On Day Two of Home Delivery World 2013, TNT Post’s Dimitri Wams took the stage to discuss all-inclusive e-shipping to Europe.

Download his presentation here to read more >

During his part of the Customers Without Borders  segment, Dimitri spoke on:

•    Opportunities in the market of the European Union
•    E-commerce activity in the E.U.
•    Cross-border e-commerce in the European Union
•    Potential of cross-border e-commerce
•    What’s made TNT Post best in its class
•    Why all-inclusive e-shipping?
•    How the process works

Get your copy of his presentation here >

Interested in the home delivery industry? Check out Home Delivery World, taking place this April in Atlanta.

Download the presentation here >

During his presentation, Bert discussed:

- Reasons to develop your own warehouse management system
- The benefits of having iOS as your user interface
- Making the important decisions about managing your warehouses
- An inside look at iOS
- The future of warehouse management systems

Click here to get your copy of his presentation now >

Interested in the home delivery industry? Check out Home Delivery World, taking place this April in Atlanta.

During the second day of the event, David Payton of Fedex and Tom Clement of Hayneedle presented a case study titled “Optimizing your network to delight your customers”.

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During the case study, Tom Clement discussed:

•    Hayneedle’s operations
•    Supporting an effective shopping experience
•    Driving repeat sales through post-customer satisfaction
•    Minimizing fulfillment costs to free up investment in growth and strategy
•    Hayneedle’s evolution

Get your copy now >

Interested in the home delivery industry? Check out Home Delivery World, taking place this April in Atlanta.

Rick gave a keynote speech titled “Keeping up with the times: Integrating direct-to-consumer fulfillment and brick & mortar replenishment” on the first day of the event.

You can download it here >

During his presentation, Rick discussed Office Depot’s:

-  Supply chain transformation
-  Service levels (including the Business Services Division, Retail Network, and Furniture Delivery Network)
-  Efforts to maintain its position as #1 Green Retailer in the US
-  Strong supply chain system
-  Use of Track and Trace technology
-  Winning culture

Click here to get your copy >

Interested in the home delivery industry? Check out Home Delivery World, taking place in Atlanta this April.

Warren delivered the conference’s first keynote address, titled “Delivering the goods in a (once-again!) transformed retail landscape.

Download his presentation now >

In Warren’s presentation, he discusses:

- How the retail landscape is shifting
- Migration casualties and what they mean for the retail industry
- The Top 10 oldest US retailers
- Tips to help your company survive in turbulent times
- How home delivery is key

Get your copy now >

Interested in the home delivery industry? Check out Home Delivery World, taking place this April in Atlanta.

SADC Case study: How to bring down logistics costs by J Smith – Walvis Bay Corridor Group – Download the presentation

ROLE OF WBCG
•Providing support to WBCG members
•Developing new markets along corridors
•Collaborative marketing & promotion approach
•“One stop shop” in service delivery
•WBCG serve as facilitation centre
•Creating a network between stakeholders

REGIONAL CHALLENGES IN TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS
•Border transit time
•Infrastructure Development
•Rail vs Road
•Increase in logistics capacity
•Regional growth
•Reducing costs
•Creating alternative trade routes
> Download the presentation

Africa has become a favourable destination in the global supply chain. And as African imports and exports increase, so too does the demand for increased port capacity and improved efficiency.

To find out how you can position your company amongst Africa’s leaders, come to Africa Ports and Harbours 2013.

