September 4, 2018 – The Gerdes + Landwehr Group has been using the telematics solution WEBFLEET from TomTom Telematics in its fleet since 2006. In conjunction with the opheo transport control station from Solvares Logistics, the company has now been dispatching at a new level within the industry since February 2018 – fully automatic tour planning, digital tachograph and forecasting function make it possible.
Gerdes + Landwehr’s customers typically include building material manufacturers in the logistics and building materials sector. “We specialize in powdery products – i.e. everything that is needed in construction for cement-bound or lime-bound products right through to tile adhesive,” says John-Henrik Landwehr, Managing Director of the company, outlining the field of activity. The company operates in Germany and the Benelux countries from Sulingen and Beckum. Around 200 employees work in this area of the company.
Available programs no help for dispatchers
With the decision in favor of WEBFLEET, Gerdes + Landwehr recognized the advantages of a telematics solution at an early stage. A total of one hundred vehicles – almost exclusively silo vehicles and a few tippers – are equipped with TomTom PRO terminals and LINK boxes. “In our business, in addition to pure transport, it’s always about information. Where are my vehicles? How are they moving? That is immensely important,” says Managing Director John-Henrik Landwehr. But the entrepreneur wanted even more: As early as 2008, Gerdes + Landwehr carried out initial internal studies on the subject of dispatch support. The programs available at the time were able to demonstrate considerable computing power, but did not help the dispatchers. The necessary information was simply lacking. “It was essential that driving, rest and working times were only available in the analog tachograph. This data was in the vehicle, but nowhere else. Telematics could not use it,” Landwehr recalls. It was not until the increasing digitization of remote download tools made driving, rest and working times available in real time at any location that Landwehr considered a renewed search worthwhile. Accordingly, the company began to survey the market again in 2017 and examine various options.
Dispatch in the silo sector still almost everywhere as 30 years ago
The aim was to provide urgently needed support in the area of dispatch. Landwehr estimates that dispatch in the silo sector still takes place almost everywhere as it did 30 years ago. As a result, it lags far behind today’s technical possibilities. “Algorithms that also process all legal driving and rest time issues for the future were not available for a long time. However, we wanted to relieve the dispatcher of the manual mental arithmetic and give him a helpful tool.” With sixty vehicles a day, an employee is no longer able to plan, calculate and check thousands of variants in his head – each with exact kilometers and driving and rest times. In addition, Gerdes + Landwehr focused on discovering and leveraging the potential slumbering in dispatch. “If you perform a large calculation in your head, you are always slower. And the more complex the topic, the more ineffective it is.” This means that optimization opportunities are ultimately lost or the dispatcher makes the wrong decision due to high time pressure. Short driving times could be better avoided.
The automation of dispatch
In February 2017, the first contact was made with Solvares Logistics. After a presentation of the opheo transport control station, the decision at Gerdes + Landwehr was made very quickly, so that the implementation project could be started in autumn 2017. The high level of competence in the area of fully automated dispatch support and the connection to WEBFLEET spoke in favor of Solvares Logistics and opheo. In addition to the opheo Dispo-Cockpit and opheo Mobile, the delivery app installed on the TomTom Driver Terminals, Gerdes + Landwehr today uses three opheo+ services that are of central importance for the automation of dispatch: “First of all, there is the ixOptimizer, which is used for automatic tour planning,” explains Dr. Stefan Anschütz, member of the board and founder of initions AG, now Solvares Logistics. “In addition, there is real-time tachograph data, which we use in conjunction with WEBFLEET to be able to use the data from the digital tachographs for opheo and thus for dispatch. And finally, the forecasting function, with which Gerdes + Landwehr can plan ahead – also based on the WEBFLEET data.” In this way, opheo determines the status situation of the drivers for the next few hours and can check, among other things, whether the driver’s driving time is still sufficient for the planned tour.
60,000 tour plans per minute
In day-to-day business, opheo is able to plan and calculate a complete dispatch every minute. “That means, if I let it run for sixty seconds, the algorithms calculate sixty thousand dispatch plans that approximate an optimum,” Landwehr estimates. This makes it possible to check the utilization rate of all vehicles over the entire course of the day. This is particularly relevant because customers in the building materials sector today order eighty percent for tomorrow. Accordingly, Gerdes + Landwehr has to deal with a relatively volatile and therefore unsteady order volume – every day anew.
Optimized tour planning at the touch of a button
The transport orders at Gerdes + Landwehr are first processed in the ERP system Navision from Microsoft (Microsoft Dynamics NAV). Opheo accesses it via the open Navision interface and records all orders. The dispatchers then plan the individual tours using the software. “This is where the ixOptimizer comes into play. At the touch of a button, it automatically creates a tour proposal – i.e. which vehicle takes over the transport, in which order, etc.,” explains Dr. Anschütz from initions AG, now Solvares Logistics, the basic principle. Before the introduction of opheo, dispatchers had to spend a lot of time playing through all possible and impossible options in their heads. This is now faster and brings productivity advantages.
When the tour planning is complete, the data is sent digitally from opheo via the mobile network to the opheo MOBILE app on the TomTom Driver Terminals in the vehicles. When a driver starts his tour, he can use it to carry out the order and transfer the address data of the next stop into the TomTom Navigation with a fingertip from the Mobile App from opheo. While he is doing this, WEBFLEET collects information on the vehicle, its position and the status of the digital tachograph in the silo vehicle in the background. WEBFLEET returns this collected knowledge to opheo.
Driving time bottlenecks in the next few hours
The dispatcher can not only see in opheo how much remaining driving time the driver still has at the current time. opheo also checks for him in parallel whether the planning is still valid and actively points out possible driving time bottlenecks in the next few hours. Mental arithmetic is no longer necessary. In addition, opheo warns and informs about impending delays and late deliveries. In this way, the dispatcher can inform the customer or – if still possible – reschedule and send another vehicle to the customer on time. “opheo permanently enriches the original planning with the actual data from WEBFLEET and thus gives the dispatcher important decision-making aids,” summarizes Dr. Anschütz.
Digital delivery notes and accompanying documents relieve drivers
The driver is also noticeably relieved in his daily work, as the entire process is digital. He only has to confirm a few status messages in the opheo MOBILE App. Primarily, it is about whether he can already unload at the unloading point or has to wait. All further status changes are automatically recognized via so-called geo-fencing. For a transitional period, Gerdes + Landwehr still runs all accompanying documents and delivery notes in parallel. “We will continue to do this for a while because it is a necessary accompanying document for transport in Germany,” says Landwehr. When the transport documents are fully accepted electronically everywhere, the customer signs on the TomTom PRO Driver Terminal, just as you know it from the parcel carrier. The signature is then digitally stored on the delivery note, which can be sent and archived.
