HB Customer case · TGV Logistics
From Excel to efficiency: how TGV Logistics innovates through digitalisation
With fourteen transport vans and eight special trailers, TGV Logistics traded a fragile Excel file for a phased OpenTMS rollout, and is now even exploring smart cooperation with the neighbours.
A household name in the region
If you see a huge transport van pulling a trailer up to 17.5 metres long through the Hardenberg or Emmen region, loaded with cable reels or fibre-optic tubes, chances are it belongs to TGV Logistics. With fourteen transport vans and eight special trailers, they are a household name in the region for B2B transport. We spoke with Herman Boerman, founder and owner, about his company, his plans to modernise and his reasons for choosing our OpenTMS.
Like father, like son
Herman started TGV Logistics in 2006 with a single van. That proved a bullseye, because the company grew quickly. In the early years it was able to operate for a while under the wing of another transport company, which took invoicing and planning out of Herman’s hands. Today around thirty people work for him and his son is a co-partner. Alongside special transport for things like oil pipelines, TGV Logistics also offers courier services and express transport. The company is currently busy with sustainability and dreams of a fully electric fleet in the future.
Excel with colours
Before TGV Logistics switched to our OpenTMS, there was mostly Excel. There are three of us in the office: Sylvia from administration, my son and me, Herman says. But really only Sylvia knew what those colours in the Excel file meant. Invoiced or not yet invoiced? Without that Excel file and Sylvia, we were nowhere. A few years ago this still worked, but we increasingly noticed we were far too busy entering data manually and twice over, and we were losing our grip on the process. And the risk that the file might one day crash was one we really did not want to run any longer.
The right moment
As early as 2020 Herman had the idea of switching to a TMS. We felt it was important to be able to take real steps and modernise with a new TMS, he explains. But we had other priorities at the time, so it was put on the back burner. Foolish really, because we were growing fast and badly needed it. Last year we did decide to take the step, and fortunately FiLogic was still there for us.
Taking it slow, rolled out in phases
The OpenTMS implementation at TGV Logistics takes a little longer than for the average user. We wanted to roll out the implementation in phases, Herman says. First make sure one part is completely in place and we are used to it, and only then the next. As a result the whole process takes twelve months in total, but this works very well for us. We used to think we had to partner with another transport company to use so many features. But that is exactly what is great about the OpenTMS: even if you have just one vehicle, you can still do everything a large company can. And it is very affordable too.
Getting a taste for it
Our planning is already fully in the OpenTMS and we are now busy moving invoicing over as well, Herman says enthusiastically. We really want to get it right from the start, so we take the time to link the accounting program and enter the right data. Faruk from FiLogic drops by regularly to see how things are going, and I can always call FiLogic if something comes up. Those short lines are so welcome. We are also working hard on a special link for TGV’s largest customers. They no longer have to email their orders for manual entry, because via a mailbox or an online portal the orders are read into the OpenTMS automatically. That saves a lot of work for TGV and for their customers.
A step further, together with the neighbours
Besides automating order entry, Herman is working with us on further innovations. With our neighbours, also a transport company, we want to set up cooperation between our systems, he says. That way the OpenTMS recognises, for example, when they need to send a van to the same location as us at a certain time. We then get a signal and avoid both driving to the same place. That saves us both time and money, and on top of that it is good for the environment. That is what I find so wonderful: with the FiLogic OpenTMS you automatically keep pace with the latest developments in our sector.
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