> Download the conference programme

> Go to the website

Forkliftaction.com News, which celebrated its 600th edition in January, keeps 200,000+ readers informed of independent industry news, coverage of dealer developments, end-user stories, new technologies, products, corporate moves and market reports. In this special feature Melissa Barnett reports on the fleet and asset management sector in 2013, which has seen many developments over the past 2 years…
Two years is a long time in any business that has IT at its core. Research and development, say many in the fleet and asset management business, is driven by customer demand which has subtly changed direction over the last two years. Operators and fleet managers still want to track fuel consumption and know when equipment is due for maintenance, but today they also want ease of use, flexibility, more nuanced information and a deeper analysis of the data.
Associated Integrated Supply Chain Management (Associated Solutions), a USA company, believes that 94% of forklift owners still do not have an accurate record of their forklift fleet, although accurately identifying a fleet’s characteristics such as  size, model, make, vintage and utilisation rate can significantly reduce costs. “Our clients are looking for more insight into their usage of equipment,” says corporate marketing manager Shari Altergott. “Clients are now interested not only in ‘in-use’ time, but also ‘idle’ time (time spent in no travel or lift motion), with some clients requesting insight into loaded or unloaded motion and also integration into their labour management systems.”
Jason LeGuier, general manager of sales and service at Australian company Baseplan, agrees and says that businesses are looking to go beyond managing business workflow. Customers want relevant data capture and more intelligent analysis of the data, particularly intuitive data visualisations.
Coit Edison, president of fleet management for MH equipment in the US, expands on this view: “Having data alone is not good enough any more. The data needs to be customer-specific and drive decisions and provide accountability. For example, a number of our customers want the ability to audit expenses or suppliers to ensure accountability and compliance to their specific contract provisions. There is definitely a greater demand today for more robust data reporting and finite customer specific analysis.”
LeGuier also believes that it is essential that employees work within a cohesive, integrated system, sharing information and being advised and alerted as necessary. 

Tony Unsworth, general manager of Australian vendor Collective Intelligence Industrial Fleet Management, believes that efficiency is key. He advocates efficiency “that is achieved through smarter technology – such as advanced software, making it possible in real time to find out detailed information about fleet utilisation and driver productivity”. He adds that flexibility to use the technology across a spectrum of vehicles, as well as hardware and software systems, is just as important to customers, as is the ability to upgrade when needs change.
According to Grant Johanson, program manager for BE Fleet in the US, integration remains a challenge. “Until industrial equipment manufacturers can agree upon a more universal system interface that would not compromise proprietary design, the capabilities of any (fleet and asset management) solution will continue to be limited in its ability to provide full-featured performance to companies that have mixed fleets,” he believes.
John Valentine, national business development manager at South African company Real Time Solutions, says the company has implemented a number of innovations as a direct result of customer requests, including software to manage fuel costs, prevent over-cranking of starter motors, reduce speeding and manage battery use and tyre wear. Valentine believes the main change in asset management is the provision of real-time data, allowing for prevention rather than costly repairs.
UK white goods manufacturing and distribution business Indesit, with warehouses throughout the UK, Europe and Russia, required a fleet and asset management system which could work across its entire forklift fleet. UK solutions company Davis Derby won the contract to provide a system which could supply, transfer and manage data on Indesit’s forklift fleet anywhere in Europe, online via web portals, alert email messaging and text messaging. Ian Roberts, executive director and general manager of Davis Derby, explains that “being able to plan service, thorough mechanical examinations and driver retraining effectively via one system really helps operational effectiveness and to meet health and safety requirements across the board”.
Terry Wickman, president of Keytroller, says that “Wireless communication has evolved from an option to standard equipment. Pricing has come down and communication software is now more reliable and efficient. This means that the client does much less ‘baby sitting’ with the fleet and asset management system – data comes in automatically rather than being manually generated, thereby reducing the fleet manager’s workload.”
Assisting safety

Safety is paramount in any organisation, regardless of its size. Greg Tunnell, general manager of US-based Speedshield, says that his company’s kits help change operator behaviour by alerting operators and management to exceptions to operations that can cause problems, including rough use of equipment, seat belt wearing or vehicle impact detection. “Operator behaviour changes when these tools are properly used and that usually results in a reduction in plant repair costs, product damage costs and injury to operator and pedestrian costs,” explains Tunnell. 

BE’s Johanson has also seen an increased push for safety and operator accountability from his client base. “Our clients view these systems as a more cost-effective investment (than) going the traditional route of hiring additional internal HS&E personnel or contracting with a safety management consulting firm,” he explains. Furthermore, he believes that increasing globalisation of companies means that more businesses are participating in international compliance programs like ISO and that asset management systems are increasingly being used to provide accurate completion and reliable access to and storage of equipment safety inspection data for these purposes.
Have the costs gone down?
Previously, the cost of fleet and management systems put them beyond the reach of small and medium-sized businesses. Unsworth tells Forkliftaction.com that a new technology platform, the CiIQ360, has enabled Collective Intelligence to offer lower prices to customers, because the system is not hardware-reliant and can be offered online completely free or built to the customer’s specific needs. LeGuier says Baseplan’s prices have fallen slightly in the past five years because the company has improved its own efficiencies. 

