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Tag: logistics

Kite achieves carbon neutrality

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Kite Packaging has been committed to protecting the environment since its founding in 2001. Stocking specialist enviro-products, establishing a Compliance Scheme to help companies to fund their recycling of plastic waste in the UK, and launching a Plastic Reduction Campaign in 2019, achieving carbon neutrality was the natural next step.

Inherent within Kite’s business model is the idea of wanting clients to be successful. By using less packaging, reducing costs and elevating their environmental consciousness, the business will naturally benefit. Shopping with a carbon neutral supplier strongly supports this approach toward growth.

As a largescale logistics operation, Kite had two main carbon contributors: fuel and energy. Firstly, the company offsets its truck fuel at source, bringing its carbon footprint in this category to zero. As an ISO14001 accredited company, energy consumption was already being strategically reduced, though to achieve carbon neutrality it initiated a move toward renewable tariffs utilising wind, wave or solar energy.

Carbon Neutral Britain verified this achievement in 2021 and neutralised the carbon that was not offset at source using Verified Carbon Credits.

Constant growth and development is at the heart of Kite’s culture; the upcoming movement into a new state-of-the-art site will make the business capable of championing further eco-friendly initiatives with uncapped creativity.

The building will be entirely carbon neutral through solar technology, with the potential to be carbon negative.

IFCO makes senior appointment

Posted on by Keith McKinley

IFCO, a leading provider of Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) for fresh food packaging, has appointed Iñigo Canalejo as Vice President, ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) as of 1st August 2021.

IFCO is strongly committed to its ESG strategy and to making the world’s fresh grocery supply chain sustainable. IFCO´s business model is built on the principles of the circular economy with a strong focus on sustainability and has recently had its European line of Lift Lock RPCs awarded Cradle to Cradle Certified at the Silver level.

By leveraging the environmental benefits of its business model, where RPCs are being re-used up to 120 times, washed, sanitised and then at the end of their life cycle, granulated in order to produce new crates, IFCO enables significant CO2, water and energy savings as well as reductions in solid and food waste when compared to single-use packaging.

Through a third-party Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) IFCO is able to scientifically quantify these savings and share them with its European and North American customers to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability.

“Over the past years we have achieved great progress in delivering against our sustainability agenda with one highlight being Cradle to Cradle Certified at the Silver level,” says Michael Pooley, CEO at IFCO. “This reinforces our leading role in the industry, successfully applying the model of the circular economy for many years.

“I am delighted to welcome Iñigo Canalejo in our team. He brings many years of experience in successfully leading ESG programmes in the industry and will help us to position IFCO at the forefront of supply chain sustainability.”

In his former role, Canalejo led the sustainability function in the EMEA region at Brambles, a global supply chain solutions company, whilst also contributing to the design of the Global Sustainability Strategy and its implementation. He also led Brambles’ strategy for negotiating the commercial and operational changes caused by Brexit and has extensive experience in managing government relations.

Canalejo will directly report to IFCO CEO Michael Pooley, reflecting the importance of the role. Achieving IFCO’s challenging ESG goals and making the fresh food supply chain sustainable requires focus and execution speed. He will also chair the IFCO ESG Committee, which includes members of IFCO’s advisory board, the CEO and CFO. This committee will oversee all ESG strategy and activities for the company.

“I am very much looking forward to joining IFCO, working together with my new team on the company’s growing ESG commitment and focus,” added Canalejo. “We have a very busy agenda ahead of us to reach our ambitious sustainable goals and make every step of our customers’ supply chains more sustainable.”

UKWA calls for self-isolation exemption

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Clare Bottle, the Chief Executive of the UK Warehousing Association (UKWA), has written to Rachel Maclean, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, making the strong case for logistics workers to be exempt from self-isolation as the ‘pingdemic’ sweeps the country causing shortages of supplies.

Clare states: “During the earlier phases of the Covid-19 pandemic logistics workers, including warehouse workforces, benefitted from ‘essential worker’ status, which helped our members and the wider logistics community to maintain critical supply chains, including food and pharmaceutical supplies. We believe that exemption from self-isolation should now apply to this sector by default, which would be in line with the earlier position of the government and straight forward to implement.”

