Category Archives: Logistics

Logistics, Logistics Tech, News, Telematics

VisionTrack Sees Growing Demand for Video Telematics

VisionTrack, the leading AI video telematics specialist, achieved rapid growth during 2022, experiencing strong demand from commercial fleet operators both in the UK and internationally. The number of cameras connected to its award-winning IoT platform, Autonomise.ai, increased by 43 per cent, with the rapidly expanding US market now making up more than 10 per cent of the overall devices.

 

“Vehicle operators are increasingly targeting road safety, fleet risk and insurance improvements, so there are huge opportunities for us with our proven and industry-leading video telematics software,” explains Simon Marsh, CEO of VisionTrack. “The functionality, scalability and capacity of Autonomise.ai is making it possible for us to develop sophisticated AI technologies. This is keeping us at the forefront of the marketplace.”

 

VisionTrack also increased its global workforce by over 40 per cent and doubled its operation in the US. Senior appointments were made to the company’s management, professional services, and development teams, with particular focus on strengthening its computer vision and machine learning capabilities. As a result, VisionTrack was able to accelerate the development of innovative AI video telematics that automate management processes, data analysis and incident detection.

During 2022, VisionTrack continued to champion fleet safety, working with key partners – including Brake, Together for Safer Roads, and Driving for Better Business – to help reduce unnecessary road deaths and injuries. In particular, the company was a co-headline sponsor of Road Safety Week 2022, supporting the efforts of road safety charity, Brake, and launched its own Fleet Risk Reduction campaign that is engaging with vehicle operators to improve work-related road safety.

 

“Our video-enabled devices are now recording on average 4.0 million driver miles every day, equating to travelling the entire UK road network 16 times over. Furthermore, 35 billion data points a month are collected, as well as 63 million hours of video that would take over 12.5 lifetimes for the average individual to watch. By leveraging this information, we are gaining a unique understanding of vehicle journeys, traffic levels and driver behaviour, which is enabling us to continually push the boundaries of what is possible and support data-driven problem solving,” concludes Marsh.

Driving, Logistics, Logistics Tech

‘Data-fication’ Set to Drive Transformation in Transport and Logistics in 2023

Written by Kirstie van Oerle, Partner, Netcompany 

As we look ahead to 2023, it is from the position of continuous volatility that the past twelve months have brought. Transport and logistics companies, still in COVID recovery mode, face a raft of challenges as external factors combine to ensure that the road before us is anything but smooth. Both industries are experiencing a heady combination of disruption and transformation, with exciting innovations starting to deliver on their potential.

We are already seeing the incredible potential of data-focused digital transformation to revolutionise how transport and logistics companies operate. Successful ‘data-fication’ will enable companies to absorb some of the shockwaves of ongoing disruption set to trouble the sector in the coming year and enable them to start to achieve the potential that digital transformation can bring.

With all this in mind, what are the main trends that will shape the movement of people and things in the coming year?

 

Here are five areas we expect to see advanced data use influencing transport and logistics companies in 2023:

 

  1. Macroeconomic factors will accelerate the need for digital transformation in the logistics sector. Sustained high fuel costs will have the biggest impact on the logistics sector in 2023, exacerbating already difficult operating conditions. This will drive a need for greater efficiency across the board and means businesses must seek productivity gains in an attempt to offset high fuel prices and to remain operating. Investment in digital transformation, in particular solutions that capture and manage real-time, high-quality data from multiple sources, can help businesses unlock efficiencies and adapt operations rapidly to prevailing conditions.
  2. Data dexterity will power innovation as electrification and automation rollout continues. As a general trend, the effective collection, analysis, management, and application of data will drive diverse use cases, covering everything from route planning and demand analysis to companies’ ability to integrate with the wider transport and logistics ecosystem. The sheer amount of data being generated is daunting for most organisations and making this into actionable data is critical.

 

With electrification continuing to roll out across road, rail, air and maritime transport, vast amounts of data will be generated. This must be managed, analysed, and shared to optimise performance and customer service. It must also be seamlessly incorporated into existing systems.

