Mooij Oost-Europa Service switches to OmniExpress
A well-considered investment in a long-term solution
Mooij Oost-Europa Service recently had Qualcomm fit its fleet with OmniExpress. The Milsbeek-based transport firm decided that the time was ripe to switch from EutelTRACS to a new fleet management solution. “We decided not to cut any corners,” says Managing Director Nico Mooij, “It’s definitely worth the investment.”
Back in 1986, when Mooij started out, Eastern Europe was still more or less considered the new market. The transport firm has since acquired a prominent market position, which gained in significance at the start of this year. Nico Mooij: “Our fleet, including our storage and transhipment facilities, is stationed at two locations: one in Poznan, Poland, the other in Berlin, Germany. Our location in the German capital, which also includes a car park for trailer coupling and uncoupling, focuses on storage and transhipment.”
Mooij recently doubled its fleet from 17 to 34 trucks, following a takeover in Poland. “We now use half of our capacity for continuous transport from Poland to Russia. The other trucks and the double decker trailers stationed in Milsbeek are used for complete and groupage transport from and to the east of Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.”
State of the art solution
Mooij was one of the first to adopt EutelTRACS. “We’ve used it since 1990,” says Nico Mooij. “EutelTRACS was absolutely essential for any transport company that took its operations seriously. This was particularly true of firms active in Eastern Europe, certainly when you consider the inadequacies of the communications infrastructure in Eastern European countries. However, we decided it was high time for a state of the art solution to facilitate efficiency improvements and more effective operations. OmniExpress emerged as the best solution. Changes in transport flows demand real time status updates. There was a time when our vehicles were regularly on the road for two weeks. Nowadays, a greater number of shorter journeys are scheduled.”
Plenty of advantages
Nico Mooij did not hurry into a decision regarding a new communications solution for his company. “We considered several systems, including the less expensive Track & Trace solutions. Time and again OmniExpress proved to be the best solution, rooted in our belief that it was essential to have an on-board computer offering the very latest options.”
Mooij explains some of the advantages. “The functionalities, such as track and trace and real time motor status and fuel consumption data, are all exactly what you expect. Integrated navigation is also very important to us, not only because countries like Germany and Poland often have identical place names, but because our drivers regularly receive new unscheduled assignments. After completing a journey to a destination in Poland, they may set off for France or Italy. We can enter the new address from the home base; the truck navigation system does the rest.” Mooij is also delighted with the system’s integration into the digital tachograph. “This helps drivers to better keep track of driving and off-duty times, while enabling us to satisfy legal requirements while avoiding hefty fines.” Mooij is also going to use Qualcomm’s Remote Tachograph Download Service. “This relegates the time-consuming process of downloading the mass memory to the past. Integration with the digital tachograph makes it possible to export the mass memory and the driver's card at the office using a company smart card.”
In addition to the innovations, Mooij also cites user-friendliness as one of the highly appealing aspects of OmniExpress. “While this applies to those working at the office, it is particularly true of drivers. Exchanging messages using the full-colour touch display really is a piece of cake. The GUI also makes the system highly accessible. OmniExpress represents a solution that further increases the flexibility of our operations. Its groupage and double decker transport operations are one of the things that distinguish Mooij Oost Europa Service from the rest. OmniExpress offers us another USP. We want to be ready for the future, and this should be no problem with OmniExpress and the level of service provided by Qualcomm – our business partner for more than 20 years.”