Earlier, the PM said critical workers who are fully vaccinated would be able to avoid self-isolating when recommended to do so by the Track & Trace app. However, it was later explained that this would only apply to a “very low number of people” and employers would be obliged to make individual applications for the exemption.

Subsequently, the impact of millions of workers having to self-isolate has brought increasing pressure on the government to reconsider its position.

Clare concludes: “While we welcome the news that supermarket workers and food manufacturers will be now exempt from quarantine, warehouse workers form a critical part of supply chains not only for food, but for pharmaceuticals and other essential supplies too, Although members have been affected to different degrees, some have reported up to 40% of staff self-isolating. Therefore we’re also seeking urgent clarification from the government on the process for individuals and businesses to apply for exemption.”

Work starts on new Pets at Home DC

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Leading commercial property developer Stoford has broken ground on the site of Pets at Home’s new state-of-the-art national storage and distribution centre in Staffordshire.

The UK’s leading pet care business has signed a 20-year lease on the purpose-built facility at Stafford North Business Park, close to Jct 14 of the M6.

Tesco Pension Fund is forward funding the new development, which is expected to employ more than 750 people when it opens in the summer of 2022.

The BREEAM ‘Excellent’-rated building will deliver a gross internal floor area of 670,000 sq ft, with an additional 100,000 sq ft of expansion land available if required.

Facilities will include two double-storey hub offices of 5,600 sq ft and a recycling store, tote store and a gatehouse detached from the main building. A nature walk and dog walking areas will be made available for public use, along with colleagues working at the site.

Stoford has awarded the building contract to McLaren Construction Group.

The new national storage and distribution centre is part of the first phase of development on a 70-acre site at Stafford North Business Park.

The site will benefit from an additional £9 million investment in the road and utilities infrastructure, including a new roundabout on the A34 at Redhill, north of Stafford, that will open up further phases of development.

Stoford Joint Managing Director, Dan Gallagher, said: “We have worked closely with Pets at Home and Tesco Pension Fund to develop this exciting new scheme that will sustain local jobs in Staffordshire. We will deliver a modern national storage and distribution centre, with a first-class design that has sustainability at its core. We are also making a significant investment in the infrastructure at Stafford North Business Park to allow us to develop the facility into one of the region’s leading employment sites.”

Pets at Home Chief Executive, Peter Pritchard, said: “Today marks a major milestone in the next step on our journey and a significant investment that will help enable our colleagues to better serve our customers right across the country. For us, pets always come first and I am really proud that this project not only sees the development of a state-of-the-art national distribution centre that will allow us to create efficiencies throughout our supply chain, but it also brings with it brand new nature walks and safe dog walking areas for colleagues and local residents to enjoy.”

LogiNext launches last-mile delivery platform

Posted on by David Priestman

LogiNext, a global technology company on a mission to optimise and automate delivery management for enterprises, has launched MILE, an integrated last-mile delivery platform.

This is the first time a cloud-based software has brought together various elements in the shipper, carrier and dispatcher ecosystem to deliver a Transportation Management System 2.0 which LogiNext calls a Transportation Automation Platform.

Legacy on-premise software has existed for the logistics industry, but this is the first time all elements of delivery management have been brought together under one SaaS offering. An integrated last-mile delivery platform is an interconnected ecosystem of web applications and mobile apps for operation managers, CSCOs, delivery partners and end customers to ensure a seamless last-mile delivery experience.

“On demand delivery has skyrocketed in the past two years with a major shift in consumer behaviour due to the pandemic. Same-day delivery is the norm and consumers now expect deliveries in a preferred time window with real-time delivery communication. To ensure brands can deliver up to the promise, we’ve launched LogiNext MILE to help our clients in various industries provide a world-class delivery experience to the end user,” said Dhruvil Sanghvi, Chief Executive Officer of LogiNext.

Brands like McDonald’s, UPS or Walmart can use the LogiNext MILE portal to collect all orders (via their own app, third-party aggregators, etc.), and then the AI-powered route planner generates trips for drivers on the LogiNext driver’s app. The entire delivery experience is digitally recorded to give insightful data and analytics which ensures delivery compliance.

