“Optimised route planning enables us to reduce unnecessary empty runs, which, in turn, provides both economic and ecological benefits.”
“We retain our competitive edge by means of customer focus, optimised scheduling and minimising the number of empty runs. This is also beneficial to the environment and keeps our costs per kilometre down. A Balanced Scorecard system that we developed ourselves also enables us to identify and immediately eliminate all avoidable costs,” emphasises the company’s founder, Frank Sörensen.
As Nielsen & Sörensen itself indicates, it was amongst the first transport and logistics companies to recognise several years ago that an increasingly industrialised logistics operation could only be achieved through the use of up-to-the-minute IT and telematics systems. In 2003, after a growth in orders had caused the company’s existing order processing system to reach its limits, Nielsen & Sörensen, which is based in the town of Flensburg in Northern Germany, acquired WinSped, a cost-effective data management and logistics management package from the German software company LIS AG. One of the benefits of this new system lies in the fact that its integrated vehicle deployment schedule provides the company with an up-to-the-minute display of all of its vehicles and deadlines, without incurring spiralling mobile telephony costs, and enables these to be adapted in line with requirements.
A combination of an unacceptably high proportion of empty runs and ongoing increases in diesel costs later provided the impute for Nielsen & Sörensen to acquire a suitable telematics system. As the cost of drivers and diesel account for 35 percent and 20 percent of vehicle running costs respectively, the company applies strict cost controls in these areas. As Frank Sörensen himself explained, “Optimised route planning enables us to reduce unnecessary empty runs, which, in turn, provides both economic and ecological benefits.”
ABOUT NIELSEN & SÖRENSEN
Originally set up in 1993, Nielsen & Sörensen Spedition GmbH provides Europe-wide transport and logistics services that are primarily focused upon agricultural and industrial goods. The company, which is located near to the German-Danish border and the motorway at Flensburg-West, employs around 60 people and 350 drivers. Nielsen & Sörensen also possesses various logistics warehouses at its 22,000 m² site that is located near the border with Denmark.