Spring 2015
NETWORK NEWS
Page 2
Digital Information Hub Drives On
With the initial training and roll out of the Palletways Digital
Information Hub completed, members are beginning to
experience the benefits of the system using the new Digital
Dashboard to access a whole host of real-time management
data and tools to help improve their efficiency and
communications. The feature rich visibility provided by the
dashboard of the status and progress of all consignments
in the system in real time, combined with the facility for
members to filter and drill down the data to easily customise
the information they want to see, is proving its worth on a
day to day basis. Advanced mapped routing is also being
extensively used to help determine the most efficient
delivery rounds and provide a view of all vehicles on a
map in real time.
Enhanced features
The instant messaging feature has already virtually eliminated
the use of faxes and dramatically reduced the need for multiple
time consuming phone calls, with the consignments at risk
and enhanced POD features helping us to drive customer
service standards upwards - and on that topic the customer
access phase of the Digital Information Hub has now been
made available.
Real time status
The customer dashboard enables customers to access
data on all their consignments and to view their status in
real time. By a simple filtering process customers can see a
consignment or groups of consignments according to the
criteria they select including for instance, service type or
location for example at hub, delivery depot, out for delivery or
delivered. Two email addresses can be input by the customer
to receive an automatic email at each of these key delivery
stages - typically these would be the consignor and consignee
so that both are kept fully aware with the status of their
deliveries without the need to make calls or send emails.
Mapping consignments
Customers can also view that days consignments on a
map and can easily monitor their overall delivery status
in the form of pie charts. Historical reports on volumes
by period, type, geographical area and other factors can
easily be created by customers to aid planning and identify
potential business opportunities. The instant messaging
facility is also available to customers enabling fast and easy
communications with members. Improved consignment
entry has also been introduced so that customers need
only enter the delivery postcode with the remainder of
the address being automatically completed, ensuring total
accuracy of information.
Profile raising
Importantly, members can have their own logo embedded
on their customers' dashboards so they are continuously
promoting their name and image to all their customers using
the system. Members should contact the Palletways IT team
to arrange this at uksupport@palletways.com//palletways.com" target="_blank" title="Visit palletways.com">palletways.com
Coming soon
Following soon is Estimated Time of Arrival where customers
will receive an automatic email notiication of a one hour time
window for example delivery between 10am and 11am as
consignments are scanned onto the delivery vehicle.
Richard Miller, UK IT Manager, said:
"Our Digital Information Hub has been available for six months,
it is a massive leap forward in information visibility and our
members and customers are now starting to feel the benefits.
Our aim was to provide a system which would push relevant
information to all party's screens thereby removing the need
for consignment queries by phone and email and so improve
efficiency and customer service - features such as the new
messaging platform and consignments at risk are starting to
make this a reality."
Richard Allen, Principal at The Pink Link Limited, said:
"We are all really excited with the new IT platform and are keen
to roll it out to our client base. The improved transparency
within the depot is extremely welcome and the tracking visibility
to customers is a great marketing tool. There is no doubt
that such a major advancement in this area will clearly keep
Palletways ahead of the competition."
John Miller, Depot Principal at Axtra Ltd added:
"The new Digital Information Hub reduces the depot admin
time and allows full pallet traceability. This is also a great
tool to improve customer service with Estimated Time of
Arrival advance messages. The feedback we have had from
our customer is extremely positive and maintains Palletways'
position as the overnight pallet market leader."
Members can access real-time management data