Organisations using legacy technology will struggle to extract data from siloes, or in some cases will not have it available at all. This will highlight the need for solutions that work with legacy tech but also unlock the power of the data within the business, making it more accessible and agile to power modern use cases and inform decision-making.

 

  1. Adoption of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) will continue. MaaS offers new solutions for personal mobility using a mix of public and third-party transport options unified into a single user interface that simplifies end-to-end journey planning and payment. The ideal of being able to plan and manage a seamless multimodal journey is much more complex in reality.

    MaaS will be more in demand as disruptions across public transport networks cause frustration and people seek alternative options.

 

Additionally, growing public awareness of sustainability, coupled with rising costs of running private vehicles, will also see travellers looking for greener and cheaper transport solutions. Transport providers must ensure they can provide the right level and sophistication of data to MaaS applications or risk being left out of the personal mobility loop.

  1. Last mile competition escalates. Logistics companies have been trying to solve the costly last-mile conundrum for decades, but the rise of omnichannel customer choices and greater competition means they must become increasingly flexible. Retailers that are facing recessionary pressures will be seeking last mile innovations that serve customer preferences while keeping costs under control as fuel and personnel costs grow increasingly unpredictable.

    Whilst there will be a focus on moving to electric vehicles or even drone deliveries, solutions such as crowdsourcing private couriers through Uber-style apps and setting up neighbourhood collection points are just two options, and we will see more ideas forming. Advanced data availability and real-time analysis will be critical for logistics providers to ensure they know where goods are, what delivery options are available to them, and what costs these might incur.

 

  1. Supply chain disruption will drive innovation in the logistics sector. Freight disruption is set to continue well into 2023 due to the war in Ukraine and the continuing Covid situation in China, impacting supply chains and continuing to create bottlenecks. These problems – which could become endemic – need solutions such as agile alternative routing and advanced warehousing strategies to minimise the amount of disruption experienced by customers.

 

Companies need greater visibility and control over logistics flows and the ability to share this information with stakeholders in the product journey. Consequently, data availability and analysis capabilities are critical to enabling logistics companies to adjust processes in real-time to minimise costs and speed deliveries.

Unlocking data to release its full potential will be central to the transport and logistics sector evolution in the coming year, but it won’t be without its challenges. Legacy technology, siloes, and the inability to open proprietary data to third parties may all act as blockers. By building data platforms that work collaboratively with legacy systems, companies can remove the risks associated with rip-and-replace projects, while still evolving into more adaptive, responsive businesses that today’s volatile environment demands.

Logistics, News, Retail & E-commerce

How Retailers Can Improve Sustainability and Profitability in Home Delivery

Written by Chris Jones, EVP, Descartes

Today, home delivery and sustainability are coming together in consumers’ minds. Descartes recently conducted a comprehensive study to help retailers understand not only how this convergence is changing consumer home delivery preferences; but also how retailers can take advantage of these evolving preferences to help themselves and the environment.

The good news is that consumers are becoming more flexible about their delivery choices. They want retailers to provide sustainable delivery options; and favour retailers that are focused on sustainability.

The even better news is that most of the sustainable delivery options come at a lower cost for retailers to operationalise, compared with traditional deliveries. This presents a strong opportunity for retailers to create more customer loyalty and to reduce delivery costs, while helping the environment. Chris Jones, EVP, Descartes explains and reveals key findings from Descartes’ recent research.

The demand for “eco-friendly” home delivery is strong

The study surveyed 8,013 consumers from nine countries in Europe, the US and Canada. It pointed to a number of findings that indicate that many consumers care about the environment and what retailers do about it does impact their buying decisions. The last finding in the list below is a significant one for retailers because it helps to drive the first three metrics:

45% said that helping the environment is quite/very important in their daily lives
39% said that they always/regularly make purchasing decisions based upon the environmental impact of a company or a product
40% would buy more from grocers who demonstrated that their supply chains were more sustainable than the competition
50% were quite/very interested in environmentally friendly home delivery options.

Three sustainable delivery options were highly appealing to consumers

Respondents were asked what sustainable delivery options were most important to them. The following findings point to the three most appealing sustainable delivery options for consumers—all of which can reduce costs for retailers:

50% thought the ability to combine orders to have them arrive all at once was quite/very important
48% said that they were quite/very interested in having retailers recommend the most environmentally friendly delivery option
38% were quite/very willing to wait longer for deliveries to make them more environmentally friendly.