Roberts says Davis Derby has reduced the cost of its full fleet management system through innovative product development, enabling the company to introduce the latest technology without an accompanying price rise.
Wickman says that there have been some increases in component parts over the past few years, but he sees electronic component availability as a much bigger issue for the future. “Most electronic and chip manufacturers worldwide have scaled back production and inventories as the economy contracted. Now demand is growing and there is an increasing shortage of supply which will put a lot of upward pressure on costs.”
Tunnell notes that although Speedshield systems have not increased in price, spare parts and installation have. He adds that there has also been a slight increase in monthly communication costs as the rates for airtime on the GSM (second-generation digital cellular networks used by mobile phones) networks have increased.
Edison adds that greater demand for more specific and deeper analysis has increased the resources required to manage customer’s assets; however, he believes MH Equipment has managed this successfully by creating a management system which itself is more effective and efficient, thereby offsetting rising costs. 

Johanson also believes that his company has managed to offset costs by designing additional efficiencies into BE Equipment products, resulting in lower administrative costs. He adds that the sector has always been multi-tiered, with higher-end, feature-rich solutions carrying a significantly higher price-tag – and this remains unchanged. However, at each tier level, prices have also remained the same, a situation he believes will change as competition heats up and manufacturers continue to pump significant money into R&D to gain a competitive edge, particularly in the US market which Johanson believes is set for an asset management boom.
Who are the new customers?
According to most suppliers, the uptake of fleet and asset management systems has gradually increased across the materials handling sector over the past two years. Tunnell says he has seen some dealers increase sales by up to 200%. “It seems that customers have learned how to make these tools ‘make money’ for them, instead of just being ‘nice to have’,” he observes. According to Wickman, although forklift fleets are often the last area in which companies invest, the last two years have seen a significant uptick in business for Keytroller, with 2012 being the biggest sales year to date. Spurred by the harsh realities of the GFC to make  businesses leaner and by international regulations on emissions and waste to make them greener, as well as pressure from insurance companies and OH&S to improve safety, forklift owners of all sizes can see the benefits of better fleet management. Increasing flexibility, ease of use, larger range and, in some cases, lower cost of products have also influenced uptake. 

Valentine believes that one reason that asset management systems such as Real Time Solutions’ FMX system have been adopted by small end-users as well as larger fleets is that insurance companies are now asking their customers to pro-actively mitigate the risks associated with equipment use by implementing safety features through fleet and asset management tools. Tunnell agrees: “We have really seen a push by safety-conscious organisations for our products. There is increasing pressure from OSHA and more OSHA auditors in the US, so organisations are becoming proactive in changing operator behaviour and ensuring checklist compliance,” he says.
Johanson says that growth in Europe and the UK has been across most industries, but in the US has been more concentrated in the oil and gas and chemical manufacturing industries and their associated supply chains. “Increased scrutiny of these operations, coupled with relatively stable growth, has created an ideal environment for investment in fleet and asset management systems,” he adds.
Associated Solutions is seeing increased interest from clients who work in harsh environments, such as cold stores, multiple shift businesses, poorly designed spaces or locations experiencing significant operator damage and needing root cause analysis of breakdowns. Edison says a number of MH Equipment’s new customers have been forced to downsize during the GFC and now find themselves having to do more with less. “As the economy has improved over the last two years,  … many companies have not re-staffed to pre-recession levels. This has (created a greater) need for intuitive and easily accessible data, improved technology and a greater dependency on easy-to-use asset management systems,” he explains.
With the world economy finally stabilising and more forklift owners looking to streamline operations and rationalise equipment investment, it seems that suppliers of technology that can make the job smarter and easier will be in high demand. 

