Carrier Portal builds stable business relationships
- 3,500 commissioned trucks are digitally supported every day
- Development in the modular system increases user acceptance
- Productivity and efficiency increase on both sides
Around 3,500 trucks from external transport companies carry out transports for the Q Direct department of Quehenberger Logistics every day. They handle freight orders for the Austrian logistics company and are supported and managed via the Carrier Portal developed by Quehenberger Logistics. "These digital tools are currently spreading rapidly, but they often disappoint users' expectations. They have to bring tangible benefits, especially for internal and external partners," explains CEO Christian Fürstaller. The Carrier Portal is a project of the digitalisation strategy that Quehenberger offers its freight forwarders.
Around half of Quehenberger's total turnover of 580 million euros (2023) comes from the Q Direct product area. In addition to its own fleet of around 250 trucks, trucks from external transport companies in Austria and Eastern Europe are used for this purpose. On average, around 3,500 vehicles are in use for Quehen-berger every day. "Working with external companies was administratively complex and caused high costs," says Robert Köbrunner, Head of Q Direct. The Carrier Portal provides a solution here.
Redistribution of work tasks brings numerous advantages
The portal reverses the usual distribution of work within this industry: the transport company now works in the portal and therefore has more transparency. All essential information can be called up in the portal, such as the shipment reference, the freight documents and the planned payment advice. The workflow is digital, but paper cannot yet be completely dispensed with. "There is potential for improvement, especially with freight documents, CMR consignment notes. There is still no cross-industry standard for digitalised freight documents, the so-called e-CMR. The legal requirements were created two years ago, but no uniform stand-ard has yet been established," says Köbrunner. Nevertheless, the process was significantly streamlined with the Carrier Portal. Administrative, time-consuming tasks have been digitalised and integrated into the Carrier Portal. "More and more of our external partners appreciate this benefit. This is an example of how we have managed to significantly reduce the workload for freight forwarders and drivers. The order documents are uploaded to the Carrier Portal, and from then on communication is digital. In addition to current orders, the Carrier Portal also offers a document archiving system, a GPS dashboard with the current positions of the trucks and an overview of freight credits with an integrated 24-hour payment system. If the freight forwarder needs payment in advance, e.g. for an upcoming repair on the vehicle, this can be easily booked via the Carrier Portal, the payment is triggered automatically and ends up in the freight forwarder's bank account within 24 hours," explains Köbrunner.
Higher productivity through digitalisation
Around 300 of the freight forwarders are premium partners with permanent orders, the rest work with Quehenberger on a daily basis via spot markets. The latter have limited access to the digital system, but are also integrated into the Carrier Portal. "We are pleased that daily partnerships are constantly becoming pre-mium members because the contractors no longer want to miss out on the advantages," emphasizes Robert Köbrunner. But Quehenberger also benefits from the portal. The workload has noticeably decreased due to the predominantly digital processing despite the shift to Quehenberger. "We manage significantly more sales with the same size team," says CEO Fürstaller, who is convinced of the model.
“The benefit must always outweigh the disadvantage for the user!”
The secret of success lies in agile programming: The portal started with a minimal variant, the so-called MVP principle (Minimum Viable Product) in its own development environment. It was then slowly developed further using a few building blocks, i.e. work functions. "This means the benefits outweigh the disad-vantages," emphasizes Fürstaller. The further developments of the system are developed and programmed in-house. The next step will be to expand the portal's interactive offerings. A driver app has already been introduced in the company's own fleet, which gives every driver the opportunity to use information in real time to complete orders. This so-called driver app is now also being rolled out to the fixed transport part-ners, so that communication between dispatchers and drivers via the Carrier Portal and mobile app can be significantly improved.
Since 2018, Quehenberger Logistics has consistently pursued a strategy of digitizing its operational busi-ness. In the five product areas of partial and full loads, contract logistics, air and ocean freight and industry networks, the main processes have already been fully digitized. For this purpose, the Salzburg-based com-pany has built up an integrated software architecture that is continuously being expanded. One of the most recent projects is the development of AI-supported order entry.
