Source: Wegtransport Management - March 2004

'If Wolter Koops has it, we want it as well'

Good results for open platform on-board computer

Do we really need on-board computers? “Well, yes and no”, thought logistics service provider Wolter Koops. We do not need them to register driving times or to process trip reports. But we do need them to provide our customers and our own dispatching department with up-to-date details about our vehicle fleet. After an in-depth preliminary study, Wolter Koops decided to equip its vehicles with on-board computers, provided integration into Koops' management system was feasible. The latter was the decisive factor in all this.

Logistics service provider Wolter Koops was founded in 1961, when Wolter Koops started transporting general cargo with one single truck. Currently, the company, which is led by Wolter Koops himself and his four sons, owns 200 vehicles and employs 250 people. In addition to its headquarters in Zeewolde, the Netherlands, the company is building a logistics centre in Germany. Wolter Koops has thus developed into an international logistics service provider, offering a complete services package, ranging from refrigerated transport and distribution to warehousing. Every day, goods are shipped to various destinations in Europe, focusing mainly on Germany and the United Kingdom. In addition, Wolter Koops carries out the maintenance of its cooling units and trucks under its own management and for its own account. “In this way, we are less dependent on third parties and, as a result, much more flexible. It allows us to optimize the use of our vehicles”, Wolter Koops jr. explained.

Optimization is also the reason why Wolter Koops had been considering installing on-board computers for some time now. Besides ensuring a more efficient use of the trucks, on-board computers also enable companies to provide their customers with value-added services: accurate information. “We were looking to buy an on-board computer system that could be seamlessly integrated into our existing Nachon back-office software to perform the tracking and tracing activities for us”, said Koops. “It is important for customers to know the position of our trucks and the current status of the shipments. In the past, we had to track the trucks by phone. Nowadays, all the required information is available right on our computer display. This implies that we can also react more swiftly to possible problems and keep the customer abreast of any changes in delivery.”

Tracking & tracing

On-board computers were launched in the late eighties. “At that time, on-board computers provided clear and reliable information for automatic time and trip registration”, clarified Allard Pomstra, quality manager at Wolter Koops. "These first generation, on-board computers were of little use to Walter Koops as we had our own system to perform these tasks, which worked very well. In addition, a smooth integration of those on-board computers with our back-office software was impossible. We would not be out ‘shopping for a solution' until a fully integrated solution came along that would allow us to track and trace our fleet at the dispatching level.”

Test stage

It was Transics that introduced such on-board computers in 2001. Pomstra: “After a painstaking selection, we decided Transics' Quattro was the on-board computer that could best be linked to our planning system. The concept of on-board computers was, however, entirely new to us and we did not have any past experience of Transics, as a supplier. Consequently, we decided to do a test first. We equipped ten vehicles with an on-board computer. This test phase allowed us - before the entire fleet would be equipped – to try out the various on-board computer functions and check whether the system offered the requisite stability and reliability to meet our requirements.”

"For us too, the order from Wolter Koops was a pioneering project although we already had twelve years' experience in on-board computers”, admitted Adri Faber, account manager at Transics. “Wolter Koops chose our new generation of on-board computers with Windows CE. It is only logical that a few things need perfecting the first time you implement a new system. In addition, some tailor-made work is always required. The test phase was ideal to pinpoint the possible gaps between our solution and the customer's particular needs. Thanks to a close collaboration during the test phase, our people and the Wolter Koops staff were quickly on the same wavelength.”

Project guidance

As the results of the test were positive and no serious difficulties were encountered, Wolter Koops decided to equip its entire fleet with Quattro on-board computers. “To successfully implement and integrate 200 on-board computers, a faultless organization and a strict planning are required. You have to free up time, people and resources for such a complex job and in the beginning that's not easy”, Pomstra underlined. "Already during the integration stage, we discovered that the project would not be a simple one. Fortunately, our own technical services team did a great job. After that, it took us over a year to connect Transics' on-board computer software with our Nachon back-office software successfully.”

"Not every project takes as long as a year", Faber continued. "But Wolter Koops was one of the first customers to implement this solution and we had to join forces and work hard to make the implementation a success. As the possibilities of an open platform on-board computer are very extensive, it is much more than an out-of-the-box solution that you simply purchase and install. The Internet and software programmers of the back-office platform were also involved in the project. In fact, it's a never-ending process; you continue to make improvements and changes, all the time.”

“An on-board computer also places new demands on one's staff”, added Koops. “A new system implies a new way of working and your staff has to be willing to cooperate. It's a whole new mindset. If the new solution does not work as it should right away, the odds are that people will soon revert to the old, tried and trusted method, without the on-board computer. In addition, we were afraid that our drivers would regard the on-board computer as a threat. But, on the contrary, they immediately accepted the new system. That success is undoubtedly attributable to, among other things, the ‘hands-on' guidance they got, both from us and from the Transics consultants. Driver guidance has been largely instrumental to the success of this project.”

Positive results

What benefits did the integration of the on-board computers bring for Wolter Koops? "A much more structured provision and handling of information, resulting in more efficient processes and more up-to-date feedback on what is happening out on the road”, answered Koops. “But this is not all… The system provides, for example, a detailed overview of fuel consumption, which helps us to better check our invoices. Another major advantage lies in the field of packaging. During the implementation stage, we integrated a packaging registration solution into the Quattro platform. Our transhipment activities imply a high flow – and return flow – of empty packaging. Now that the on-board computer takes care of that flow, we gain an up-to-date insight into the unpaid balances at the customers' end, into the types and amount of packaging our drivers unload and the empty packaging they bring back. As an extra service, we offer our customers the possibility of tracking the current status of their loads and the empties on their own PC.”

And there's much more on Wolter Koops wishlist. “In fact, we'd like to shift from communication via SMS to GPRS-based communications”, explained Pomstra, “as the advantages of GPRS are numerous: you can send and receive larger databases, the updates of the on-board computer software can be sent through the ether (remote updating), you get much faster access to information and, last but not least, communications through GPRS are much cheaper.”

Faber: “If you're satisfied with the functionality you have, that is fine. But if you want more, the possibilities of on-board computers are infinite as advances in technology are following one another at a phenomenal rate. In the near future it will, for example, be possible to read the temperature in the cargo hold via GPRS at the dispatching office. For a company like Wolter Koops, this is an important new development, as the food they ship has to meet increasingly strict criteria. Consequently, we have agreed to test this temperature control feature at Wolter Koops in the near future.”

"We often hear logistics companies say: ‘ we want what Wolter Koops has' ”, laughed Faber. “I believe that we are indeed a trendsetter, within our sector, but for us automation is nothing but a series of logical steps to increasingly automate our operations”, concluded Koops jr. “Transics' on-board computers fits in perfectly with that chosen strategy.”