At a glance

Provincial Freightlines Ltds’ philosophy and service sets them apart from others: the company is built on an almost fanatical service culture, providing customers with the utmost confidence in their abilities. Operating within key strategic alliances alongside other transport providers and servicing several major New Zealand distributors, Provincial sees internal efficiencies as key to their continued success.

The challenge

Prior to the original implementation of the eCargo logistics tool several years ago, dispatching at Provincial was done using a primarily paper-based system. The next day’s freight requirements were largely unknown until very late the afternoon before, when major customers would collate and fax through pickup and delivery instructions. At that time, visibility to enable improved forward planning and better use of resources was top of Provincial Freightlines’ wishlist. eCargo’s freight management system provided this and helped to increase overall work volumes from Provincial’s key customers.

Some years later Provincial entered into a joint venture with NZL Group Ltd, called Matrix Logistics, who were appointed lead service provider for all Carter Holt Harvey New Zealand domestic freight. A new challenge arose; how to integrate, and which transport management systems to use, in order to provide an effective end-to-end process for all parties?

The solution

The eCargo system offered the advantage of flexibility and extreme ease of integration. It plays different roles for Provincial, depending on who they’re working with and other systems required to be in the mix, but remains the principal system for freight data flow and the main point of interface with all Carter Holt Harvey and SCA sites.

The end result is that Provincial are able to focus on their core business, whilst eCargo’s software provides reliability of data and takes care of integration complexity, seamlessly integrating with their own Sapphire Transport Management System.

Provincial says it’s also important not to overlook some of the specific functionality eCargo’s system offers. One much loved example cited is the history function, providing Provincial with a comprehensive audit trail of all actions performed against individual consignments.

Benefits and outcomes

Freight planning has come a long way from the hectic eleventh hour activity of old. eCargo enables Provincial to monitor freight requirements all day, every day, and quickly and efficiently allocate vehicles.

Without question, the greatest benefit of eCargo is visibility. The dispatching process is also a lot better

Ross McKain, Provincial Freightlines, Operations Manager

“Using eCargo, we can now more effectively position trucks at given points on given days as they are required” says McKain. “The visibility enables us to view, and to some extent, select the Matrix Logistics jobs that we want”.

Provincial Freightlines’ relationship with eCargo goes back many years now, as are the benefits being enjoyed. Currently managing in excess of 500 consignments a day, Provincial says there’s simply no way this would have been possible prior to eCargo. “eCargo enabled Provincial to manage our growth without having to increase our headcount” says Dave McCoid, Transport Manager for Provincial’s Bulk Division.

“eCargo has worked well for us since the very beginning. The system is based on an excellent underlying business process that is responsive, flexible and reliable” confirms Provincial’s IT Manager, Antony Gibson. “Enhancements to the system are always consistent with a good operating model and we’ve found it adapts really well to third party systems. We consider eCargo to be the benchmark for all dispatching products”.