2018, from the £20bn drop in EU export earnings, UK plc is still £9bn poorer than it was in 2018.

“In January 2021 alone (the first month of Brexit), the value of goods exported to the European Union fell from £14.3bn in the previous month to £7.8bn.

“The Brexit Opportunities Minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said in February that Brexit is ‘already a success’ and ‘the evidence that Brexit has caused trade drops is few and far between’. If the Brexit Opportunities Minister wishes to retain credibility with the business leaders he is supposed to serve, he could do worse than read ParcelHero’s in-depth analysis of the ongoing UK-EU trade problems and, in particular, the Northern Ireland Protocol agreement, which he can read by CLICKING HERE.

 

 

 

Wise shortlisted for UK business award

Posted on by David Priestman

Wise, a technology business which helps logistics firms to engage their self-employed workforce, is celebrating after being shortlisted for a 2022 National Business Award.

Wise, founded in December 2019, has been listed in the ‘Best New Business’ category following tremendous growth which has seen the scale-up business go from 12 employees to over 60 in two and a half years.

Based in Birmingham, Wise has developed a platform which is now used by over 250 UK delivery firms and 50,000 self-employed subcontractors to save time, money and stress on everything from onboarding to tax compliance.

The finalists for this year’s UK Business Awards were announced live online on Friday 29th April, with internationally renowned businesses such as DHL, Tata Communications and CitySprint up for different awards at the ceremony on Thursday 7th July.

Dan Richards, Chief Commercial Officer at Wise, said: “We’re incredibly proud to have been shortlisted for this prestigious award after what has been a tremendously exciting few years for the business. To be recognised and put forward for this kind of national accolade is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire Wise team and all of our fantastic clients across the UK.”

Active Ants to open UK fulfilment centre

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Active Ants, a subsidiary of the bpost group, will open its fifth fulfilment centre in September 2022. The newest facility is located in Northampton, England and is owned by M&G Real Estate, the property investment arm of M&G plc.

After operating two successful sites in the Netherlands, Active Ants has expanded into Belgium and Germany in recent years. “Active Ants wants to be the best fulfilment company in Europe”, says Co-founder and Managing Partner Jeroen Dekker. “We are delighted that our arrival in the UK will further increase our presence in Europe and we believe we are moving into one of the most exciting online markets.

“With our strong focus on innovation and automation, we offer tailor-made business-to-consumer (B2C) logistics for (SME) web shops. We are convinced that this will create superior value for our customers.”

Founded in 2010 with the idea of making e-fulfilment more accurate and efficient through innovation, automation and working with robots, Active Ants has since grown into one of the larger players in the Netherlands with over 250 customers and more than five million orders per year.

Northampton is situated in the heart of England. The Brackmills Industrial Estate is the centre of e-commerce logistics in the United Kingdom. Dekker comments: “This combination makes it the perfect location for our e-fulfilment activities. We will be close to our customers and have good connections with last-mile distributors.

“In our search for the right location and the right building, it was important for us to find a building that fulfilled our mission and values. The ‘outstanding’ BREEAM certification of the Brackmills Estate means that the building performs at the highest environmental level, which fits perfectly with our sustainable – and highly automated – way of working. Active Ants is committed to sustainable relationships with all its stakeholders: customers, employees and the community.”

Michael Wood, Portfolio Director at M&G Real Estate, comments: “With this scheme, M&G is delivering on its commitment to providing high quality, ESG-led schemes which meet the exacting requirements of modern occupiers, and we are delighted to be welcoming an innovative international operator with this significant pre-let.”

“Storage, order picking, packaging and sorting are also fully automated in this brand new fulfilment centre,” says Dekker. “For order picking, employees work efficiently together with robots. The receipt of goods and the return flow remain manual processes. This mechanisation ensures efficiency, high quality and a pleasant working environment for our employees. The set-up is unique in the world.”

Warehouse with AutoStore

The basis of this warehouse is the Autostore, a unique system where goods are stored very compactly in bins. On top of the AutoStore is a framework of rails, on which robots ride. By means of intelligent software, a robot knows exactly which bin to take to the employees at the picking stations. Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) bring empty boxes to the employee who fills them with goods delivered by the storage robots.

The innovative AutoStore solution takes up six times less space than in a traditional warehouse. This goods-to-man system has a very low footprint. The system stores up to six times more stock per square metre, and the robots reuse their own energy, so electrical consumption is minimal.

The carrier robots drive to various packing machines which select the ideal size boxes and close them to size – weighing them and providing a shipping label, so that no padding material is needed. As a result, Active Ants transports on average 40% less air to the customer. This also allows it to transport more packages in a truck and reduce its CO2 emissions even further.

Once filled, closed and printed, the carrier robots pick up the parcels and sort them out to their respective carriers.

Also in Northampton, Active Ants‘ specially developed box-closing machines with built-in printer will be used. Dekker says: ”This allows every customer to get their own custom-printed box. Through this unique functionality, we enable large, but now also smaller webshops, to offer customised packaging. Keeping pre-printed boxes in stock is no longer necessary. This saves our customers costs and also reduces their footprint.”

 

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