Hull-based haulage firm M&H Transport has gone-live with a new Mandata Cloud TMS.
The company, which has been operating for almost 30 years, has adopted a new Cloud-hosted transport management system with integrated eInvoicing and Auto-reporting modules as it takes steps to drive further efficiencies across its business, and prepare for future growth.
Operating from two depots in Hull and Cardiff, M&H Transport runs its own fleet of articulated lorries, but also has a registered workforce of over 1,400 sub-contractors that it works with regularly to deliver general haulage and freight-forwarding services across the UK and Europe.
Before adopting the Mandata Cloud TMS, M&H had been using a bespoke transport management system that the company bought and maintained themselves in-house, after its original software provider went out of business.
Managing Director at M&H Transport, Mark Beaney said:
“Our previous system was starting to become out of date, and was cumbersome to maintain, plus we didn’t have the support in place that we really wanted, so I started to look for alternative solutions.”
Because of its unique business model, M&H Transport needed to find a replacement system which could be tailored, as its bespoke system had been, to meet its distinct requirements.
M&H came across Mandata’s range of software solutions online, and were immediately impressed by the flexibility of the Mandata TMS, and its ability to be customised to match the company’s way of working.
“Through a bit of research online, I narrowed our options down to 2 different systems, but once I’d had the chance to play around with the Mandata TMS, straight away I was really impressed with how customisable it was. I really liked the eInvoicing and the automatic reporting modules, but most importantly, the system gave me the freedom to make the changes I wanted to make, which is exactly what I was looking for,” Mark said.
Despite only going live with the Mandata Cloud TMS on July 1st, staff at M&H are already noticing a considerable reduction to the time it takes them to plan and process job information, and are reaping the benefits of having increased visibility across its operations.
“The system has generally speeded up all of our admin processes across the business. We can put jobs onto the system faster, allocate loads to our drivers and sub-contractors more quickly, it’s even speeded up the time it takes for POD information to come back to us,” Mark said.
“One of the other things we really like about the TMS is how easy it is to separate out sub-contractor work from our own vehicle work using the different Traffic Pads. By keeping the different types of work separate, we can see quickly and clearly what vehicle is doing what, and when.”
“We also really like the fact that each job in the TMS has its job confirmation and POD information attached to it. The level of detail in the system makes it so much easier for us to find the information we need if a customer phones up with a query, it’s basically like a one stop data shop.”
One of the key pieces of bespoke work that M&H commissioned from Mandata when they adopted the system was a custom EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) which would allow the company’s TMS to exchange data seamlessly with its website.
“Basically any spare work we have, or any work that’s listed in our TMS as an ‘unallocated load’ is advertised on our website for sub-contractors,” Mark explained.
“Sub-contractors can register and login to the website using a unique ID number and password to view our available loads. If they see anything they like, they can book the load with one-click, which triggers an email to our traffic team, who then allocate the work to that sub-contractor’s ID number in the TMS Traffic Pad, and send a confirmation back to the subbie.”
“With the Mandata EDI in place, it’s a much smoother, much quicker process than what we used to have. Before, we had to upload a lot of the job information to the website manually, but now, any spare work in the TMS is uploaded automatically, and once a load has been allocated to a subbie, the advert is removed automatically too. It’s so much simpler.”
Looking to the future, M&H Transport are keen to get more sub-contractors using its website to book work in; the company are also looking to add to its Mandata system in order to provide additional benefits for its customers, and help further plans to grow the business.
As the company looks to expand its full-load logistics offerings to customers, M&H are planning to implement Mandata’s Web Services module, so its customers can gain access to PODs and delivery notes for their jobs themselves, in real-time.
“Using Mandata’s systems, we can provide full visibility of job progress from start to finish. As we take on more contracted full-load work, the automated booking systems and electronic POD retrieval that comes with Web Services will help us to provide an improved, full service package to our customers,” Mark said.
ENDS.
Media enquiries: Leanne Tonks, Marketing Co-ordinator at Mandata. Tel: 0191 250 2220 or Email: [email protected]
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