Fortec Connects in bid to leapfrog rivals

Fortec will complete its most significant IT project in a decade by the end of the year, in a move it claims will put it ahead of its pallet network rivals and on par with the best the parcels sector can offer.

Andrew Knowles, Fortec operations director, told MT: “If you go back 12 months we felt we were behind on IT. We were still very much paper- driven. Well, we’re back now. I’d say we are as good as the parcel operators now in IT, and we are ahead of any pallet network. We have overtaken them, we are leading the field.”

Central to the network’s “massive strides” in IT, is Fortec Connect, an Android app that the network started rolling out last year on ruggedised  Samsung Xcover2 handsets.

About 230 Android devices are now being used by 60 of Fortec’s 72 haulier-members, with the remaining 12 set to be on board by the year’s end after compatibility work is completed to allow communication with their transport management systems.

Fortec Connect has taken the network paper-free, with sign on-screen, and an automatic time, date and GPS stamp, all in real-time, initially for deliveries but shortly for collections too. It also allows hub-to-driver communication.

The devices are not tied to Fortec and can be used across operators’ businesses.

While the units via GPS provide telematics data giving Fortec oversight of member trunks (shortly to be opened up to haulier members too), the final piece of the puzzle will be complete in the fourth quarter with the introduction  of active RFID technology.

Fortec is using passive RFID at its hub to track individual vehicles on arrival using smartcards, but the introduction of active RFID on consignment labels will allow it to track individual pallets throughout their journeys, as well as removing the need to manually scan them.

Fortec believes the security dimension of active RFID pallet tracking will also provide members with an up-selling opportunity to take to clients.

“We and our member-partners, and clients, will have total transparency from creation to the end of every pallet movement [by the year end],” said Knowles.

“It will give our members improved efficiency in their operations and offer them more value-added points than the competition.”