Carrier Management at Farm Trans: “A sustainable collaboration ensures stability.”

In this second article in a series of four about Connected Services, you can read about the role that Carrier Management plays in the logistics of tomorrow. In the other three articles, we will highlight the role of Account Management, Operational Management and IT.

Long-term relations

Dennis Timmermans has been working for Farm Trans since 2007. He believes the benefits of such a long-term relationship also apply to the customers in logistics: “Our customers want stability; they want to know where they stand. A long-term relationship also saves time and money. You both want to invest in a good data connection and distribute those costs. And the longer you work together, the more you can focus on sustainability. That is why we choose to have contracts of at least two to three years. It is important that you take the time to get to know each other better, to ensure you will speak the same language.”

Carrier Management connects

Farm Trans has its own wheels, of course, but it always looks further to find the best solution for the customer. Timmermans: “We not only look at what we do well; we also look for other specialists in the market. We have a vast network of partners and are constantly exploring the market, so we know what can be bought. This is how we become the connecting factor between what our customer wants and what the market offers.”

Careful selection

Choosing the right logistical service providers is complicated. That’s why a tender is often part of the process, as Timmermans explains: “Together with our customer, we determine what will happen after a contract expires. This may involve compiling a tender or upgrading the contract, for example. When we compile a tender, that process takes approximately three months: together with our customer, we make a long list, explore the market, make an initial selection and invite suitable parties. We are fully transparent in how we work: we make all the data we receive from our service providers accessible to the customer.”

Contracts and controls

Once the contract has been signed, Timmermans and his multi-disciplinary team ensures that the contract agreements are safeguarded and complied with in the Standard Operating Procedures: “This includes the quality of the services, food safety and environmental performance. We oversee the transporters and evaluate the performance in review meetings, amongst other methods, where our customer can also be present, of course.

Farm Trans consciously chooses to work with specialists, for example, for niches or regions. Timmermans: “This includes refrigerated and frozen transport, silo transport by rail and short sea by container. Everything to ensure that the transport for our customers is arranged as efficiently as possible. We are also constantly improving our own range of services, with cross-dock functionalities, for example. With this, we connect networks to each other so that we bolster and expand our European coverage. Together with our network, we provide our customers comprehensive service.”

Multi-modal and sustainable

In the logistics of the future, sustainability is a prerequisite. Timmermans: “This is what we focus on with Farm Trans, because we want to maintain our leading position. We work together with multi-modal transporters for the most energy-efficient routes and map out this dynamic market even further. In doing so, we not only evaluate based on price, but also on sustainability. That further underscores why the long term is so important; together, we can take bigger steps towards achieving sustainable logistics.”

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Carrier Management is part of Connected Services – your entire logistics process, managed smartly. Discover more >