Synda provides the link for tanks

SPREAD THE JOY

DIGITISATION • DUTCH IT SPECIALIST SYNDA IS ON A MISSION TO ADD VALUE TO THE TANK CONTAINER MARKET BY PROVIDING SEAMLESS AND IMMEDIATE DATA TRANSFER BETWEEN ALL PARTIES

TANK CONTAINERS OPERATE both internationally and intermodally and, as a result, there can be a large number of parties involved in any supply chain. Furthermore, a tank in international transport is often unaccompanied, meaning it has to speak for itself if those responsible for its movement have any chance of knowing where it is and when it is due at its next milestone.

Although this has been well recognised for many years, getting all parties together to share information in real time has been a problem. There are plenty of issues – not just trust between the players and the role of the platform that forms the basis of communication between them, but also the lack of standardisation in IT systems. A new and neutral entrant to the market now seems to be gaining some traction.

The tank container supply chain will involve a consignor and a consignee, as well as the tank container operator – possibly lessor as well – along with the transport company or companies involved in the movement, tank depots, cleaning and repair stations and inspection bodies. Synda, established by a Netherlands-based IT developer Dutch Grit, aims to change the information exchange model from one-to-one to one-to-many, allowing seamless exchange of data between all parties, whether they themselves are members of Synda’s network.

WHAT THEY SAY Among the early examples of Synda’s approach involves Peacock Container, a major tank lessor, and Bureau Veritas (BV), which provides Peacock with testing, inspection and certification services. Peacock reports that, by using Synda’s platform, periodic test certificates generated by BV can be automatically uploaded into Peackock’s fleet management portal and made available to its cliens immediately. This reduces the possibility of errors being introduced during manual data transfer and “dramatically improves” the availability and reliability of critical documents.

“This connection, the first of its kind in our industry using Synda technology, was developed in close corporation with BV and Synda,” says Dirk Jan Journee, Peacock’s technical director. “The time between completion of tank testing, inspection and certification by BV and the moment the certificate is available to our customers has been reduced from days to hours. This provides great added value to our customers in a supply chain environment which is becoming more volatile and ad-hoc focused. We believe this connection will be the first of many similar steps to automate repetitive communication flows in our industry and create efficiencies for all parties involved throughout the chain.”

Sanne Bruyninckx, operations manager of BV in Belgium, adds: “Within the Transport & Logistics Division of Bureau Veritas we are also enthusiastic about the performance of the Synda platform and its ability to both speed up the availability of our vital technical inspection data and to reduce errors in data entry by avoiding manual replication of such data. We welcome any technical innovation to support and to facilitate our customers’ data access as much as possible.”

Steven Somer, product owner of Synda, explains further: “We are pleased to connect both BV and Peacock to the Synda valueadded network. Working with both teams was a great cooperation in our mission to simplify and optimise the data transfer between stakeholders in the tank container industry. The simplified process and minimalised cycle time allow for more efficiency. This is how we envision a tank container industry where all stakeholders can profit from the availability of tank container data.” peacockcontainer.com www.synda.global

NOW COOKING WITH GAS.

Fort Vale introduced the Liquid RAILTYT range in 2014 and was an immediate success - we have now launched the Gas RAILTYT range to complement it. The large scale of our UK factory, coupled with the latest production technology, gives us an unrivalled manufacturing capacity allowing us to keep even the largest wagon builders in Europe supplied with a range of equipment that is a byword for innovation and reliability. Manufactured in stainless steel (anything less increases the likelihood of corrosion) ensures longevity of equipment whilst minimising down time and M&R costs. The Y-valves have a lockable handle function for security and safety, whilst they are bellows operated and are rated to a MAWP of 30Bar - higher than any others on the market - which means you can relax for the present, and the future. Safety, reliability and significantly increased flow rates - all with global support from Fort Vale. Not every company can do this. Not every company is Fort Vale.