Innovation at Dilissen Transport
For Dilissen Transport, based in Overpelt (Belgium), the year 2011 will be one of tremendous change. After the summer, ground will be broken on the company’s new build project. When completed, the new facility will house the entire organisation at a single location. Change will also be apparent in terms of ICT: the first vehicles were recently equipped with Qualcomm’s OmniExpress. The Slovakia-based part of the fleet may follow in due course.
The 18 vehicles of the Dilissen fleet generally head to Germany after setting out from either Overpelt (Belgium) or Bratislava (Slovakia), where a subsidiary of the transport company is based. “Cross docking is our core business,” explains Carlo Dilissen. “We transport goods to our warehouse on our groupage transport, where they are stored briefly before being shipped, for the most part, to North America, but also to Mexico, Brazil and the Far East.” Every week, around 40 containers of goods transported by Dilissen are shipped abroad from the Port of Antwerp. “We also take care of customs formalities, such as export documents.”
OmniExpress
For its logistics operations, Dilissen requires a new warehouse which meets the latest requirements. “Construction will start after the summer,” says Dilissen, “The new warehouse will be approximately 500m2, meaning we will be able to concentrate all our business operations at a single location in Overpelt. Warehousing is not the only area where Dilissen has implemented improvements, its communication technology has also been revamped. “Back in the day, we started with what I call basic on-board computers,” explains Dilissen. “While we have already been using GPRS communication for around six years, it was high time for something new. We needed a communication solution that would facilitate more efficient and cost-effective operations. Qualcomm’s OmniExpress proved to be the right solution for us.”
Breath of fresh air
OmniExpress was installed in the first three Dilissen vehicles a little more than a month ago. “The difference was immediately apparent,” says Dilissen about his initial impressions. “Having access to real-time information, in particular, is a real breath of fresh air. Now we know exactly where vehicles are located, whether any departures from the schedule have been made, the drivers’ driving and resting times, when the client will be reached, and how much fuel is being consumed. We no longer have to download data first to make the calculations. OmniExpress represents a major advance in terms of efficiency and reliability. It is an asset to scheduling. It also facilitates better control of maintenance and operational costs.”
The Dilissen Transport fleet currently uses both systems. Dilissen comments, “We may equip the 13 vehicles in the Slovakia-based part of our fleet with OmniExpress this year. The lag certainly does not reflect on Qualcomm’s provision of service, which has been excellent.”