Boosting visibility and secure

A view of the more than 200,000 assets tracked in real time by ghTrack. Jesper B. Bennike – Ceo, GateHouse logistics, Søren Danielsen – Strategic Accounts and Business Development.

Boosting VisiBiLity

and sEcurE data sHaring

Gatehouse Logistics, a specialist in providing tracking solutions to the transportation industry, offers Europe’s most secure data distribution platform, ghTrack®. The service is fully compatible with Industry 4.0, providing better visibility and security to all stakeholders. In the haulage sector, where subcontracting is a widespread practice, the importance of data ownership is of huge importance and will continue to rise, as Mette Lilkær, Strategic Sales & Marketing Manager, explained to Romana Moares.

mette Dietz lilkær – Strategic Sales & marketing manager: “Today, the service is europe’s most secure data distribution platform and one of the most widely used.”

Gatehouse’s unique, 20-year experience in providing marine tracking solutions has been successfully transferred into the transport and logistics sector, infamous for its fragmentary nature both in terms of its high volume of subcontracting and the deployment of over 600 different tracking systems in the EU alone. The core mission of Gatehouse Logistics is therefore to unify and aggregate data to offer integrated and independent tracking that would provide transparency and visibility throughout the entire supply chain.

Gatehouse Logistics has focused on developing a unique system, the ghTrack. It is a modular DaaS and SaaS service, unifying data from more than 400 tracking systems including GPS, ELD (Electronic Logging Device) and telematics across a vast array of assets – trucks, trailers, containers, ships, rail, etc. – with a single aim: to provide freight and logistics visibility.

“We have now begun the roll out of the ghTrack cloud service. It is a disruptive technology that is brand new; not everybody is ready to share everything on the cloud but this is where we are heading. The service brings sanity to data distribution in the supply chain, unifying data from hundreds of different telematics systems and thousands of carriers and presents them as one data stream,” explains Mette Lilkær. “Today, the service is Europe’s most secure data distribution platform and one of the most widely used.”

She further explains that the uniqueness of the ghTrack service rests on two aspects: neutrality and automation. “We are completely independent of any stakeholder or hardware solutions. This enables us to operate in a market that is extremely fragmented. The ghTrack collects and shares data between all parties – often competitors one day and partners the next. Being neutral, we are able to handle data from different systems and companies and share that data with the industry, while at the same time ensuring the sovereignty of data. The second great advantage is that once carriers and telematics systems are connected, everything in the service runs automatically.”

The benefits are manifold and include better control and improved freight visibility. “Carriers don’t need to spend hours on the phone providing shippers with updates on delivery times. We were ahead with increased focus on data protection – about a year ago we started sending carriers a ‘Bill of Rights’ so that they know exactly what they are getting, what they can expect from the system, and how their data is handled and protected,” says Mrs Lilkær.

The world of Industry 4.0

With increasing robotisation and digitalisation across all industry sectors, it seems that Gatehouse Logistics has come up with the right service at the right time. Data sharing between data providers and data subscribers is essential to make the vision of industry 4.0 come

ghTrack data sharing service transforms data from all diverse telematics systems into one unified and logical data stream that can easily be integrated into any business system.

a reality, and this calls for a neutral data intermediator like Gatehouse Logistics. “Each year, the amount of data being circulated doubles as a result of the arrival of IoT, Industry 4.0 and Big Data,” confirms Mrs Lilkær. “The ghTrack is Industry 4.0 compatible. This means that it will work with all the new supply chain systems that 3PLs and 4PLs will use in the future. The ghTrack provides support to smart factories relying on connected manufacturing systems and helps to ensure end-to-end integration and visibility through the entire value chain.”

Full visibility in the supply chain is key, especially for car manufacturers who need to have access to information about parts stock at the factory, at the subcontractors, and even stock on the road. Gatehouse Logistics works with a major automotive manufacturer for whom the ghTrack has proven invaluable in terms of managing and tracking its long-distance deliveries in a Just-In-Sequence (JIS) mode.

“One of the giants in the automotive industry, Magna, the worldwide leading brand and an independent engineering and manufacturing partner for OEMs, is using our ghTrack service to develop a blueprint for the supply chain at their Steyr factory in Austria. The ghTrack service enables Magna to run their operation as JIS Logistics, the benefit being that its robots and workforce are being constantly fed with the right parts at the right time,” says Mrs Lilkær.

Global reach

The automotive is by no means the only sector increasingly looking at cloud-based solutions. Mrs Lilkær explains that the main industry Gatehouse Logistics supports now is e-commerce, with great potential also arising in retail, chemical and high value goods transportation. “Ownership of data will be more and more in focus in the coming months in view of the GDPR. One of our focus points is to enable carriers to view the movements and position of their own assets through ghTrack. We are fully prepared for this secure data sharing and distribution,” she confirms, adding that the service also supports sustainability and helps companies to document their carbon footprint and reduce the so-called ‘empty miles’.

Although Europe, and particularly Germany, is still the key territory for Gatehouse Logistics, the company started to increase its presence in the USA last year and plans to reinforce its business there. “The year 2018 will see us developing business blocks with customers and specifically partners in other markets as well. Our vision is to become the de facto secure data distribution service for the entire supply chain across all geographic markets. We’ve taken the first steps and brought our disruptive technology to the European logistics industry. Now we will accelerate our outreach worldwide.”

Gatehouse Logistics is part of Gatehouse Group, a provider of software solutions for optimisations, flexibility and mission critical operations within tracking, monitoring and satellite communication. Founded in 1992 by the current CEO, Michael Bondo Andersen, the company has grown into a well-known international player in the software industry with customers on all continents.

The group has three wholly-owned subsidiaries: Gatehouse Logistics, providing tracking solutions to the transportation industry; Gatehouse Telecom for satellite communications, consulting and services; and Gatehouse Maritime, providing tracking solutions to maritime authorities, coastguards, ports and related businesses.