Enterprises in various industries – CEP (Courier, Express, and Parcel), QSR Chains, eCommerce & Retail, and Transportation – are using LogiNext MILE to reduce costs, improve operational efficiency and deliver a brilliant customer experience.

“We’ve built a plug-and-play product which enterprises are using to go live instantly to automate delivery management, be it a B2B or B2C play. Brands are seeing delivery efficiency shoot up 20% within a few months and this helps tremendously in increasing revenues and staying ahead in the curve of digital transformation that the world of logistics is going through,” said Dinesh Dixit, VP of Client Excellence, LogiNext.

myGW offers Kärcher supply chain transparency

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Cleaning appliances manufacturer Alfred Kärcher GmbH is benefitting from the myGW customer portal of the Austrian logistics company Gebrüder Weiss.

During the hot summer months, people like to water-blast their terraces, façades or cars. Appliances made by Kärcher have become synonymous with the notion of high-pressure cleaning, with the German word Kärchern (derived from the company’s name) even making it into Duden, the German equivalent of the Oxford dictionary, meaning to clean with a high-pressure water-blaster.

A global leader in cleaning technology, it is represented in 72 countries with 127 national companies and produces and sells its extensive product range around the globe. Behind it is an equally comprehensive logistics network, one in which many different moving parts must come together perfectly for its products to be at the right place at the right time: at hardware stores, garden centres or Kärcher’s stores.

An eye on everything

In Austria, the international transport and logistics company Gebrüder Weiss is responsible for distributing Kärcher’s range of products. The logistics expert developed an impressive concept characterised by proactivity, flexibility, and transparency, the centrepiece being the new digital customer portal myGW.

In myGW logistics managers and customer advisors can keep an eye on an order at all times and are always up to date with the latest information: “When a customer calls us, there is normally a sense of urgency behind it,” explains Bernadette Nieman, Head of Customer Service, Claims & Returns at Kärcher Austria. “Mostly they want to know where a shipment is at the moment or why it hasn’t arrived yet. What’s important now is to provide reliable and transparent information to take the edge off any complaints. Experience shows that the subjective waiting time of customers is shorter if they know why they have to wait and how long for.”

New and improved

Giving reliable answers is no longer a problem since Kärcher customer service has myGW. The portal provides accurate information regarding the status, location and expected time of arrival of a shipment (ETA) in real-time. If necessary, the end customer can also be sent a link to check the shipment’s progress.

But that’s not all myGW can do. It also provides access to all relevant documents such as invoices or delivery receipts stored online, enabling them to be viewed at the touch of a button.

“Previously, we experienced difficulties rather frequently when it came to delivery receipts,” says Nieman. “Now, such requests are dealt with quickly. This is not only a relief to our customers, but also makes work easier for our employees. Long and tedious searches are now a thing of the past.”

Data reliability and transparency represent real added value for her and her team, as does the ease with which the online tool can be used along with the general improvement in communication. “Kärcher stands for solutions that are synonymous with performance, quality and reliability. myGW won us over with the very same features, making it a perfect match.”

 Cranfield expert: ‘Pingdemic’ threatens supply chain

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Commenting on the struggle of supply chains amid the ‘Pingdemic’, Professor Richard Wilding OBE, Professor of Supply Chain Strategy at Cranfield School of Management, said: “For any supply chain to operate you need processes, IT systems, physical infrastructure and equipment but critically you need people to support this. What we are seeing here is the removal of one of the critical fundamentals of the supply chain, people.

“Typically, organisations plan for a 3% absentee rate, what we are seeing here appears much higher and causing significant problems. Any reduction in the workforce above planned levels will always cause disruption.

“The challenge is the ‘pingdemic’ affects all part of the supply chain in both the front end where customers are served in supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, pubs, health care settings but also the back end of the supply chain that supports these businesses including warehouse operators, delivery drivers, lorry drivers moving things across the country, manufacturing plant operators and ultimately those involved in waste collection and recycling.

