SW Customer case · Sjaak de Wit Transport
Sjaak de Wit Transport: a flexible and modern transport management system
From five locations across the Netherlands, Sjaak de Wit Transport carries beautiful flowers and plants to Paris, with FiLogic OpenTMS as its digital backbone.
Flowers and plants to the city of love
If you are driving to the city of love soon, you might pass the vehicles of Sjaak de Wit Transport along the way. This company from Heemskerk carries beautiful flowers and plants to Paris from five different locations across the Netherlands. After all, those romantic French cannot go a day without red roses. Sjaak de Wit founded his own business in 2019 and has been a loyal user of our OpenTMS ever since.
Now or never
Sjaak previously worked as a driver and logistics employee in supermarket transport, until he set out on his own in 2019. I had always dreamed of starting my own business, he says. When I found out I was going to become a father that year, I knew the moment had come. If I waited any longer, I might never do it.
A bold step with no regrets
He made this decision even though the whole world was turned upside down by the coronavirus. In that sense it was a bold step, but to this day I have no regrets. In his previous roles Sjaak already travelled to France often and gradually became a familiar face at the wholesalers. I heard people complaining about flower and plant transport and challenged myself to do it better.
From one van to eight own vehicles
Starting a business during a pandemic brought extra challenges, but the lockdown also made it easier to begin calmly. At first Sjaak rented just one van from the fruit and vegetable business of his father and uncle. Now he has eight of his own vehicles and works with four fixed charters. The drivers understand exactly how we work and what is expected. We plan their vans in our transport management system as if they were our own vehicles.
Choosing a TMS was easy
At his previous employer Sjaak already used FiLogic software, which came out on top at the time. Other packages were often rather clunky and looked outdated, he says. So when I started for myself, I did not have to think long. What is great about this OpenTMS is its scalability. If we want to grow, we request a few extra users. If that turns out to be too much, we simply scale back down. We could also handle most of the setup ourselves, and the costs are relatively low.
Conditioned transport down to the detail
Flower and plant transport is a specialism of its own and demands specific expertise. Safeguarding the temperature and humidity in the cargo space is hugely important. The TMS indicates whether an order is for flowers, plants or both, and we add the right cooling instruction digitally. This is then measured continuously via sensors we connect to the on-board computer. Load carriers and packaging administration are also part of the software, and because the system links with the Exact accounting program, the administrative handling is taken care of right away.
Growth calls for automation
Sjaak’s wish for the future is to increase the density of his network in northern France. The bulk of the transport goes to Paris, where he works with a French courier. I really believe in cooperation and do not feel I have to do everything myself. Automation plays an important role in this. By doing a lot digitally we keep our overhead costs down. That way we can grow, close our network and at the same time remain a small, tight team that says what it does, and does what it says.
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