CUSTOMER CASE
Barge operator Rederij de Jong strengthens competitive advantage by using Simply Deliver’s Transport Management System
In short
Challenge
Being a barge operator, Rederij de Jong wants to handle and plan their transports of barges more efficiently. How do you boost efficiency for both customers and Rederij de Jong?
Solution
A modern and cloud-based transport management software system for the inland navigation industry in which the entire proces from order intake, planning, track & trace and invoicing is incorporated. This means real-time visibility resulting in optimized transport capacity and a strengthened competitive power during tenders and spot-transport requests.
What are the results?
- Reinforced position of Rederij de Jong amongst competitors creates time and space within the organization and a higher customer satisfaction
- Due to the availability of real-time data & visibility, barges are being utilized more efficiently
- An integrated transport management system (TMS) for inland shipping companies
- By using AIS information, transports can be monitored closely thanks to the Track & Trace tooling
- Enhance and faster service offering and ongoing disclosure of information towards customers and their supply chain partners
- Less administrative tasks are involved for the operational team
Rederij de Jong was looking for a transport management solution that could speed up their order processes and optimize ‘shipping journeys’. Simply Deliver’s cloud software proved to be the perfect match for this purpose and has already resulted in a considerable boost in efficiency. “We can respond to opportunities on the spot market much faster now,” states charterer Robbert van de Geer. “By increasing the utilization rate of our transport capacity, we become more sustainable and offer better transport rates to customers.”
As a barge operator Rederij de Jong has been providing waterborne transport services for almost a century, mainly via inland waterways but also along the coast and by sea. The transport company has an extended fleet of pusher boats, barges and other ships but a significant part of the transport is outsourced to independent skippers. The main working area is Western Europe, where Rederij de Jong provides bulk transport for customers in the food industry, agriculture and the energy sector. Work is done on contract basis or via the spot market, but also large and complex constructions are handled, such as wind turbines and bridge sections.
Matching Supply &
demand
“It is my job to plan the trips and try to match supply and demand in freight capacity”, says Van de Geer. “If a barge has unloaded its cargo at location A, you want to find the subsequent job as near as possible, time wise and distance wise.” But allocating orders to the right skippers was always a very time-consuming matter.
Challenges while doing business
A lot of administrative tasks were involved, like entering order details, calling skippers by phone, creating a charter, sending an order confirmation, supplying a preliminary note for the inspectors and preparing transport documents. This took Van de Geer a lot of his precious time.
Responding to tenders & spot-transport requests
The manual order management process prevented the company from responding quickly to tenders. “If a shipping job is offered on the spot market you instantly need to see which boats are available. A real-time overview of available transport capacity enables you to generate additional turnover and improve the utilization rate of our fleet.” The old way of taking orders was too time-consuming and kept him from acting fast enough whenever an opportunity arose. He first had to struggle his way through all kinds of Excel sheets and make phone calls to partners. By the time he could put an offer on the spot market, the order had already been taken by a competitor…
Tracking & Tracing
The company decided to select a modern transport management solution that was fit for the waterborne transport business and that could speed up the entire process, from order intake to invoicing. After an extended search, the right software supplier was found: Simply Deliver. The Rotterdam-based specialist in cloud-based transport management offered a system with exactly the right core functionality. At Rederij de Jong’s request a few specific modules were added, most of them related to tracking & tracing. Van de Geer: “Simply Deliver has built connections with maritime portals to track the progress of transport on the basis of AIS. This allows us to estimate arrival times and better inform customers.”
Improved service
Simply Deliver’s software is now fully operational and offers the barge operator impressive efficiency gains. “From which clients benefit too”, adds Van de Geer. “All the information is conveniently stored in one system, which enables me to provide faster and better services. While talking with a customer on the phone, I can create the order and send the confirmation as soon as the call is finished. All supply chain partners can be informed without any delay. The time we save can be used for optimizing transport capacity. By scanning the spot market for specific shipping jobs I can make better combinations with other orders. The cost benefits that we achieve enables us to offer better rates and thus strengthen our competitive power.”
Ready for the future
Simply Deliver’s transport management platform enables Rederij de Jong to continuously improve its business processes. “The system gives us a perfect overview of all historical data about the orders we did for customer, prices, incidents, everything. This prevents us from making earlier made mistakes again and again. Step by step we take our transport operations to a next level and make them more sustainable.”
In the world of inland shipping, data availability and clock speed will become the key to be successful as a barge operator, concludes Van de Geer. “Real-time availability of data will allow us to improve our business operations and seize opportunities whenever they present themselves. The software from Simply Deliver has strengthened our competitive power and made us ready for the future.”
“With Simply Deliver's software we can respond faster to business opportunities in the spot market.”
Robbert van de Geercharterer at Rederij de Jong
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