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Tag: network

AI-driven Forklift Safety Solution for Pallet Network

Posted on by David Priestman

Pallet-Track has developed an innovative solution to forklift safety after partnering with Samsara, the pioneer of the Connected Operations® Cloud. The Wolverhampton-based pallet network has partnered with Samsara to develop a bespoke AI tracking solution for its fleet of forklift trucks – claimed to be the first of its kind in the UK.

Pallet-Track has invested over £100,000 in installing tracking, camera, and AI technology as part of its ongoing commitment to improving warehouse safety. While camera technology for HGVs is readily available, similar software for forklift trucks is yet to make it to the UK market, which led Pallet-Track to be the first to market by seeking a tailor-made solution. The sophisticated technology can record and analyse harsh braking, identify areas for improvement and, with the help of AI, even detect when a driver is feeling drowsy.

Anthony Ratchford Head of Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality (SHEQ) at Pallet-Track, said: “We are proud to be investing heavily in SHEQ and leading the way for forklift safety in the industry with this innovative solution. We want to ensure the behaviour of every forklift driver at Pallet-Track remains first-class, which is why we continually review our performance and look at how we can perform better.

“Our goal is to set a target safety score for all forklift drivers at our hub(s) and ensure this score is maintained by providing our drivers with familiarisation and refresher training, if, and when required.
Working with Samsara has enabled us to develop the technology we need to drive our commitment to safety forward and to utilise AI to detect, notify and report any unsafe behaviour in the warehouse.”

Philip van der Wilt, SVP and GM EMEA for Samsara added, “At Samsara, we’re dedicated to empowering our customers with innovative technology that drives safety, efficiency, and operational excellence. Pallet-Track’s innovative approach and use of multiple Samsara products to create the UK’s first AI-driven forklift safety solution is a testament to their commitment to setting new industry standards. We’re proud to support them on this journey of safety innovation.”

Stuart Godman, CEO at Pallet-Track, added: “Pallet-Track is undergoing a period of rapid growth and change, so it is vital that we continue to invest and prioritise the safety of all our colleagues. This technology is game-changing and leading edge for the industry and will continue to ensure that safety is not compromised as we continue to grow at this pace.”

Pallet-Track has a shareholder member network of more than 90 distribution specialists, which transport more than 4m pallets per year.

​DHL eCommerce Expands UK Network with Newcastle Facility

Posted on by David Priestman

DHL eCommerce UK has officially launched a new 55,000 square foot facility in Newcastle as part of its expansive £482 million investment program aimed at scaling its national operations and boosting regional parcel capacity. This strategic move not only enhances the company’s ability to serve the growing demand in the North East, but also underlines its commitment to sustainability and community development.

Located at Team Valley Trading Estate, one of the North East’s most prominent business parks, the site has been carefully chosen to streamline regional logistics and improve service efficiency for both individual and business customers. With the capacity to handle up to 15,000 parcels a day, the facility is designed to significantly improve the speed and reliability of parcel delivery across Newcastle and surrounding areas.

Part of a Nationwide Growth Strategy

The Newcastle hub is the latest in a string of developments under DHL eCommerce UK’s ambitious multi-year infrastructure investment plan, which also includes the recent opening of its flagship Midlands hub in Coventry. Together, these upgrades are intended to modernize DHL’s operational footprint, reduce transit times, and enhance parcel processing capacity in response to the ongoing surge in online shopping and direct-to-door deliveries.

Stuart Hill, CEO of DHL eCommerce UK, emphasized the importance of the new Newcastle site within the company’s broader strategy. “By sustainably growing our operations, we are boosting our capacity to meet the growing demands of customers, enhancing the working environment for our valued team members, and upholding our commitment to provide excellent service for customers, both locally and internationally,” Hill said in a public statement.

Sustainability at the Forefront

Reflecting DHL’s global Go Green strategy—which targets net-zero emissions by 2050—the Newcastle site integrates a range of environmentally friendly features. The building includes energy-efficient heating and lighting systems controlled by smart sensors, ensuring that energy usage is optimized throughout the day. Additionally, the site has been fitted with 10 electric vehicle (EV) charging points, supporting DHL’s shift toward a greener delivery fleet and promoting sustainable commuting options for employees.

This eco-conscious approach is a consistent theme across DHL’s recent developments. The company is also investing heavily in electric delivery vans and digital route optimization software, all aimed at reducing carbon emissions and contributing to a more sustainable logistics industry.

