2008-11: Lars Källström of BMT reports on Case North West (A2)

Port of Gothenburg has now started the implementation of the new pre-notification system aiming at reducing waiting times for truckers at the gates. The new system which will be operational before summer 2009 automatically pushes information to the forwarder and the appointed driver when the container is ready for pick-up and automates the gate check-in procedures. The system is one of the building blocks in the port’s efforts to modernize its management systems. It will reduce pollution from waiting vehicles, increase the paid transport time for the trucker and reduce the administrative workload in the port.

SCA/Transforest have now equipped more than 140 railway wagons with RFID-tags for monitoring the transport of paper rolls between the manufacturing plant in Munksund and the port terminal in Holmsund. Banverket has installed two reading stations and the software company eBuilder has prepared the software for supervising the transport. The test installation is running in parallel to the conventional monitoring which links the plant with Transforest as the company’s logistics service provider. The aim is to enhance this information with up-to-date information on the actual composition of the train in order to plan the unloading and prepare for any deviations from the planned schedule. Some hardware problems now seem to have been solved. The software is gradually being adapted to the demands of the transport chain managers. When both software and hardware are considered to be stable, the system will be integrated with the logistics management system  of Transforest. This is scheduled to happen in the first quarter of 2009

The focus on the practical problems around the implementation in Göteborg and in SCA/Transforest has delayed the in-depth evaluation of the Freightwise Framework (FWF). None of the cases cover the whole transport chain. They both focus on status reports and deviations from the planned schedule.  However, there is nothing which contradicts the approach proposed in FWF, although in practice some support may be needed to guide the user.