Moving More with Less - CHEP Boosts Transport Collaboration to the Next Level

By Michael Gierloff, Director Transportation, CHEP

Michael Gierloff, Director Transportation, CHEP

The Scene:
The European supply chain is facing greater pressure than ever before. There is a higher demand for goods, with smaller quantities at greater frequency, which together with the increasing costs, the decreasing service performance, the reduced transport capacity due to driver shortages, and the increasing need to be active on sustainability, makes the current European supply change landscape especially critical.

Besides, 25% of European truck moves aren’t loaded efficiently, leading to wasted miles, damaging emissions, loss of capacity and increased costs.

The Solution:
The obvious solution is the one that seems the hardest to do-We need to share more.

Logistics collaboration has been talked about for years as being the key to unlocking many of the problems in our supply chains. Yet, hardly anyone is doing it. Because the complexities involved in aligning logistical flows make even exploring collaboration incredibly difficult and expensive.

Why CHEP?
At CHEP, we understand the power of collaboration. For over 60 years, our business model has been based on sharing and reusing our equipment around the world. Our scale and end-to-end network offer us a unique view of the European supply chain, and how to make it work better.

Our Collaborative Transport Solutions use advanced data analysis to identify common transport flows and use shared routes, and transport to almost eliminate inefficient partial loads and wasted miles. By detecting the most efficient opportunities and sharing the same trucks with CHEP or among CHEP’s customers, we reduced the empty distances and improve the payload of the transport equipment.

Only CHEP can make this happen because we’re a trusted partner for over 17,000 FMCG companies across Europe, which allows us to have a unique view of over 19 million annual truck movement and over 1 million transport lanes.

The Achievements:
Our Collaborative Transport Solutions have already helped 225 leading FMCG companies reduce their annual empty truck journeys by 6.0 million kilometers, saving our planet from over 4,700 tons of CO2 emissions. At the same time, additional transport capacity has been created and important cost efficiencies generated for all participants.

Our frequently managed CHEP Collaborative Customer Events in Europe allow all partners to meet with peers sharing the same values, exchange ideas, and share experiences on successfully implementing new innovative solutions and network among each other.

What’s next:
Today, the Collaborative Transport Solutions programme is a reality from which many CHEP partners throughout Europe benefit, and this year we have taken a decisive step forward towards digital transformation by creating AirShared.

AirShared is a collaborative platform aimed at sharing ideas, challenges and trends as well as managing collaborative transport projects online and more efficiently. This initiative seeks to create a community of companies that share the same values and commitment to sustainable mobility, innovation, collaborative and circular economy. In this way, we create the perfect atmosphere to generate more efficient models and launch collaborative projects.

Our collaborative transport solutions have already helped 225 leading fmcg companies reduce their annual empty truck journeys by 6.0 million kilometers, saving our planet from over 4,700 tons of co2 emissions

The platform offers three open spaces for collaborating and a private area to manage and monitor transport collaboration projects.

Through CHEP’s private area, CHEP customers who are already developing their collaboration projects can access the project management tool developed by Brambles company-BXB Digital. This enables real-time monitoring, offering analysis and performance reports, and allowing users to fight inefficiencies and constantly spot any new opportunities. This process is 100% automatic and it’s integrated with each client’s work system, helping companies save costs, time, and resources.

The platform will be launched in Spain in September and rolled out progressively to selected countries in Europe.