Van Moer Logistics is an integrated logistics service provider, mainly situated in the Port of Antwerp. Main activities are Warehousing, Chemicals and Port & Intermodal Logistics, national and international Transport. The company also has its own Forwarding department and warehouses at three different locations in Romania.
Of the 1200 employees, Van Moer has 500 drivers and 35 planners, which is no luxury with such a large fleet.
Van Moer Logistics chose Go4TMS in 2014 for order management and planning. In 2017, Suivo trackers were added for the monitoring of trailers and chassis. The ICT project on cloud integration (2020) brings together all those separately purchased and stand- alone implemented building blocks.
The four business objectives are clear. Van Moer wants to know at all times which load is on which trailer/chassis and to which order it belongs. The company also wants to avoid tractors driving empty unnecessarily in search of a free trailer. Furthermore, it would be nice to be able to see the availability and to reserve a trailer or chassis for an assignment. Finally, Van Moer Logistics wants to offer its customers the possibility to follow up their own cargo in real time, and also help suppliers (subcontractors) to quickly find a free trailer.
After considering several options, Suivo SaaS proved to be the appropriate cloud solution for this project.
The data from the Transics on-board computers in the tractors, and the data from the Suivo trackers that tell us which trailer/chassis it is and provide real-time information about its location, are made available in Suivo SaaS and integrated with the planning data from the TMS (who is carrying what load and when does it have to be there).
All available logistics data – from tractors, trailers, chassis and TMS – are thus visualized on a single cloud platform and made accessible (whether limited or not) to planners, customers and suppliers.
Go4TMS is a scheduling system based on a calendar (future). Suivo T&T is based on real-time information (now). Van Moer wanted to match the ‘now’ with the planning. To do so, the different structures had to be aligned. This was initially the biggest obstacle, but it did not stop the successful realization.
The new ICT system is a cloud solution and therefore ‘built to scale’.
Adjustments and expansions are made in relation to the needs. For example, Van Moer wants to extend the application to mobile devices, with apps they have built themselves for partners and customers. Additional functional wishes from users will also be realized within the same architecture from now on.
The solution was warmly received. There was some resistance from the technical / architectural side at first, but that was quickly resolved. The end users were involved at every stage from the beginning, including in the test environments. The objectives and the usability of the system were tested, among other things for possible further optimization. At the time of the initial ‘go live’ there were no more surprises. The users are extremely positive about the new platform.
By completely moving away from ‘hybrid’ (mix of on premise and cloud) to a public cloud environment, Van Moer Logistics is now fully prepared for the future in terms of ICT. The organization will continue to invest in cloud technology, with a focus on the needs of the operational end users.
Tony Vrancken, Manager Industrial Equipment, summarizes the day-to-day impact of the recent modernization. "The work of our transport planners has been greatly simplified. Because they have a real-time view of the entire fleet and no longer have to search for trailers, they have time left over for correct communication with the drivers and better customer support." Management also benefits from the new systems. "They can now generate various reports and thus make more informed decisions if, for example, additional material needs to be purchased. In this way, the new system also plays an important role in determining the budgets."