Making sustainable delivery happen

Achieving these three sustainable delivery options allows retailers to better consolidate deliveries and increase delivery density. The key to leveraging eco-friendly delivery options, though, is to understand which are more sustainable, and present them to customers before they make a delivery decision.

Specialised delivery appointment scheduling tools can help here, and provide retailers the capabilities to highlight the most environmentally friendly delivery options to their shoppers – for example, options for dates and times that are ecofriendly across different service levels, including free standard delivery, premium delivery or same day delivery. These intelligent scheduling tools can dynamically offer services that combine deliveries too – and they can present options that extend the delivery time (e.g. slow down the delivery) to create more environmentally delivery plans. These options combine to help create more efficient and profitable delivery operations for retailers, and reduce their carbon footprint.

Combining deliveries

For retailers such as grocers and broadline sellers whose customers make frequent purchases, combining orders provides an excellent opportunity to minimise the number of deliveries. Retailers can provide either a fixed delivery on a regular basis (e.g. Amazon Prime Day) or dynamically choose the day based upon existing orders. Strong delivery appointment scheduling tools can identify when customers have existing orders and, during the ordering process for additional purchases, determine if it is possible to add new orders to the existing delivery or dynamically suggest a new delivery time. For customers on a fixed delivery schedule, this techology can assign new orders to the fixed time as long as the solution determines that it is feasible to add them to the delivery.

Scoring eco-delivery options

For retailers who want to provide customers with more dynamic eco-friendly delivery options, intelligent delivery appointment scheduling tools can score options based upon the factors that determine carbon footprint. This is usually possible to achieve because the delivery appointment scheduling process dynamically creates delivery options for each order as customers are making their purchases. With today’s modern tools they can typically score options to show which ones have the shortest travel distance/lowest mileage and enable retailers to determine which options they want to present to the customer. Eco-deliveries can be highlighted with supplemental explanation (e.g. “Help us reduce miles and improve the environment”) to educate the customer. Anecdotally, some organisations employing this technique have seen mileage reductions of up to 20% for eco-deliveries versus non-eco-friendly delivery options.

Lengthening lead times for deliveries

Similar to eco-deliveries, effective delivery appointment scheduling tools can score delivery options over a time horizon. This provides retailers the insight to understand what longer lead-time options are more environmentally friendly and present them to the customer during the buying process.

Additional performance and sustainability improvement tactics

Virtually any improvement in home delivery performance results in a lower carbon footprint and greater sustainability. While scheduling tools offer retailers tangible benefits, there are several other tactics that retailers can deploy to improve home delivery performance and make it more sustainable.

1. Route optimisation that helps to maximise fleet productivity, which results in less fuel consumed, fewer vehicles used and lower vehicle maintenance.

2. Advanced road network modeling that helps to ensure compliance with state and local government restrictions in congested areas, which reduces traffic and related pollution.

3. Route orchestration to better coordinate multiple resources during delivery execution, which reduces fuel consumed and the number of vehicles deployed and maintained. AI and machine learning capabilities improves route planning accuracy and addresses route execution exceptions to make delivery fleets more productive, reduce fuel consumed and decrease the number of vehicles deployed and maintained.

4. Mobile applications that eliminate paper-based delivery documentation and IoT-based telematics that minimize excessive idle time and help contain aggressive driving traits that consume additional fuel and increase vehicle maintenance.

5. GPS-based fleet tracking, that reduces vehicle turnaround and idle time at distribution centers and depots, can be used.

6. Customer delivery notifications can help to decrease the number of failed deliveries and the need to reschedule.

Conclusion

Sustainability is no longer a challenge. It is an opportunity. For retailers to continue to succeeding in this current challenging business environment, while meeting consumers’ expectations, they will need to consider what their shoppers want in terms of delivery options against agains sustainability requirements.

Today, meeting these needs is not only good business sense – investors want it, consumers want it, and governmental legislation across the planet is driving and demanding it too. By investing in technologies that enable effective transport routing, scheduling and delivery resourcing, retailers will be able to meet the various needs of their shoppers, the environment, and the market that they operate it.

