With 80+ sessions across five tracks and amazing customer and partner speakers, Evolution 2018 reflects Descartes’ continued dedication to help our customers be more successful. One panel discussion on transportation management provided insights from Tim Motter, SAP Solutions Manager; Lance Healy, Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Banyan Technology; and Ken Wood, Executive Vice President, Product Management at Descartes and addressed questions from attendees in three areas: Competition and Growth; Market Conditions and Regulations; and Technology, Innovation and the Future.
New Jersey-based BASF Corporation is the second largest producer and marketer of chemicals and related products in North America. As its business has grown over the years, maintaining excellence in customer service has been a top priority for BASF. Driven by customer demand, the company wanted an automated tracking solution that would provide real-time updates for its bulk truck shipments—and determined the Descartes MacroPoint™ solution was the best fit for its operations.
Every once in a while, something really clever turns up... a while back, I came across an article on what3words. The founders of this service decided that the current methods of sharing locations and global coordinates are either too complicated (e.g., lat/long) to actually share easily, or too imprecise and subject to interpretation errors (e.g., postal addresses) to get people and products exactly where they need to be. With a big idea to make locations mnemonic- friendly and super precise, they overlaid the world with a grid of 3m x 3m squares (57 trillion of them) and assigned each square a three-word code.
Ferrellgas is a premier provider of propane throughout the United States. Since 2001, Ferrellgas has used the Descartes Route Planner™ solution to centralize routing for the delivery of propane to its residential, agricultural, industrial, and commercial customers nationwide. The company is now expanding the solution to its Blue Rhino division to fuel enhanced levels of customer service across its nationwide network for propane tank exchange.
Advanced TMS Capabilities Open Up New Opportunities
In speaking with customers over the last few months, we have seen a significant increase in transportation teams taking more control of their inbound freight. Historically, most of the return on investment (ROI) for transportation management systems (TMS) was focused on outbound transportation by optimizing across less than truckload (LTL)/truckload (TL) and cutting freight costs while creating increased visibility and customer service. Now, with the advent of cloud-based transportation management systems that support a wider range of modes (e.g. parcel, fleet, air and ocean) and better supplier connectivity, the opportunity to expand the use of TMS to reduce the cost of inbound shipments is greater than ever.
Headquartered in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Lancaster Farm Fresh Organics (LFFO) is a non-profit organic farmer’s cooperative of over 160 family farmers that provides fresh, certified organic fruits, vegetables, and other farm fresh products to wholesalers and through a subscription initiative also known as the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
3 Problems You Can Now Solve with a Transportation Management System (TMS)
The new generation of cloud-based transportation management systems (TMS) changes the way you think about their value to the organization and implementation strategy. You can now solve transportation problems more cost-effectively, and with faster payback than traditional TMS solutions. Advanced TMS capabilities and new architectures enable better support for multimodal transportation, stronger collaboration with carriers and suppliers, and more flexible deployment options.
SRS Distribution consists of a family of industry-leading independent roofing distributors that serve the professional roofing contractor. SRS has expanded rapidly through acquisition and the opening of multiple new locations since its February 2008 inception and has established itself as one of the fastest growing building products distribution companies in the U.S.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently released the final ruling on mandating electronic logbooks for commercial vehicle drivers working in the U.S. Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) [formerly Electronic On-Board Recorders (EOBRs)] monitor and record truck and bus operator compliance with hours of service (HOS) limitations set by the FMCSA.
Wayfair is one of the world's largest online destinations for home furnishings and décor. To enhance the customer experience from purchase through to final delivery while optimizing the use of delivery resources, Wayfair is expanding its deployment of Descartes’ home delivery solution. With the Descartes solution, Wayfair can automate delivery appointment scheduling, route planning, route execution and proof-of-delivery processes.
Rotech Healthcare is a national leader in providing respiratory and sleep apnea treatment as well as home medical equipment. Guided by a mission to deliver outstanding customer service and the very best in quality patient care, Rotech Healthcare has selected the cloud-based Descartes Route Planner™ On-demand software to automate planning, dispatch and data collection processes for its fleet delivering medical equipment and services to patients across the U.S.
Providing medical equipment and services direct to patients’ homes often involves significant complexity and transportation resources. By automating route planning and scheduling, Rotech Healthcare will be able to increase efficiency and drive down unnecessary logistics costs without sacrificing high quality service for customers. As the current tide of healthcare reform adds more margin pressure to the home medical equipment (HME) industry, Rotech is making key technology investments in its distribution and logistics operations to help support the service standards that customers expect while reducing fleet costs.
