GateHouse Logistics
Industry Statement
20 September 2016
Road Specialist Freightex Gets Business Advantage from ghTrack Technology
Summary
Freightex is a leading cross-Channel road freight provider. The firm has no fleet, but instead uses proprietary technology to match loads with available empty trucks. Thanks to GateHouse Logistics ghTrack technology, Freightex is now able to monitor any of its suppliers' trucks via GPS integrated into its service platform and is giving groundbreaking business advantage to a non-asset owner.
The story
Freightex is a well-established road freight broker operating in European transport. It has no fleet of its own but uses a network of pre-vetted sub-contractors ranging from the largest transport companies in Europe to small family-run companies. The firm uses its proprietary technology platform to intelligently match customer loads with available empty trailers from over 1,000 sub-contractors.
One question most potential customers ask before doing business with Freightex is "You don't have your own fleet, you don't employ drivers, so how can you know where my goods are?"
A large proportion of deliveries which Freightex manages are on international routes of up to 2,000km and many factors can affect the length of the journey including drivers' hours, delays at ports and traffic jams.
Customers are well aware of this and accept that delays are sometimes unavoidable. Nevertheless, their overriding need is to know as early as possible if a truck will be delayed for whatever reason - they can then make contingency plans such as re-jigging delivery slots or ongoing deliveries.
The number one frustration in the road freight sector remains that customers are not informed in advance that a truck will not arrive as expected and have no time to rearrange their schedules and plans. Until recently the only way for Freightex, as a non-asset owner, could check progress of deliveries was by making phone calls to transport planners, or sometimes direct to drivers, to find out status. Often it was difficult to get through or find real time information and it was highly time-consuming for staff.
Through the pioneering technology of GateHouse Logistics, Freightex has now resolved this time-honoured problem.
... towards a GPS agnostic world
GPS has been around for years. Today, every parcel, van and truck tracked from collection to delivery. Or is it?
The answer is yes, up to a point! The issue is how to get access to that information if you do not own the truck or van.
"Over 90% of the 2 million trucks in Europe now have some kind of GPS device allowing the transport planner back at base to view the location and route of a truck," says Tim Phillips, CEO Freightex. "The complexity is that there are 500 different companies a fleet can buy its GPS system from ranging from basic tracking to full telematics systems which integrate with the truck and provide all manner of information on how the truck is being driven, its fuel efficiency and so on."
These companies all provide GPS data in different formats, with varying degrees of granularity and mapping interfaces. Normally a truck company can log into their telematics provider's system in order to monitor its trucks.
Some of Freightex's suppliers have allowed the firm to have access to their systems enabling its team to track a specific vehicle. However with 500 GPS systems, it can be a time-consuming exercise for staff to manage several log-ins and systems - and then they still have to manually update the delivery on the Freightex platform.
Enter Gatehouse - an established Danish company which has been providing GPS systems to the shipping industry for years. Its key innovation was to see the advantages of integrating information from all GPS systems into one cohesive format.
"This is game changing technology allowing users to log into the Gatehouse cloud and view GPS data from multiple fleets in easy to use formats," adds Phillips.
The integration process is called ghTrack and completely solves the problem of logging in and out of different telematics systems and provides real time tracking across all suppliers. It unifies data across different systems effectively creating one homogenous fleet.
Freightex has now developed a second innovation by taking the ghTrack information and integrating it into its own service platform. Customers can now log into the Freightex cloud to find and view progress of any of their ongoing deliveries.
Freightex has also developed a way to estimate whether a delivery will be on time or not ... this is especially useful for just-in-time deliveries or where a time slot at a busy distribution centre has been booked.
Customer feedback has been very positive with companies as wide-ranging as Tesco, Emmi and RS Components all rating the interface and the information they are able to receive very highly.
The Freightex field sales team is demonstrating its innovation to every potential customer and finding that it overcomes any concerns companies might have about using a non-asset provider.
As a result of Freightex adopting ghTrack for its service offering, the firm has been shortlisted for the innovation section of the prestigious Global Freight Awards 2016 for the first time.
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About Freightex
Founded in 2001, Freightex has become one of Europe's major road freight companies and manages shipping fora wide range of freight for customers, from full load international freight to domestic road freight, part loads, refrigerated loads and heavy loads. The firm recently won one of the most prestigious awards in the freight industry - the BIFA Service Award for European Logistics. The company is a member of the British International Freight Association (BIFA) and the Chartered Institute of Logistics (CILT). Its international logistics office is based in the Port of Dover. Visitwww.freightex.com.
About GateHouse Logistics A/S
GateHouse Logistics A/S is a wholly owned subsidiary of the GateHouse Group. Its logistics systems track over 200,000 units each day in ships, trucks and planes. The firm's flagship ghTrack Platform provides transparency and visibility of all assets and deliveries throughout the entire supply chain. Users of GateHouse's unique data aggregation services are the world's leading transport companies and retail/wholesale companies and manufacturers. ghTrack is hardware agnostic and compatible with all telematics systems. The unified data stream can easily be integrated in any business system. Visit www.gatehouselogistics.com
Ends
Press contacts for further information, executive interviews and images:
Mette Lilkær, Marketing Manager, GateHouse Logistics
Landline: + 45 7020 1909. Mobile + 45 2920 2383
Email:mdl@gatehouse.dk
Hugh Paterson, CEO, Whoosh PR
Direct Landline +44 1323 318 720, Mobile +44 (0)77681 75452