ADVERTORIAL
VISIBILITY KEY FOR SMOOTH OPERATIONS Ensuring supply chains run smoothly with clear visibility for all stakeholders is critical for the transport sector. Traffic and roading challenges, last-minute changes, multiple communication channels and site congestion can all cause major headaches for transport operators.
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ndrew Smith, general manager of M2X New Zealand, says utilising a transport management system provides all parties in the transport supply chain with transparency, reducing the risk of unwanted surprises. “The M2X system provides consistency, helping carriers and the enterprises who work with them to digitise and optimise their transport flows,” he says. “It makes it easier for carriers and enterprises to work together to be more efficient. This means fewer kilometres driven on roads and less time taken, which is better for everyone.”
106 New Zealand Trucking
July 2022
Visibility When operating a complex supply chain, businesses can experience multiple pain points, including disparate communication channels, manual interventions and workarounds, as well as site congestion, causing inefficiencies for them and their carriers. The M2X system is designed to resolve these issues. “All information is in one system, which is then available to all the parties in the supply chain,” says Smith. “The visibility – this transparency of information – addresses one of the key pain points for companies. “We help improve the efficiency of a fleet. This means we optimise the
capacity of the available trucks because of their ability to group jobs together and get that information to a driver in an efficient manner, meaning they are potentially earning more dollars per kilometre they drive,” he says. “With a booking slot system, carriers can see how busy sites are in real-time. Instead of getting to a site to unload or load products and waiting, they get to digitally ‘peek over the fence’ to see how busy the site is at certain times. They can then either book in a spot or go in when that site has time to serve them, which means companies can utilise that truck better.” “If you’re waiting at a job for two hours, it can affect all the other jobs you’ve got that day. What would have been waiting time is now another job, and this allows fleet operators to plan more effectively.”
A win-win New Zealand’s oldest fertiliser co-operative, Ballance Agri-Nutrients, operates a network of 36 service centres, four hub stores, 90 consignment