Acquisitions & Partnerships, Logistics, Logistics Tech, News

ShipStation partners with The Delivery Group for last-mile deliveries

ShipStation, the world’s leading cloud-based ecommerce shipping solution, today announces that it has partnered with The Delivery Group (TDG), a leading tech enabled ecommerce delivery specialist. This partnership will see TDG added to ShipStation’s carrier services in the UK, allowing ShipStation merchants to select TDG as their carrier of choice for deliveries.

TDG specialises in technology-driven ecommerce that enables a full end-to-end delivery service across the UK and 220 countries worldwide. By joining ShipStation’s carrier services platform, TDG can provide more merchants with quick and easy access to its UTrak and ETrak services that offer a range of tracked and untracked delivery services. These are supported by best-in-class customer services and a fully automated operational network, supplying customers with more cost-effective shipping options.

David Randall, VP of Carriers at ShipStation said:

“At ShipStation we’re always looking to add innovative and best-in-class carriers to our platform, as we look to offer our merchants the right delivery options for every single shipment. TDG has a proven track-record in providing excellent value for growing merchants who are looking for an easy-to-use service for their distribution and delivery needs. We look forward to working with them to provide our customers with even more choice when it comes to domestic and international shipping.”

Mark Calladine, Group ecommerce and International Director at TDG, said:

“We see our new partnership with ShipStation as a major opportunity for growth, especially as more retailers turn towards an omnichannel model to scale – blending the physical high street with the online shopping ecosystem. Working with ShipStation, we can offer their customers quick and easy access via a carrier integration to our shipping and distribution services for more last mile deliveries. By working together, TDG and ShipStation offer businesses the right delivery product at the right time and for the right price.”

To find out more about how the ShipStation and TDG partnership, please visit: https://info.shipstation.com/the-delivery-group

About ShipStation
Every day, tens of thousands of e-commerce retailers rely on ShipStation to solve the day-to-day challenges of importing orders and processing shipments. The trusted leader in shipping software since its founding in 2011, ShipStation helps online sellers scale their businesses and deliver exceptional customer experiences, with an intuitive online solution that allows them to efficiently ship orders – wherever they sell and however they ship. The multi-channel and multi-carrier platform offers the most integrations of any e-commerce solution, with more than 300 partnerships with leading shopping carts, marketplaces, carriers and fulfilment services, including UPS, Royal Mail, Parcelforce, Amazon, Shopify, and BigCommerce. ShipStation is headquartered in Austin, TX, with offices in France, Sydney and London.

About The Delivery Group
The Delivery Group is a leading national and international e-commerce and specialist mail services provider with the capacity to handle over 1 billion items per annum via its multi-carrier platform.
With a turnover in excess of £250m and employing 500 staff, The Delivery Group operates from four highly automated facilities at Warrington, Luton, Bristol and Maidstone with an additional Central London satellite in Bermondsey.

Logistics, News

Driffield based company, Despatch Cloud, collaborates with Fast Despatch Logistics to extend services.

Despatch Cloud is thrilled to announce its collaboration with Fast Despatch Logistics (FDL), a rapidly-ascending third-party logistics service provider in the UK, Europe, and Asia. FDL caters to several of the globe’s largest eCommerce, last-mile, and parcel delivery giants.

“We’re delighted to have added FDL to our growing list of couriers and offer Despatch Cloud customers access to the 7-day-a-week FDL service, at excellent rates” Paula Tagg, Chief Operations Officer of Despatch Cloud.

Through this collaboration, Despatch Cloud clients will now have access to FDL’s dependable and expeditious delivery services, empowering them to better serve their own clients and meet the surging global demand for swift and trustworthy delivery.

About Despatch Cloud
Despatch Cloud is a pioneering cloud-based logistics management platform that aids businesses in streamlining their delivery processes and enhancing the efficiency of their operations. With advanced features and integration with multiple couriers, Despatch Cloud assists businesses in saving time, cutting costs, and improving customer satisfaction.

