Relay Technical Transport, leaders in electronic equipment handling, have added Mandata’s new Arrivals Board software to their TMS system so that their customers can be given accurate ETAs ahead of each scheduled delivery.

“In former times,” explains Sales Director Daniel Rangecroft “our account managers would email customers each day with notice of an approximate AM or PM delivery. Meanwhile our customers’ installation engineers would coordinate their own schedules so they could arrive at the same time to install or commission the equipment – such as photocopiers, computers, vending machines and medical apparatus.”

This process, explains Daniel, was only just adequate and involved a lot of phone and email correspondence, which was time consuming and less than ideal from the customers’ point of view.

“We already were using Mandata’s comprehensive TMS system,” continues Daniel “but our customers were asking if our delivery service could mirror the real-time tracking accuracy of the home delivery parcel operators and we needed to rise to the challenge.”

Developed in close cooperation with Relay Technical Transport and other commercial transport operators, Mandata’s Arrivals Board mirrors the type of basic information found in an airport:  name, job number, scheduled arrival, actual arrival. This enables the service team to keep a running check on all movements and in turn, make sure their engineers and customers are all in the loop.

“With a mixed fleet of 67 HGV and LGV vehicles making over 200,000 deliveries and collections per year,” says Daniel “we needed greater accuracy and a method of tracking each consignment in real time so our customers could be informed regarding current location and estimated time of arrival.”

In this regard, the Live Arrivals Board not only integrates with the customers’ portal to give real-time ‘track and trace’ ETAs but also identifies jobs at risk and provides exception alerts with instant email notification covering all aspects of the consignment delivery.

According to Relay Technical Transport, the new software tool has brought real-time operational visibility for all involved, while improving vehicle utilisation, optimising manpower, meeting demanding timescales and ultimately, reducing costs.

“We have been working with Mandata for 20 years” concludes Daniel Rangecroft, “and over this time their TMS has evolved to match the operational and administrative needs of our operation – mostly in tune with the needs of our customers. The new Arrivals Board is no exception and comes at just the right time, during the unprecedented pressures and demands currently challenging our transport world.”

From three locations, Coatbridge near Glasgow, Warrington and Iver near London, Relay Technical Transport handle the end-to-end process of planning, scheduling, installing, collecting, storage and movement of high value electronic equipment – with combined technical storage and warehousing facilities amounting to around 75,000 sq.ft..

Additionally, the company manages a freight forwarding operation with routes throughout Europe and to world-wide destinations. All consignments are monitored constantly and the company’s equipment handling policies are geared to meet and exceed all relevant government transport regulations.

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About the Author: John Loughran