Translait: A Program of Satisfaction

The production, trade and logistics company Translait operates with Soloplan’s transport management software CarLo.

Vincent Stucky, General Manager of Translait SA.

The software CarLo facilitates employees in planning.

The result? Daily time savings, satisfied employees, happy customers and an obvious reduction in fuel usage!
 
Professional reports can have a long term effect. Vincent Stucky was overjoyed to read our report featuring the carrier Krummen Kerzers AG. The general manager of the trade and logistic company Translait SA was searching for a new transport management system. "The report described the smooth and easy implementation of the logistic software CarLo from Soloplan and the integration of the telematics system Fleetboard", recalls Stucky. Krummen’s requirements were similar to those of Translait so Stucky contacted the colleagues at Kerzers – more than half a year after the article had been published. “Krummen had already had several months of experience with system and highly recommended the software solution”, reports the entrepreneur and continues: “The quick launch of the software – without any problems – was another important point.”

An Ambitious Goal

A transfer from the previous forwarding software was urgent. The program had been developed a few years earlier especially for Translait but could not keep pace with the company’s growth. Many processes were inconvenient and time consuming. An interface to the telematics system Fleetboard was impossible. “We wanted an integrated solution for data flow starting with production, continuing over logistics and including drivers and financial accounting”, says Selim Khamsi, who is responsible for IT at Translait. In order to reach this goal, the company had introduced the business software Navision one year earlier. Thus, CarLo would need to communicate not only with Fleetboard but also with this ERP system.
 
Shortly thereafter, these and all further requirements of Translait were cleared up in a two day workshop with Soloplan. “We already had our functional specification document in June of 2010”, says Stucky. The first version of CarLo was installed on the 1st of October, 2010 so that the employees could be trained and practice on their own computers. The interface to Fleetboard was in operation at this point. “The four day workshop was very professional”, says Stucky in praise. He set the official start date for CarLo on the 1st of January 2011. "With our special requirements this was a very ambitious goal", says Khamsi.
 

Deviations from the standard software
Actually the work flow at Translait could have been carried out with the basic version of CarLo but Stucky wanted a tailor-made solution based on standard software. "Our requests resulted in a change to the program of approximately 20 percent", estimates Khamsi. Three months later the developers at Soloplan had implemented over 90 percent of the desired adaptations – including the interface to Navision.

The adaptations to the standard software are the result of Translait’s business plan. After all, Translait is not only a freight forwarder but a production and trading company with a large fleet. The 60 tankers carry out transport services for Translait as well as for external companies. CarLo takes care of the regular freight billing; the commercial invoices are created in Navision. This process is dependent on the interface to the transport management system so that, for example, the amounts actually delivered can be transferred automatically from CarLo to Navision.

A savings of one hour per day
The order transfer from CarLo to the 60 tankers functions just as simply. This point is especially important since more than 90 percent of the vehicles return to the headquarters in Corminboeuf only once every 14 days. A personal handoff of the orders on the 70 drivers who keep the fleet in action seven days a week is unimaginable. Instead, the data are transferred via GPRS mobile communications. The interface between CarLo and the telematics system plays a decisive role. Although Translait’s fleet is comprised of vehicles from Scania, MAN and Mercedes, all of them are equipped with the Daimler Fleetboard telematics system.
The on-board computers receive order information directly from CarLo and the receipt is confirmed by the driver with the push of a button. In addition, the driver must enter various order information such as "Arrival factory", "Unloading start" or "Unloading end" as well as the exact amount of the liquid goods delivered. In contrast, the remaining allowable driving time per driver is automatically calculated without driver assistance. All information is sent to headquarters. The harmonic interplay between CarLo and the telematics solution is a blessing for the four dispatchers who distribute 100 to 150 orders – a volume of 1.5 to 2 million liters – among the fleet each day. Pre-configured standard tours which can easily be created and edited in CarLo are a further simplification for Translait. "Our dispatchers save about an hour per day", estimates Khamsi. In addition, the use of telematics and a driver bonus lowered the diesel consumption approximately 2 liters per 100 kilometers.

Satisfied employees
A lucky star shines on the amortization of the entire software solution: In addition to the saving in fuel, the work reduction for the dispatchers and the automatic creation of freight invoices also reduce costs. A further plus cannot be expressed in numbers: "Employee satisfaction has been dramatically increased through the modern logistic software", says Stucky. This is connected to the user friendliness and the stability of CarLo. Also popular is the ease with which each employee can customize his or her own window display.
 

Links:

www.translait.ch