If the office is located in Bremen, the head of administration in Munich and a chief dispatcher in Celle, then digitalization is already well advanced in this company. We are talking about Truck & Rail Containerlogistik, which specializes in multimodal sea container transport. "Digitizing our processes is one of the ways in which we can streamline our processes and reduce our costs in the long term. We can exert influence here, which is not possible for us with many external influences," says Managing Director Thorben Kuhn.

Since 2018, the freight forwarder has been using the CS Connect transport management system from Cargo Support, which is installed at twelve workstations here. The electronic pre-announcement of containers via the TR02 interface to the container terminals in the Port of Hamburg and the slot booking procedure based on this, which has been mandatory since 2017, were the decisive factors for introducing the software. Slot allocation for the collection and delivery of containers avoids handling peaks and the trucks can be distributed more evenly throughout the day.

"With the size of our order volume, slot allocation can no longer be booked manually and with CS Connect we were able to completely automate this process," explains Managing Director Raimund Brunner, who had very specific additional requirements for the transport management system (TMS). "The software should send the orders to our drivers on their mobile devices, who then print out the waybills in the vehicle," explains Brunner, adding: "This saves our dispatchers having to send printed documents when loading our almost 70 vehicles in local and long-distance transport."

Convinced drivers

To make this work, the drivers have the CS Drive driver app developed by Cargo Support, which can be installed on any Android smartphone or tablet. It guides the driver step by step through the respective order and enables all the necessary documents to be called up if required. Before a new container is picked up, it must be scanned with the driver's smartphone. The same applies to the interchange papers, which provide a detailed description of the external condition of a container when it is handed over. "Our drivers are now convinced of the benefits of the app, especially as they no longer have to wait at the container terminals thanks to the slot booking," reports Kuhn.

Truck & Rail has come up with something very special to train drivers as efficiently as possible. In close cooperation with Cargo Support, a learning tool was developed with which clear video instructions for the correct use of CS Drive can be called up. "This has made it much easier for us to train new drivers," emphasizes Brunner.

Facilitated cooperation

Other adjustments that have been made specifically for Truck & Rail include extended text columns for comments in order processing. "This makes handovers easier, especially for colleagues in the home office, by providing them with comprehensive information on the individual orders," says Brunner, who has now commissioned a whole series of individual changes from Cargo Support.

Truck & Rail currently still records the 120 or so daily orders manually, but this is also to be simplified in future by means of interfaces to the customers' ERP systems. In the first step, four of the total of around 50 customers are to be connected to CS Connect so that the order data can be transferred directly to the TMS. "This will significantly reduce the amount of data entry required, although the data will still have to be checked for completeness," explains Kuhn. However, Truck & Rail has largely automated this effort with the "Order Complete" function developed by Cargo Support. Order Complete checks the orders for completeness and independently requests missing information by e-mail. The solution also creates clear lists with all missing data.

Splitting journeys

The freight forwarder uses another feature of CS Connect for around 30 intermodal orders every day, which involve several subcontractors, inland waterway vessels or rail. These are container transports from a port to the hinterland or in the opposite direction, for which the truck only plays a role in the last mile. In order to display and bill these journeys digitally, they can be split into any number of parts using CS Connect. "This function has long been part of the standard scope of Cargo Support, especially as the software is also used by many other container logistics companies with the same challenges," explains Brunner.

The widespread use of CS Connect in the container industry has another useful effect: cooperation and the digital exchange of orders is significantly simplified when both partners use the same IT system. Truck & Rail also benefits from this.

With CS Connect, Truck & Rail Containerlogistik has opted for a TMS that can be used to display all of the Bremen-based freight forwarder's processes. The company has been making good progress in this regard since 2018. "So far, we have already digitized around 60 percent of our processes," estimates Brunner, who already has the next steps in mind. These include, for example, setting up customer interfaces or sending invoices electronically with all associated documents. When printing invoices with CS Connect, it is possible to automatically check whether user-defined documents are archived for the invoice. These are then automatically attached to the e-mail with the invoice.