About Fast Despatch Logistics
Fast Despatch Logistics is a trustworthy provider of logistics solutions, with a focus on last-mile delivery, eCommerce fulfilment, and parcel delivery. With a formidable presence in the UK, Europe, and Asia, FDL is equipped to tackle the delivery needs of businesses of all sizes.

Fleet Management, Logistics, Logistics Tech, London, News, Telematics

Inseego And Pocket Box Partnership Offers Integrated Fleet Technology

Inseego has teamed up with vehicle and driver management software specialist, Pocket Box, to deliver telematics-enabled fleet management solutions. Under the partnership, the company’s fleet customers will now be able to take advantage of a powerful and easy-to-use tool to ensure vehicles are kept road legal and safe, while staff are fit and eligible to drive.

“Our software is designed to streamline fleet-related tasks, so this partnership creates an exciting opportunity to bring together two complementary systems,” explains Jim Finnegan, Founder and CEO of Pocket Box Ltd. “By integrating our web-and app-based technology with the Inseego Fleet telematics solution enables users to access live data – such as mileage, utilisation and driving styles – to further automate and simplify vehicle and driver management processes.”

 

Pocket Box Fleet brings together all essential vehicle and driver records – plus supporting documentation – in a single system, so vehicle operators keep on top of key renewal dates, quickly access electronic audit trails, and ensure a fleet is operating legally. Reminders and alerts use traffic light colour-coding to prioritise the most important tasks and draw attention to potential vehicle or driver issues. Meanwhile, the Pocket Box app captures additional information to support highly effective vehicle, driver and fuel management.

 

“By working closely with Inseego, we can deliver advanced telematics to our growing customer base, while existing users of Inseego Fleet can take advantage of added driver and vehicle management functionality. Our aim is to bring together likeminded technology and service partners to create an integrated ecosystem that takes the hassle out of operating vehicles and optimises fleet performance,” adds Finnegan.

 

Steve Thomas, Managing Director of Inseego UK Ltd commented: “We have a growing number of technology partnerships that bring together complementary systems to provide added value and return on investment to our customers. This latest agreement with Pocket Box will enable fleets to dramatically reduces workload, cuts costs and eliminates human error, while keeping drivers safe, a business compliant and vehicles on the road.”

Fleet Management, Logistics, Logistics Tech, London, News, Telematics

Inseego And Pocket Box Partnership Offers Integrated Fleet Technology

Inseego has teamed up with vehicle and driver management software specialist, Pocket Box, to deliver telematics-enabled fleet management solutions. Under the partnership, the company’s fleet customers will now be able to take advantage of a powerful and easy-to-use tool to ensure vehicles are kept road legal and safe, while staff are fit and eligible to drive.

“Our software is designed to streamline fleet-related tasks, so this partnership creates an exciting opportunity to bring together two complementary systems,” explains Jim Finnegan, Founder and CEO of Pocket Box Ltd. “By integrating our web-and app-based technology with the Inseego Fleet telematics solution enables users to access live data – such as mileage, utilisation and driving styles – to further automate and simplify vehicle and driver management processes.”

 

Pocket Box Fleet brings together all essential vehicle and driver records – plus supporting documentation – in a single system, so vehicle operators keep on top of key renewal dates, quickly access electronic audit trails, and ensure a fleet is operating legally. Reminders and alerts use traffic light colour-coding to prioritise the most important tasks and draw attention to potential vehicle or driver issues. Meanwhile, the Pocket Box app captures additional information to support highly effective vehicle, driver and fuel management.

 

“By working closely with Inseego, we can deliver advanced telematics to our growing customer base, while existing users of Inseego Fleet can take advantage of added driver and vehicle management functionality. Our aim is to bring together likeminded technology and service partners to create an integrated ecosystem that takes the hassle out of operating vehicles and optimises fleet performance,” adds Finnegan.

 

Steve Thomas, Managing Director of Inseego UK Ltd commented: “We have a growing number of technology partnerships that bring together complementary systems to provide added value and return on investment to our customers. This latest agreement with Pocket Box will enable fleets to dramatically reduces workload, cuts costs and eliminates human error, while keeping drivers safe, a business compliant and vehicles on the road.”