Boost to Local Economy and Jobs

In addition to its logistical and environmental benefits, the new facility offers a major boost to the local economy. The site has retained the workforce from DHL’s previous local site, minimizing disruption and job losses during the transition. Furthermore, as the facility scales up, DHL anticipates creating new employment opportunities for the surrounding community, particularly in warehouse operations, vehicle maintenance, and last-mile delivery roles.

Staff at the new site will also benefit from upgraded facilities, including improved break-out areas and employee amenities designed to support wellbeing and foster a more collaborative workplace culture.

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Financial Results Confirm Logistics Strategy

Posted on by David Priestman

Munich-based intermodal and shortsea logistics provider Robert Kukla closes its 2022 financial year with a substantial 22 percent increase in turnover. “In particular, the expansion of the network via associated companies with the development of our own logistics products contributed to this above average success,” sums up Kukla CEO Knut Sander. For 2023, he again expects organic growth of around 20 per cent. With its eleven affiliated companies and the headquarters in Munich, Robert Kukla achieved a turnover of EUR 248.7 million last year with 180,000 transported units. This represents an improvement of 22 percent over the previous year.

Investments ensure growth

According to Sander, the investments in the development of the European locations are paying off: “Due to the increasing number of participations, we are working more efficiently, especially with regard to fixed costs. Overall, our growing European network has created a high degree of self-dynamics, which is expressed in a double-digit plus on the income side. The affiliated companies, for example, contributed the lion’s share of EUR 30 million to the total increase in turnover of EUR 45.46 million. The headquarters in Munich also developed exceptionally well with an increase in turnover of 14 per cent.”

Logistics Strategy

In particular, the locally managed locations were very successful in the free development of independent logistics services. As an example, Sander mentions the development of full load transports with the integration of permanent carriers at the Düsseldorf location, which is developing rapidly. The Kukla company in Milan (Italy) introduced a train system with slot bookings for intermodal transports in 2022 and the Hamburg location now handles the entire FOB processing for containers (organisation of the pre-carriage to loading on board).

The company also registered a strong increase in the area of UK shipments. “In the aftermath of the post-Brexit, there was an immense shift in trailer transports to containers, from which we benefited,” explains Sander. The volume transported has increased by about 50 per cent to 24,000 containers annually. In order to be more independent of external service providers, Robert Kukla has meanwhile opened his own customs agency in Folkestone.

Potential in nearshoring and existing customer business

For the current year, Sander again expects growth of about 20 per cent. The existing customer business is the main contributor to this. “The larger network brings new opportunities for our customers, especially in the intermodal sector, synergies arise,” Sander concretises, adding, “with shippers, whom we strongly supported during the time of acute supply chain problems, we experience higher appreciation and retention than before the Corona pandemic.” The Kukla CEO also sees potential in the emerging trend towards nearshoring: “Procurement markets are moving closer to Kukla’s home market. We are represented with intermodal logistics solutions in the growth regions of Eastern Europe and North Africa, also involving Shortsea. Our transport volume in these countries is currently increasing noticeably.”

Robert Kukla GmbH Internationale Spedition, headquartered in Munich, specialises in multimodal and intermodal transports, tank transports and truck transports worldwide and has extensive experience in warehouse logistics. The Munich-based logistics service provider has locations in Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Milan, Breda, Stockholm, Bilbao, Calais, Lisbon, London and Thessaloniki. Kukla has been in operation since 1941, works worldwide with a dense network of high-performance cooperation partners and employs around 280 people at all its locations. Of the approximately 180,000 units transported annually, about 60 per cent are accounted for by short-sea traffic and 40 per cent by shipments by rail and truck

Network, not Supply Chain

Posted on by David Priestman

Are transport sector network orthodoxies in the process of being supplanted by a tech-driven collaborative model? Paul Hamblin spoke to Transporeon CEO, Stephan Sieber.

Germany’s Transporeon has been a standard-bearer in the great migration to digital over the past decade or so, building impressive numbers with its connectivity and market intelligence cloud-based software. Indeed, carriers signed up to the platform in autumn 2022 are just shy of 150k, shippers number 1.4K, all racking up some 220K transactions per day. We’re talking the Transport sector, remember, which has been notoriously slow to take to digital potential and still likes to play its cards close to its chest, with carriers eyeing their competitors warily as they riffle through their ancient spreadsheets. Indeed, in a significant 2021 German-government sponsored survey reviewing digital adoption across a range of sectors, the transport sector ranked last.

