The launch yesterday of CHEP Logistics' new control centre at its Erskine Park, NSW facility, marks a step-change in CHEP's delivery of logistics services and the management of its product flow to customers across the country.
Earlier this month the division of CHEP Australia known as CHEP Transport was rebranded as CHEP Logistics in a bid to better reflect the extent of the network management service it offers to the broader Australian supply chain.
The new control centre is the epicentre of this business and enables real-time monitoring of the entire logistics network from one location.
Geoff Boshell, National Logistics Director CHEP Australia, told Food & Drink Business: “Real-time monitoring means our logistics team can pre-empt, for example, delays due to traffic, or respond to changes in stockholding situations across our distribution sites, and make proactive decisions to ensure network efficiency is optimised.
“Essentially, it's a shift from reactive to proactive flow management of our platforms – pallets, crates, bins and other equipment – to and from our customers' sites,” he says.
“It's an industry-first for this type of pooling system in Australia; we're definitely ahead of the curve.”
The newly launched control centre houses a wall of large multi-data screens broadcasting a bank of real-time data, a live TV news feed, online maps of major routes and arterial routes, as well as camera feeds from the main distribution centres in the major metro centres showing the amount of product and vehicle congestion in the yards.
“The centre's customer service managers are trained to analyse the live feeds and respond efficiently and in the customers' best interests,” Hector Balestri, National Transport Operations Manager, CHEP Logistics says. “Observing signs of traffic congestion for example, they can communicate and coordinate with hauliers to reroute their lanes, and contact customers about how this might impact on their schedules and, if necessary, find an alternative delivery solution.”
The data feed provides a comprehensive analysis of performance levels across all centres and routes, and allows accurate prediction of job execution rates.
“To give a sense of the scale and complexity of the operation, we're moving about 180,000 loads a year, servicing some 3000 customers, with more than 100 trucks on the road on any normal business day. And it's all run out of this one control centre,” says Boshell.
In the weeks since the new centre has been up and running, the response from customers has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Boshell, because it allows more accurate scheduling on their part and increases their flexibility.
Boshell goes on to stress that CHEP Logistics is not a transport company: “We are not managing trucks – we don't own any of our own trucks – we are using data to manage the network, ensuring the right products are where they need to be at the right time.”
The network's transport infrastructure comprises CHEP Logistics' fleet of bespoke trucks dedicated to moving only CHEP equipment; transport services provided by specialists in local, long haul and international freight by road, rail and sea.
“We work with customers to optimise their supply chain efficiency by using intelligence from our broader business to capture opportunities such as empty reverse legs.
“By integrating with our customers' networks, we can co-ordinate access to their yards when they're least busy, and find opportunities to take advantage of natural freight flows.
“It's critical for the broader Australian supply chain that our equipment is where it needs to be when our customers need it,” Boshell says.
“We manage the first and last mile of CHEP's supply chain to and from CHEP's 75-plus service centres nationally, making sure our customers have our equipment available so that they can reliably get their products to market.”
Geoff Boshell, CHEP National Logistics Director, in the new control centre.