Business Advice, Logistics, News, Transport

What You Need to Know About Temperature-Controlled Shipping for Your Business

There are businesses in many industries that will require temperature-controlled shipping and the success of your business will depend on this. Therefore, it is important that those that require this service have a high degree of knowledge and know how to find the right service for their needs.

 

What is Temperature-Controlled Shipping

So, what exactly is temperature-controlled shipping? As the name suggests, this is the shipping of freight that must be kept within a certain temperature range. If goods are not kept at the right temperature, they could perish and become worthless resulting in major losses for a business. There are many different types of items that will need to be kept at a certain temperature during transit both hot and cold. These include:

  • Perishable food
  • Beverages
  • Medicines and medical supplies
  • Cosmetics and skincare items
  • Chemicals, paint and adhesives
  • Plants
  • Building materials

 

How Temperature-controlled Shippers Help the Supply Chain

It is clear that many popular and hugely important products require temperature-controlled shipping. This means that shipping companies that are able to provide temperature-controlled shipping plays a pivotal role in the supply chain (it is referred to as “cold chain”). Shipping companies that can provide this service need to do all that they can to ensure efficiency, which will be key for the success of clients and their customers. Temperature-controlled shipping companies need to provide full visibility so that orders can be tracked at each step, gain an insight into demand volatility and be strategic when it comes to inventory management.

If your business requires temperature-controlled shipping, it is important to research your options to find a shipping company that you can rely on. In addition to temperature-controlled shipping, you may also require same-day delivery and need to compare your options for this.

 

Cold Chain Best Practices

Due to the fact that breakdowns in the cold chain can result in significant loss and harm to businesses, it is important that best practices are used throughout the supply chain. The main best practices involve selecting experts in temperature-controlled shipping at every stage of the supply chain and establishing capacity needs in advance as these can change with each shipment. Additionally, processes should be standardised so that all parties know what is expected – this is particularly key for spoilage risk events, such as loading and unloading the vehicle.

Temperature-controlled shipping is key in many industries and businesses need to ensure that this is an area of the business that does not let them down. Shipping temperature-sensitive goods can be a risk, but when you know how to find a reliable shipping company and employ best practices throughout the supply chain, you can enjoy peace of mind knowing that your important inventory is being stored correctly and properly handled at each step of the way.

Automotive, Logistics, News, North of England

The Zenith and Tiger Trailers relationship continues to strengthen as the manufacturer’s supply nears 500 assets following the latest orders

The relationship between Zenith Trailer Rentals and Tiger Trailers continues to strengthen following the Cheshire manufacturer’s supply of an additional 250 semi-trailers of differing types during 2022 which, when joined by the initial orders placed for 2023, will take the size of the Tiger Trailers fleet that Zenith operates to over 500 vehicles.

Tiger’s supply of trailers to Zenith commenced during 2021, with one hundred tandem axle box vans plus sixty tri axle curtainsiders finished in the livery of the nationwide joinery and furniture end user they were destined for.

During 2022, Tiger has manufactured a significant further volume of trailers for Zenith, comprised an additional one hundred and fifty unbranded tri axle single deck curtainsiders and one hundred curtainsided double deck step-frame trailers with wraparound curtains for operational versatility, some of which carry the branding of a major pet retailer.

The double deck trailers’ bolted decks can be set to any of three positions, prioritising the upper or lower deck, or splitting them 50:50, thus making them ideal for the pallet network amongst other environments. Their roofs slope downwards at the front for aerodynamic and fuel-saving purposes, and the trailers’ bespoke load-securing specification includes the fitment of kites, with straps incorporated at the rear to enable the tying back of the curtains. The double deck trailers will predominantly operate out of Zenith’s Carrington depot to the west of Manchester.

The partnership between the two companies is set to continue strongly, with Zenith having placed its first Tiger Trailers orders for 2023. Earlier on in 2022, Tiger Trailers’ production lines passed a milestone and the manufacturer’s 10,000th trailer was built for Zenith.

Phil Rodman, Managing Director of Zenith Trailer Rentals, says: “We have developed a close and valued working relationship with Tiger Trailers over the last two years and are very pleased with the quality of the trailers manufactured in time and in full manner. The Tiger Trailers assets were built to our exact requirements and form an important part of our sizeable and versatile rental fleet of over 50,000 heavy commercial vehicles, and we look forward to continuing to grow our relationship with Tiger throughout 2023 and beyond.”