Forkliftaction.com , the world’s leading business-to-business website for Materials Handling equips 100,000+ unique monthly visitors with independent industry news, extensive global business directory, forklift specifications, listings of used equipment for sale, job market, buzzing discussion forums, safety columns, events calendar, photo galleries and other industry resources.

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Advanced Drainage Systems

Their operations in Canada have been getting attention lately – most recently due to their newly-opened distribution site in Moncton. The new site will receive supplies from Heidelberg and St. Germain and distribute to New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia customers.

On the subject of the new Moncton site, Vice President of International Operations Ewout Leeuwenburg commented: “Moncton is critical to this area because it is at the geographic center of the Maritime Provinces…Demand for our products to control stormwater continues to rapidly increase and ADS is keeping pace by establishing local manufacturing and distribution centers in Canada.”

This past January, ADS had also added a distribution yard in Morrisburg. With these two additions, the company now has 57 manufacturing operations throughout the world, as well as a logistics network of 20 service and distribution sites.

Read the original article here

Interested in the logistics business? Check out Home Delivery World Canada, taking place this September in Toronto.

Mr Gillbert Maeti was a keynote speaker at last years Africa Rail conference and exhibition

Maritime transport conveys up to 80 per cent of international trade in volume terms
>Ports are the origins/terminations of the corridors in which the entire African continent and Regional Economic Communities have made the focus for transport and trade development
>Countries take keen interest in ports development, management and the operations in order to ensure that trade is conducted with minimum constraints
>The ownership, management, operations and efficiency in ports are accorded due attention by states
>Countries deploy substantial resources to ensure the availability of adequate port facilities.
>Countries exercise oversight over ports to ensure safety of vessels and cargo, operators and all the agencies which operate in ports
>The development of ports and hence their management and control varies widely depending on how they were developed and the roles played by their effective owners

• Presentation outline:
• Introduction
• Why Reforms in Ports
• Background to African Ports
• Ports Infrastructure and Services
• Evolution of Port Services
• Port Reforms and Privatisation
• Current Global Ports Concessions
• Challenges to Ports Concessions
• Case Studies in African Ports Reforms / Privatisation
• Major Global Players in Ports Concessions /Privatisation
• Potential Projects for PPPs/Privatisation in African Ports
• Conclusions and Way Forward

>Download the presentation

We hope this content gives you good insight into a strategic overview of global and regional stability and we hope to see you at Africa Rail in June 2013.

> Click here to go to the website

>Click here to download the 2013 conference programme

>Click here to register

MOMPS is committed to providing the most efficient and cost-effective solutions possible in order to meet existing, new and upcoming requirements and regulations in the U.S. and globally.

Their goal is to meet or even exceed these requirements realistically, and in an operational environment that is focused on your organizations’ security needs. MOMPS provides a wide range of security services – exercises, inspections, analytical work, tools, technologies and many other innovative services – that are not currently offered in the maritime security arena.

Their approach provides real-time solutions with boots that are always on the ground and ready to act. We are every day, working global MARITIME experts who will protect your company, your vessels, your crew and your reputation. Industry needs an ally to help navigate the unchartered waters of today’s security environment. MOMPS is that ally.

Their staff of subject matter experts and officers are invited to speak and take part in providing solutions on a regular basis internationally to both the industry and governments on how best to identify unforeseen gaps and breakdowns in securing infrastructure, ports, sanctuaries, communities. Most importantly our staff plays a role in how to best resolve these same gaps in realistic and manageable ways.

They have offices in over 20 locations directly servicing over 100 U.S. ports with remote offices and staff that work globally on assignments and projects anywhere in the world. We are the only organization dedicated exclusively to maritime and capable of providing security in all 361 U.S. ports and around the world.

Mr Daniel van Duzer was a keynote speaker at last years Africa Rail conference and exhibition

Global and Regional Security Overview

• The reality is that the world is currently in a period of relative PEACE.
• There are no major wars – although, there are localized conflicts which are of serious concern to those impacted.
• The localized and regional conflicts present opportunities for the development of future terrorists.

>Download the presentation

We hope this content gives you good insight into a strategic overview of global and regional stability and we hope to see you at Africa Rail in June 2013.

> Click here to go to the website

>Click here to download the 2013 conference programme

>Click here to register