For Stephan Sieber, who was appointed CEO by the founders in 2019, this traditional reluctance to share information offers the next great leap forward in solving challenges for the industry. “We’re a tech company, we believe in digital and we believe that it’s now ready for Prime Time,” he announces confidently. For Transporeon has grown to be something much more than a connectivity software provider in different silos – it’s now about joining the dots between them to create a whole new world of collaborative success. “The digital effort has traditionally focused on what happens within organisations, rather then between them,” he observes. “We are looking to explore those gaps and fill them to the mutual benefit of all parties.” For that, read shippers, forwarders, carriers and load recipients.

Collaboration Network

For Sieber, the answer is not more software – it’s about adopting the platform mentality. “We have a transport management platform that empowers and optimises a world in motion, including match-making, process execution and transaction costs,” he asserts. “We started as a successful connectivity enabler, but that’s no longer enough. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. We are now at a point where we are doing much more than recording, we can create a system where the platform can predict and dictate the right scenarios to benefit its participants.”

Aware that any network grows in value the more participants it can attract, Transporeon has grown organically and via confident acquisition to upgrade and expand its offering to an entire suite of transport management modules. All are agnostic in terms of connecting to existing software packages that members may already have. The list includes Freight Procurement and Rate Management, Freight Matching (including the vital facility to sub-contract), Dock Scheduling and Yard Management, as well as Settlement modules. All are backed up by Real Time Tracking and Visibility, adding real heft to Sieber’s claim that sustainability, a core requirement of his members, is “at the heart of everything we do.”

He likens the selection to your domestic fridge. “You have a number of ingredients in there, and you can make any number of tasty dishes according to your own preference and tastes.”

Cut empty miles

For Dan Burgess, Head of Primary Logistics at UK supermarket giant Tesco, Transporeon’s platform is already answering questions. “The capability removes ambiguity for drivers and transport teams, it improves our resource allocation and gives us more accurate KPIs. There is real insight into how we can provide more sustainable solutions. Cutting out empty miles is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s an absolute must-have.”

There are some tempting alternatives to the traditional orthodoxies in all this. Are we moving from a supply ‘chain’ model to a supply ‘network’ model? Will we be talking about demand-chain management, rather than supply chain management? We watch closely.

Globalia’s annual meeting goes virtual

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Globalia concluded its second Virtual Meeting successfully, which was organised to expedite networking among the members and reunite them virtually. After the great reception of its first Online Conference, Globalia’s team worked hard to surpass the previous meeting experience. The Virtual Meeting that was held on 14th and 15th October 2021 presented a perfect opportunity for the members to assemble on one platform and consolidate relationships with their network partners without having to leave their homes.

Members participated in more than 1,150 one-to-one videoconferences during the two days of the event. The professional and user-friendly meeting platform created by Globalia made for a seamless conferencing experience. It ensured that all the videoconferences were automatically organised according to the agenda and time zone of the delegates.

“It has been wonderful experience, thanks to the whole Globalia team, who made it possible,” said a  Globalia Member in Karachi, Pakistan.

The primary goal of the conference was to encourage a perfect working partnership between the network members that majorly contributed to expanding the scope and opportunities of the member companies. Moreover, Globalia’s team was always at hand to help members with every step of the meeting process and resolve any technical issues.

“Globalia Logistics’ Virtual Meeting is a great platform where to improve your work and increase your business activities,” declares a Globalia member in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

This year, the delegates also had the chance to touch base with their network partners during the coffee breaks just like they used to do during in-person meetings. They had the choice to access a room with up to five random participants and engage in informal discussions. This was done to promote a sense of trust and bonding within the network, which obviously had a positive impact on the number of concerted projects.

The event started with a welcome speech from Antonio Torres, the President and Founder of Globalia Logistics Network. This was followed by the one-to-one meetings between the network members. Additionally, members also took part in the FreightViewer workshops where Andrea Martin, Globalia’s FreightViewer Coordinator, explained the new features added to the software.

In the words of Antonio Torres: “In the face of the ongoing pandemic, we once again organised a cloud conference keeping in mind the safety concerns of our members and our virtual meeting yielded a remarkable outcome for the second time. All in all, it had been a wonderful and highly productive experience that gave the members a chance to expand their operations in a time when the shipping industry is going through an unprecedented crisis.

“The meeting allowed the delegates to set the stage for many new collaborative projects that forms the basis of our network. I am confident we will be able to conduct an in-person meeting next year when we leave the pandemic behind us.”

 

 

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