Trucks
Knowing where your trucks are geographically and precisely what they are carrying on a ‘realtime’ basis is vital. This is what Frigolanda’s Ben van Leeuwen wanted, and it’s what he achieved.
Frigolanda is an international full-service logistical service provider in the frozen and refrigerated food sector. The company, which has eight outlets in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Poland, operates in a highly competitive market.
“Everyone can offer frozen transport,” says Ben van Leeuwen, Frigolanda Group Project Manager. “But what if you structured your IT in such a way that everyone in the chain had access to the same information? Then you’d have clear added value because you could provide real-time information across the entire logistical process. Your clients’ customers would know a whole day sooner what, when, where and how much they could have delivered, and sell it sooner. That was my mission, and that’s what we started working on five years ago. Volvo Dynafleet plays a key role in this process. It’s the link between our systems, the planners, the drivers, the dealer and the vehicle.”
Frigolanda was established in 1986 and initially offered only warehousing for frozen and refrigerated products. In 2003 the idea that the company could further improve the service they were offering by providing a dense distribution network began to take root. Today Frigolanda organises the entire supply chain for its clients. Most of the goods to be transported come from the company's own warehouses, and Frigolanda also receive an additional transhipment volume from regular partners.
We've now gone over to Volvo entirely, since we feel their core values tie in closely with ours.
Their trucks then take these goods through a dense distribution network to the wholesalers and DCs. Within the Benelux, this is done using Frigolanda's own fleet of 28 trucks.
“Obviously we adopt a flexible approach to our service. But precisely because real-time information supply is so important for integrated cost control, we try to keep as much as possible in-house. After all, you need to have increasingly sophisticated communications technology in the truck to maintain an overview of the entire process.”
Five years ago, 50 per cent of Frigolanda’s vehicles were Volvo trucks and the rest were another brand.
"We've now gone over to Volvo entirely, since we feel their core values tie in closely with ours. Volvo Trucks represent safety, sustainability and innovation values which we ourselves firmly uphold. Also, Volvo Trucks offer us completely worry-free service. This is something our clients want from us, so we think we’re entitled to expect the same from our suppliers. We want to have just one telephone number for our entire transport operation and all the services linked to it. We’ve found a solid partner for this in our Volvo dealer.”
The service that’s provided is very far-reaching, since the dealer assumes responsibility for the logistics of Frigolanda’s entire vehicle fleet. And that includes the trailers, refrigeration motors and even the other makes of vehicle. While Frigolanda maintains a real-time overview of its clients’ logistics, the Volvo dealer uses Dynafleet to monitor the company’s trucks on a real-time basis. It’s therefore the dealer who decides when a vehicle requires maintenance and when it should be called in.
“This isn't necessarily always at one of its own garages,” explains van Leeuwen.
“It can sometimes be easier to have a vehicle serviced elsewhere because it fits in better with our planning schedule. Close coordination of this kind obviously requires an effective partnership.”
One of the best features of Dynafleet is the graphics, which make the results easy for the driver to interpret.
Dynafleet plays a major role within Frigolanda, and van Leuwen explains that it functions as a link between the company’s systems and their trucks. Frigolanda has now installed Dynafleet in all its vehicles, including the last of their non-Volvo trucks. As well as to track all the KPIs Frigolanda require to supervise its drivers, Dynafleet is also used as a vehicle monitoring system to log the drivers’ hours and download tachograph data. This is something which has saved a lot of time. The company doesn't use all the data on an ongoing basis, but instead select a specific theme on which to focus in each period.
“Obviously we constantly monitor fuel consumption. For me, one of the best features of Dynafleet is the graphics they have on their app which make the results easy for the driver to interpret. We use Volvo’s training facilities for additional supervision and to help us meet the statutory code 95 driver training requirements. In fact, we’ve extended this to all our staff, to encourage more mutual understanding and confidence. That’s what it’s all about in the end.”
Established in 1986. Has since grown into a temperature-controlled full logistical service provider with eight outlets in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Poland. The company has a total warehouse capacity of 80,000 pallets. As well as storage and distribution, Frigolanda provides value-added logistical services throughout the Benelux region. All its outlets are IFS-certified as a minimum requirement. Frigolanda’s Polish outlet is the only one in that country with BRC and IFS certification. Frigolanda is strong in state-of--the-art IT and can thus offer its clients the best real-time logistical solutions.
Owners: H. van Leeuwen and R. Teeuwen
Staff complement: 160, of which 30 are drivers.
