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Hurst Transport Takes the pay-as-you-Grow route
In August 2004 the Directors of Hurst Transport arranged
a management buy-out of the 30 year-old UK transport
business, from the Ecotrans Group. They have
since won major new business from European blue-chip
companies, often winning despite competition from much
bigger competitors. In the time since the buy-out
turnover has increased by almost one third.
The good news started with the renewal of one of their
biggest contracts, Cray Valley. “Then
within a week we signed two major new European customers.
These were a flooring manufacturer and then a packaging
company,” said
Andy Northen, Hurst business development manager. “It
was a fantastic week for us.”
Managing Director Graham Hunt, who with Finance Director
Mike Hotchkin made the management buy-out in 2004,
believes that a key factor in Hurst’s success
has been the use of state-of-the-art transport and
logistics management software from CarrierNetOnline
(www.carriernet.co.uk ). “We
are growing largely as a result of being able to offer
our customers better information than our competitors,
using web technology” Mr Hunt said. “CarrierNetOnline
(CNO) also offers us the ability to grow because we
can easily handle more volume.”
Not only can Hurst Transport add more volume with
CNO, but they have not had to make any capital investment
to acquire the system. “We subscribe to
CNO as a Software Service (SaaS) which means we pay
for it as we use it. As we add new business we
pay for the increased number of transactions. If
we have less transactions we pay less.” Mr Hunt
said.
“The system offers our customers complete visibility
of order progress, full track and trace capability, and
the ability to print consignment notes and barcode labels
anywhere. We know exactly where a consignment is
at any time and when it will be delivered. So do
our customers - online anytime.”
Andy Northen added “For a company enjoying major
growth, as we are, the ability to provide the best
possible track and trace, transport management and
customer service software on a “Pay-as-you-Grow” business
is ideal. We find that we are beating much bigger
competitors simply by having much better IT solutions.
In addition, we do not have to promise to develop systems
or increase hardware for new customers. We just
use the on-demand principle to turn new features and
additional capacity on.”
The system is used by large and small customers using
web browser technology. They enter and track orders
and this enables overall collaboration and visibility.
Hurst also uses CNO to track their own performance and
that of their sub contractors and partners in the HazChem
and Fortec Pallet networks. CNO provide management
information regarding all facets of their operations
and resources, including the pallet networks.
Hurst communicates through CNO using ordinary mobile
phone SMS messages with drivers, giving them up-to-date
information and improving customer service. CarrierNet
recently added foreign language translation facilities
so that, for instance, Polish drivers get standard
messages in their own language. In return, drivers
give Hurst accurate and up-to-date information and
PoD confirmations.
Graham Hunt finds this aspect very valuable “We
no longer need an army of PoD clerks and staff can
handle more productive work” he said. “We
get reports of delays through CNO so that we can respond
to any customer issues in advance.“ |
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This service enables us to compete with
information technology equal - and in most
cases better - to our biggest competitors.Mike
Denison, Operations Director, TH Brown Caretakers
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