Raben Group provides services related to: national distribution, international and complex logistics service.  Raben conducts its operations all over Europe through a network of offices (which are located in the territory of Holland, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and Russia), cooperating with its partners. Raben Group consists of the following brands:  Raben, Fresh Logistics, CJ International, Birkart Systemverkehre and Raben &  Liesenfeld. Raben Group provides services related to many product groups, among other things, groceries, chemical articles or hazardous substances. More information at company's website.

Challenge

The project implementers were faced with the following challenge: how to automatically procure delivery statuses for 10,000 shipments from 1,000 drivers without incurring the costs of PLN 10 million for the solutions used in Western Europe. The majority of companies from logistics sector have the extended system of tracking the shipment route (track&trace). Such systems usually give information on the progress of shipments intended for national or international transport.  Such systems are available to drivers via Internet, which reduces the number of phone calls to the customer service department.  Obviously, the more up-to-date information, the more satisfied the Customers and the fewer phone calls asking for a delivery status.  The information on statuses is obtained in many ways by companies. One method consists in: introducing the status from the documents after the delivery, when the driver has completed the deliveries scheduled for a given day; calling the driver to ask him/her about statuses, equipping the drivers with data collectors and receiving the information on statuses through SMSes or providing the drivers with dedicated car solutions (on-board computers). Nevertheless, each of the above solutions has certain faults. Either information is available too late or/and obtaining it costs too much.Technological development of GSM caused the cell phones to become portable computers with wide range of functions.  Development of telecommunication infrastructure brought about common and inexpensive access to the service of data transmission.  These elements served as an inspiration for building an inexpensive, intuitive and functional solution.   The guiding principle was to build the system allowing the driver to introduce the status (from the list of defined statuses) for shipments that he/she was to deliver on the given day.  The list of shipments should be automatically sent from the transport system, and the statuses updated by the driver should be automatically recorded in the transport system.  The main idea behind the mobile application installed on the terminal was to make it:

• intuitive to use (no more complex than sending a SMS message)
• operating uninterruptedly (the driver cannot close the application, nor interrupt or block its operation, etc.); it can only be stopped by turning off the phone
• two-way data transfer (from and to the cell phone), limited only by GSM network coverage
• reliability.

Solution

The concept was turned into the project after holding talks with the companies: Polkomtel – a GSM services provider, Softline - Mobile Communication Systems – a supplier of mobile solutions and NOKIA - a supplier of phones. Polkomtel offered an attractive tariff plan for data transmission; Softline had extensive experience in building business solutions on mobile devices, while NOKIA had on offer suitable technology and terminals. The technology was of crucial importance as the application installed on phones is built on SYMBIAN platform. The concept is based on the solution ensuring the connection of the transport management system to the server responsible for communicating with phones, and the application installed on phones.  The communication server is responsible for the correct, full and fast data transmission from the transport application to phones and vice versa.  The program for introducing statuses of shipments being delivered is installed on phones.  Additionally, the driver’s phone has been equipped with the new function to receive orders for the receipt of shipments.  If Raben receives an order from the Customer when the delivery car has already left, then the dispatcher may send this order directly to the driver's phone.  The driver, after having received such an order, confirms the order acceptance.  This method for transferring orders reduces the number of phone calls and provides the driver with accurate order data (address, data, hour, quantity).

How does it work?

It is very simple. In spite of the technological complexity of the connection between the transport system, communication sever, GSM network and terminals, the solution is intuitive to use. From the user’s point of view, the great majority of processes within the system are transparent and fully automatic. The system analyses many factors and then processes, modifies and transfers them from server to server, while the workers see only the results of these calculations.  The dispatcher carries out his/her standard tasks and plans shipments in relation to cars. Subsequent to the confirmation of delivery schedule, the system automatically transfers data to the phone of the indicated driver.  The driver receives the “schedule” prepared by the dispatcher in the form of the list of shipments (in the right sequence) and confirms the acceptance of orders. Then, within a day from the delivery of each shipment, the driver chooses the right status (from the list of possible statuses) and the system controls the remaining tasks.  The automation of data transfer saves a lot of work, while statuses are updated by the drivers themselves, which releases the transport department from the obligation to make phone calls each day and update statuses in the transport system.  What was the drivers' response to this solution? Varied, of course. Some of them saw it as an additional duty; the others accepted it as something normal and the rest treated it as a positive step forward and technological novelty.   However, all the drivers praised its simple interface and intuitive use.

The benefits of this solution can be divided into three groups:

• qualitative
• financial
• market