Brenntag use TranSend ePOD to streamline deliveries, compliance & safety for chemical distribution

WYNYARD, U.K. - July 17, 2018 - PRLog -- The Challenge:

The company operates a fleet of over 170 vehicles across 20 strategic sites, serving more than 20,000 customer accounts nationwide.

Due to the nature of chemical distribution, the Brenntag process involved vast amounts of paper to handle specific delivery, compliance and safety instructions for multiple delivery types and different products.

The goal was to implement a mobile solution to rationalise business processes across different fleets and remove the need for drivers to handle paper documentation. The system also needed to provide accurate delivery information and data integrity to speed up the billing process and validate all compliance and safety checks, including deliveries made by third parties.

The Solution - Brenntag Mobile Delivery Management System:

An earlier project within their fleet demonstrated that TranSend provided a smooth and seamless electronic process of presenting drivers with routes and detailed instructions at the collection site and subsequent deliveries.

Brenntag has now extended the deployment of TranSend ePOD to its bulk and distribution fleets to take advantage of automating the delivery process with full transparency of routes in real time in the back office.

The bulk business now operates a more dynamic process. The tanker goes out empty and fills up, recording the weight and volume of the collected load before making delivery to the customer. The load value automatically creates the delivered quantity for accurate customer billing.

Changes to the route can be made throughout the day and are automatically updated on the driver's device.

The bulk fleet is split between owned and third-party vehicles. The same app is used by all drivers, which means that Brenntag has full visibility of the entire collection and delivery process. Containers are tracked with individual IDs to enable accurate asset location and billing. The TranSend app records these ID numbers against each stop which provides greater accuracy on current load information at any time.

Multi-part vehicles can have up to seven tanks containing different products. Details of which product is in each tank is also stored on the PDA.

Fred Worle, Vice President, Supply Chain and Services, Brenntag EMEA comments:

"As a market leader, Brenntag are committed to excellence in every aspect of our business to supply products quickly, efficiently, safely and conveniently. TranSend has enabled us to replace paper-intensive processes with a single mobile solution, but with the flexibility to handle multiple delivery and product types with intelligent workflow that presents specific instructions to the driver at each stop."

Regulatory Compliance & Safety:

When connecting for tanker delivery at a customer, the driver is required to perform pre-discharge checks to ensure that the product being delivered matches the product in the customer's tank. In addition, the driver needs to perform an inlet check for the connection points to ensure safe delivery. The TranSend app on the driver's PDA forces this safety and compliance workflow, capturing signatures from the customer and driver with date and time stamp, ensuring the integrity of the information being collected.

For their own vehicles, Brenntag use the TranSend Vehicle Checks app to ensure that the drivers follow a company-defined vehicle check workflow, acknowledging any safety messages presented and reporting any defects.

Drivers can also use the Incident Recording app which provides a structured workflow for recording incidents that occur either on the road or at a customer location and all information captured is fed into TranSend reports.

If drivers are subject to a police or DVSA spot-check, where they can be checked for authorised load weights and type of load permitted, the load details and actual quantity can be accessed on the PDA for presentation to the officer.

As a regulatory requirement, drivers must undertake pre-delivery tank inspections at specified time intervals. These jobs are now electronically scheduled, with detailed instructions, as part of the driver's route.

Fred Worle continues:

"By tracking containers and products delivered and collected at each stop through real-time data capture, we have accurate information on the current load information at any time which the driver is able to present, if required, at safety spot-checks."

The future:

On completion of this project Brenntag will explore the use of TranSend to handle its internal delivery network so that drivers can work on routes for multiple depots.

Fred Worle concludes:

"Safe transportation of chemicals is essential in responsible distribution and at Brenntag safety always comes first. The Brenntag Mobile Delivery Management System app ensures that drivers follow our specified safety and compliance checks before departure and at the customer site. We now have full transparency of our delivery and collection process in real-time and can react quickly to any exceptions or incidents as they arise."

The Benefits

• Removed vast amounts of detailed paperwork.
• Standardised process across the business that improves integrity of data.
• Accurate tracking and billing of containers.
• Full product traceability, including batch numbers, expiry dates, etc.
• Safety-driven checks presented on PDA specific to job type.
• Intelligent workflow handles multiple job types at each stop.
• Optimised use of vehicle and driver resource.
• Faster turnaround from delivery to billing improves cash flow.
• Tank inspection process integrated into driver's daily route.
• Drivers can accurately report on current load type and quantity at any time.

About Brenntag UK & Ireland

Brenntag are at the forefront of the UK's chemical distribution industry, supply the leading names in the FMCG, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, food and electronics/printing industries, plus many more.
www.brenntag.com/uk-ireland