Summary
• Transporeon provides a web-based communications platform.
• The company was established in 2000 and is now focusing on the UK market.
• It says an Austrian company saved e26,000 in the first month of using the software.
• Users are charged per transaction.
Charlie Pesti has been in the logistics industry long enough to remember the days of relying on a fax for communication – and how time-consuming and potentially inaccurate the process could be.
“The vast majority of problems originated from lack of communication between shipper and carrier; someone always forgot something or mistyped something and two days later they would remember what it was,” said Mr Pesti, who is now key account manager for German software provider Transporeon.
Using email has its own problems as messages bat back and forth and pile up in inboxes, he said.
The answer, according to Transporeon, is a web-based communications platform for shippers and their transport providers – a sort of matchmaking service.
The shipper puts their transport needs onto the secure platform, enabling all their transport partners to access the information simultaneously, and both sides have direct access to the database, workflows and documents.
“It provides carriers with a central point of access to your orders and enables them to submit offers,” said Mr Pesti. “There is no need to chase messages and make phone calls.”
The system, which ‘speaks’ 13 languages and translates automatically, also tracks deliveries so both the shipper and the haulage company receive real-time information on the status of the delivery.
The shipper’s cost savings, said Mr Pesti, are made not only in the reduced time spent on the phone but also through transport efficiencies as transport providers may be making a return journey with an empty lorry.
An Austrian timber products manufacturer, with around 170 deliveries a month from one factory, made savings of €26,000 in the first month of using Transporeon’s software, said Mr Pesti.
It’s a pay as you go system so the parties don’t buy the software, but rather pay per transaction. “As soon as they stop using it we stop invoicing them. There are no tie-in contracts and in the last eight years we haven’t lost any customers,” said Mr Pesti.
Established in Europe in 2000, Transporeon is now expanding in the UK and Mr Pesti believes there is great potential here. “There is a huge volume [of goods] crossing the UK every day,” he said.
And the software’s biggest selling point, said Mr Pesti, is its simplicity. “It’s transparent and it’s not rocket science. You type in what you want, and there it is.”