Part of the company’s Commercial division, Zenith Trailer Rentals, the trading name of Contract Vehicle Rentals Limited, has a 22% share of the UK articulated trailer hire market. Headquartered in Leeds and employing over 1,250 people, Zenith’s vision is to decarbonise the UK vehicle parc by eliminating tailpipe emissions. The Group has also joined the EV100 global initiative to tackle the electric transport transition, reduce air pollution and combat climate change.

Darren Holland, Sales Director at Tiger Trailers, comments: “We are proud to be supporting Zenith in manufacturing a diverse range of articulated trailers for their fleet, tailored to the required specifications. Tiger’s efficient production practices and continuous investment enable us to build large quantities of trailers to relatively expedient lead times. It’s a pleasure to work closely with Phil and the wider Zenith team and we look forward to continuing to support them over the coming months and years.”

Tiger Trailers is one of the UK’s leading semi-trailer and rigid bodywork manufacturers and operates from a state-of-the-art factory complex including a customer showroom. The company builds the full range of products including moving double decks, temperature-controlled trailers, flatbeds and demounts. The manufacturer’s CSR and ESG initiatives from solar panels and car chargers to tree planting are complemented by the Tiger Safety Team and the road safety programme it delivers to schools.

Logistics, Logistics Tech, News

Where’s Santa now?

 Omniflex takes a tongue in cheek look at how they’d keep Santa on course with remote monitoring 

Santa’s World ‘o’ meter estimates that the current global population stands at just over eight billion — this is approximately 526 million children celebrating Christmas, hoping to open presents on December 25. To ensure all children receive their Christmas presents on time, the logistics elves at Santa’s Workshop Inc. approached remote monitoring specialist Omniflex to monitor Santa’s journey around the globe and check the reliability of his sleigh in real-time.

For many years, Santa Claus has relied on manual methods, like basic map reading, to help him circumnavigate the world to deliver presents. Furthermore, Santa must carry out regular visual checks to ensure his sleigh doesn’t fall apart on his long journey. During his 2019 run, hundreds of thousands of children received their presents late, with families in the Scottish Highlands reporting his arrival as they were sitting down for Christmas dinner! Furthermore, manual methods were posing a safety risk for Santa, who almost crashed his reindeer into the Swiss Alps while reading his map.

“At times, it was chaos,” explained Santa Claus, founder and CEO of Santa’s Workshop Inc. “Children were receiving their packages late and my reindeer were getting fatigued from all the detours and sleigh check stops we were having to make. It’s not easy to assess the condition of your sleigh during blizzards — especially after all the sherry and mince pies!”

To streamline the process, Santa’s elves hatched a plan to integrate cloud-based remote monitoring onto the metal legs of the sleigh, so that GPS location and strain and pressure readings could be taken in real-time, 24/7. The data would be transmitted to radio Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) and monitored using the cloud-based data logging software, Data2Desktop. To provide the solution, they turned to Omniflex for help.

Remote monitoring of Santa’s sleigh provides several benefits. Firstly, cloud-based remote monitoring platforms provide a single, easy-to-access repository for all live and historical location data, allowing elves to track Santa’s journey and keep him on course. Secondly, all abnormal events can be reported directly via email or SMS to all relevant personnel without delay. For example, if the incorrect positioning of the presents in Santa’s sleigh causes excessive strain and pressure, Santa and his elves will immediately be notified. This ensures that the necessary repairs can be carried out before major damage is done.

What’s more, if Santa gets stuck in a chimney delaying his journey, the GPS monitoring will help the elves redirect him onto a faster route. Remote monitoring is also great for auditing purposes and will help Santa plan his journey better in future years.

“We’ve seen a huge difference in efficiency on Christmas Eve night since working with Omniflex,” explained Candice Kane, head elf at Santa’s workshop. “Through the IT elves monitoring his progress, Santa is kept on course and children across the world receive their presents on time.”

To ensure that your operations are running as efficiently as Santa’s sleigh, visit www.omniflex.com.