Meat wholesaler Jo Herbots has been supplying restaurants, supermarkets and butchers in Belgium and the Netherlands with meat specialities, including the exclusive Haspengouw Beef, since 1997. Quality management of the products has the highest priority during processing and distribution. Communication with the customers is also an important means to keep the customer satisfaction high. Since 2010, Jo Herbots has been relying on the modular fleet management solution from GPS-Buddy to efficiently plan and monitor transport, and to proactively inform customers.
"Every day, our 65 professionals process the carcasses into the desired pieces of meat that our customers order in temperature-controlled rooms. The orders are then distributed throughout Belgium and the Netherlands directly from our meat cutting plant in St-Truiden, without interrupting the cold chain. We use three tracker trailers, four trucks and two vans for this, all of which are optimally cooled," says Bruno Daenen, transport and logistics manager at Jo Herbots. "Monitoring and reporting the temperature is a requirement with foodstuffs. All vans are equipped with high quality temperature sensors. The information from these sensors is stored in the GPS-Buddy system. The fact that we can proactively inform our customers about the temperature, as well as the exact location of the driver - and therefore the expected delivery time - makes all the difference to customer satisfaction."
BUSINESS EFFICIENCY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION GO HAND IN HAND
Knowing where the driver is with an insight into the traffic situation on the road, combined with accurate temperature monitoring was the main reason for Jo Herbots to start using a track & trace system. After the implementation, it quickly became clear that having an overview yields major benefits in daily operations. Daenen: "Because we can see at any time where the driver is, what tasks he still has and what the situation on the road is, we don't have to make a lot of phone calls back and forth, which also benefits road safety. Because we monitor ourselves, we can contact the customer directly if there seems to be a delay. We notice that customers appreciate it when we inform them promptly and proactively. We can also respond more quickly to changes in the planning, because we know which driver is in the area and how much driving time he has left."
ADVANCED TEMPERATURE MONITORING GUARANTEES QUALITY
The GPS-Buddy temperature sensors in the vehicles are linked to the GPS-Buddy management platform. This means that the monitoring of the temperature is demonstrably guaranteed in accordance with the European Hygiene Regulation. "The orders must be transported at a constant temperature of 0 to 6 . We have chosen to set up the system in such a way that when the temperature goes outside that range, a message is sent to the office and they contact the driver directly to take action. After delivery, our customers immediately receive an automated report of the temperature's progress," says Daenen.
DRIVING EFFICIENTLY AND AVOIDING FINES
Insight and overview in the distribution process also contributes to 'greener' driving, a development that takes up an important place in professional transport. The Jo Herbots drivers are stimulated to drive efficiently and to choose the most economical route.