“Even if you have a fully staffed supermarket, if you have a warehouse or a production plant running at 50% of its capacity, you will have problems filling shelves with product. The same is true if you lose supermarket workers, if you have product but nobody to stock the shelves or staff the tills, you can’t operate effectively.

“With no end in sight of the ‘pingdemic’, organisations will have to plan and prioritise operations to take into account a reduced work force, possibly over a sustained period. This could include reducing the number of shifts operated, focusing on the essentials, focusing only on high profit margin products and services to maximise revenue with the limited resource available and, in the worst case, shutting down parts of operations.

“All these actions will potentially impact on consumer choice and the customer experience. The already burning platform of the pandemic is driving all organisations to explore automation in all areas to a greater extent.   Supply chains will never return to the old normal and the impact on our society will continue as we move into the new normal.

“The challenge is that it is not only the “pingdemic” putting strain on supply chains, floods in Europe causing re-routing and disruption, hot weather causing change in customer buying patterns and the huge backlog in HGV driver tests caused by the pandemic, for example, all contribute to supply chain volatility and pressures.”

Halfords implements Descartes’ last-mile delivery solution

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Descartes Systems Group, a global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, has announced that Halfords, a leading UK automotive products and services retailer, is using Descartes’ last-mile delivery solution to enable dynamic delivery pricing in its customer-facing mobile tyre replacement service and as its new international field service software solution called Avayler.

First metrics show that Halfords’ mobile service business has already been able to improve gross profit by 5% and reduce miles per delivery by 13%.

Descartes’ last mile delivery solution provides an end-to-end platform for home and last-mile delivery operations. The solution spans delivery appointment booking, route planning and execution, mobile proof-of-delivery (POD) and notifications processes. Its delivery appointment schedule is dynamically generated for each customer and time window options are scored. This allows organisations such as Halfords to intelligently control the booking process, which maximises booking density and productivity and enhances the customer experience while minimising costs.

“As part of our innovative ecommerce-based mobile tyre replacement service, we wanted to more accurately reflect the logistics cost of the mobile service when customers were booking service appointments and balance demand with our ability to serve customers,” said Chris McShane, Director, Strategy, Transformation & Business Development at Halfords. “Extending Descartes’ dynamic scheduling solution into Avayler made perfect sense. The solution will allow garages, distributors and other service-based organisations to provide their customer base with unique service appointment pricing as they are making purchases and the ability to optimise customer demand.”

The advanced real-time capabilities of the Descartes solution enable Halfords to offer dynamic delivery pricing that considers existing orders, business objectives, road network, vehicle capacity and service constraints to price delivery appointment options. In addition, Halfords uses Descartes’ forward-looking vehicle capacity information to help adjust its online marketing to ensure it balances demand generation with the ability to service that demand. As a result, Halfords has been able to target pay-per-click marketing spend by matching orders booked with the ability to service more customers in the coming days in particular regions.

After successfully using the Descartes last-mile delivery solution to drive efficiencies in its own operations, Halfords has now integrated it into Avayler, its newly launched, end-to-end, customer-centric field service solution that will be rolled out globally. Avayler will provide other businesses with an end-to-end SaaS solution wherever they offer services whether in store, at garages, workshops, clinics, pop-up sites, in the driveway or across the threshold.

“By using logistics information and constraints in real-time during the customer buying experience, Halfords is taking last-mile delivery strategies and solutions the next level,” said Pol Sweeney, Vice President of UK and Ireland Sales at Descartes. “Home and last-mile delivery and services continue to be market differentiators, but expensive to operate. Halfords’ combination of our dynamic delivery appointment booking with its advanced pricing algorithms and capacity management allow the company to provide one of the most innovative and intuitive field service solutions on the market.”

EURODIS awards top performer prizes

Posted on by David Priestman

EURODIS, the fast growing international network for joint transport of parcels and pallets, has awarded the prizes of its annual competitions in an online ceremony for the first time. The top performers in terms of operational quality, customer service and sales in 2020 were the German member trans-o-flex Express, the Italian member SDA Express Courier and the Romanian member FAN Courier Express.

