EPO-Trans

Within Polish transportation industry EPO-Trans is perceived as strong brand with long tradition and history. Piotr Ozimek, the company owner, through decades has built a recognizable business based on wise management, consistence, and work ethics. The firm still keeps its family character despite ever-growing size. Today, EPO-Trans’ fleet counts 290 trucks and 335 trailers. One of the factors determining the company success is its openness to innovations. A terrific example, recently, is fleet extension with LNG-fueled vehicles. The goal is to have no less than 40% of entire fleet powered by LNG which will lead to approximately 10% decrease of operational costs. In order to meet the goal, EPO-Trans even started to build its own network of LNG stations!

Recently part of management duties, especially those touching new technologies, has been ceded to Owner’s daughter Anna Ozimek-Stanuch. It was her who identified a bunch of processes to optimize within the firm. Seeking for the solution, she extended the long-lasting cooperation with frameLOGIC.

Always striving for excellence

EPO-Trans has been using frameLOGIC telematics for almost 15 years now. From this close cooperation originates a solution we call today TMS frameLOGIC. But Anna Ozimek-Stanuch is constantly looking for optimization. Despite wide spectrum of IT solutions already supporting most of the company departments, she noticed 4 flawed processes. These are:

1. Customers’ requirements related to reporting and on-time delivery
2. Planning routes and control if they were executed exactly as planned
3. Long time from unloading to invoicing
4. Long and tiresome process of manual orders entry from key customer

EPO-Trans and frameLOGIC carried out together a consulting project on the abovementioned processes and concluded it with implementation of new system modules.

Best of both worlds: ready to use + custom-made solutions

Routes planning and verification, on-time delivery and long period from unloading to invoicing issues were solved with standard frameLOGIC modules: mobile solutions for drivers and tunneling. Drivers have been equipped with mobile terminals running frameLOGIC software inside. The devices facilitate two-way communication between drivers and dispatchers, including sending all the details and requirements of the given freight. They also feature taking photos of CMR with corresponding documents and receiving routes predefined by dispatcher with all necessary information which might be helpful on the road.

Bigger challenge was automation of the transport ordering process. One of the key customers of EPO-Trans is global white goods manufacturer. Their transports were ordered before by external intermediary logistics platform which generated significant costs. EPO-Trans decided to craft a direct integration with the customers’ systems. It bridged the gap and now it automatically imports order into TMS frameLOGIC. This custom integration consists of GPS positioning, notifications systems, unloading confirmations and ETA to strategic waypoints. The last element supports both parties. The loader receives necessary information, so he can better plan internal processes and the carrier can remotely control freight KPIs, i.e. loading and unloading times, estimated time of arrival, truck notification, etc.

Immediate results and bright long-term perspective

Implementations at such a big scale are always complicated. Training of over 400 drivers itself, trying not to disturb their daily duties, was very time consuming. Yet, just after 1st stage of implementation it was clear that the results are here. Having immediate scans of documents, EPO-Trans can issue an invoice just after unloading is done. It is several days earlier then before! And every day counts as it directly translates into thousands of PLNs in savings.

Tunneling brings savings and optimization based on efficient routes planning and verification. With routes templates client noticeably shortened time required for finding the best routes for freights. Designated employees prepare optimal templates for short sections and planners subsequently use them to create the best possible routes.

A surprising fact was that drivers themselves were involved in creation of new reporting schemes. This team clearly signalized that certain events in the process have to be registered, because they were problematic, and dispatchers were not aware of them. Drivers got used to communication through mobile devices so much that today they expect it to be the only way of communicating!

Strenuous implementation process and significant investment have not been made just to make employees happy. The key driver influencing the decision to go further with frameLOGIC was savings it can generate. Direct connection with key customer’s platform, shorter time from unloading to invoicing, and routes optimizations will provide ROI within 2 years. Every month afterwards will generate tens of thousands PLN of savings.