The award ceremony was integrated into the annual membership convention, which took place entirely online. More than 130 participants of the network, which is operating in 36 European countries, took part in order to find out about latest projects from EURODIS and its members, listen to customer voices and discuss with the Supervisory Board.

According to Jens Reibold, Managing Director of EURODIS GmbH, the network has outperformed the market again. “In the first half of 2021 we saw a volume increase of around 27%.”

Compared to 2020, when EURODIS increased volumes by 15%, the network nearly doubled the growth rate. “The reason for this huge acceleration was the same as in 2020: growth was mainly driven by additional B2C shipments.” EURODIS customers now send every third shipment to private addresses.

Referring to the awards of the annual competition, Reibold adds: “They are an important part of our quality management and moreover an ideal motivation and acknowledgement for the performance of the respective teams.”

For the fifth time in a row the prize for best quality went to German EURODIS member trans-o-flex Express. The most important criteria for this quality ranking are delivery lead time, status information, data transmission and proof of delivery (POD). These key operational data are measured and analysed daily, in order to continuously steer and improve processes.

Key criteria for the competition on best customer service, which was won by Italian SDA Express Courier, are how fast and how well members answer requests. “Customer satisfaction is our main focus and a fast and reliable customer service is key to ensure further growth in the network,” Reibold adds.

In the sales competition the EURODIS members compete with proven sales concepts and success stories. This category was won by FAN Courier Express. “The idea behind is as easy as effective,” comments Reibold: “Best practice learning! Especially in a cooperative network like EURODIS you needn’t reinvent the wheel again and again. Moreover, we are prompting our members to learn from each other. We encourage them to copy the best solutions and adopt them for their country.”

Teleroute strengthens in DACH region

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Teleroute Freight Exchange, a leader in security, closed 2020 with remarkable growth in its customer base due to a higher retention rate and a 20% increase in new customer acquisition compared to the previous year.

Part of this growth is concentrated in the DACH region, where more and more companies trust Teleroute to improve the efficiency of their domestic and international transit. The freight exchange recently signed an agreement with three well-known companies in the sector: Vertex GmbH, Wildenhofer Unternehmensgruppe and Fercam Austria.

Vertex GmbH, based in Tyrol, has signed an agreement with Teleroute to include its four branches in Kirchbichl, Söll, Innsbruck and Vienna. Teleroute’s coverage in the region, number of freight offers, and security of the platform are mentioned as the key factors for choosing the freight exchange.

According to its CEO, Matthias Wallmann, Vertex GmbH has found in Teleroute its best partner to “improve truck traffic, especially in the French and Spanish markets, reducing empty kilometers and covering longer distances”.

Additionally, Wildenhofer Unternehmensgruppe, with its headquarters in Salzburg, is now joining the Teleroute community with its four branches (Tarragona in Spain and Schärding, Kufstein and Hallein in Austria) together with the other two companies in the group, Alpentrans and Wildenhofer Hispania.

Christopher Friedl, Branch Manager, says that what they value most about Teleroute are secure payments and the communication with customer service: “The payment guarantee service is very important to us, it ensures we get our money. We also value the swift response and communication with customer service in dealing with unfortunate events.”

Fercam, the renowned international transport company based in Italy with numerous branches throughout Europe, has also signed an agreement with Teleroute for the whole Austrian market, including access to its locations in Kundl, Salzburg, Seeboden, Sankt Pölten and Brunn Am Gebirge.

Christian Jarnig, CEO of Fercam Austria says: “Teleroute is an important and useful tool that allows our company to be competitive in the actual market. It is possible to find both good and liable transport partners and also loads in all Europe. We appreciate very much the support of the Teleroute Staff and the smoothly and intuitive, user-friendly functioning of the platform.”

Thanks to these new alliances in the DACH market, Teleroute, part of Alpega together with Wtransnet and 123cargo, is strengthening its commitment to help transport companies in this region to face the new challenges of the sector through innovation and safety, offering the best solutions for efficient fleet management and outsourcing of partners in a network of more than 85,000 trusted transport professionals.

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