The Interview – Containerlift & Truckcom

Sidelifters have been in regular use in Australia and New Zealand since the 1970s for lifting loaded shipping containers to the ground at importers’ premises and back onto trucks without needing costly container handling equipment. However these hardworking machines were largely unheard of here until 15 years ago, when a chance conversation in a New Zealand pub inspired Containerlift’s Managing Director Doug Baker to bring the Sidelifter revolution to this side of the globe.

Today Containerlift is Britain’s leading provider of ground-based container handling services, and the UK representative of world leading sidelifter manufacturer Steelbro, on whose behalf it rents, leases and sells these machines here, backed with a full service network. In a parallel move Containerlift has also developed and launched Truckcom, a powerful PDA-based haulage fleet management system connecting vehicles, offices and warehouses. Truckcom’s broad and growing range of features include security tracking and vehicle telemetry. Warehouse & Logistics News spoke to Joost Baker, Containerlift Sales Director and Hugh Wightwick, head of Business Development for Truckcom Systems Ltd.

As told by Joost Baker, Doug Baker’s son, the Containerlift story is a classic tale of success through endeavour: “Despite sidelifters’ widespread use in New Zealand, the container road transport industry here is radically different, so it took time to get things moving. In the end Doug decided the only way to prove the demand for containers to be handled safely at ground level through this service was to do what he knew best, so he started operating the equipment himself.”

UK demand for Containerlift’s services has grown steadily, with our increasing focus on Health & Safety in recent years. It now operates 20 Steelbro sidelifters across Britain, handling 15,000 container movements per year for an active customer base of over 500 businesses, from small importers and exporters to shipping lines. Containerlift also has partners operating sidelifters across Europe.

Solutions for the whole supply chain
Containerlift’s Chairman Doug Baker is still actively involved in Containerlift and Truckcom’s strategic decisions and the implementation of Containerlift’s philosophy, Container Movement Solutions. This provision of solutions, often combined with Truckcom’s IT systems, has steered the company’s development. Containerlift and Truckcom’s target customers cover the entire supply chain, from end users or shippers to other hauliers, and Joost Baker and Hugh Wightwick frequently work together to maximise the cross-selling opportunities.

“When Truckcom was first launched,” says Hugh, “most of the key accounts were developed with existing Containerlift customers. Conversely, Containerlift has won new business by offering Truckcom as a value-added feature of its transport solutions.”

Containerlift’s expected turnover this year is £7m. With extensive new business in the pipeline, Containerlift expect at least 50% growth in ’08-’09, says Joost. Truckcom has been proactively sold as a software solution, separate from Containerlift, for about two years. During this time Truckcom has built its customer base to approximately 1,000 users. With new business under way, including contracts for combined Containerlift and Truckcom solutions, Hugh Wightwick hopes to see the number double in the next 12 months.

Containerlift’s market is predominantly the UK, and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future, says Joost. While Truckcom is currently limited to the UK, various customers operating internationally are looking at rolling the system out globally.

The Containerlift Concept
“A lot of our marketing is focused on importers and exporters,” says Joost Baker, “who create the demand for shipping containers to be delivered on to the ground. A great deal of business comes by referrals. Shipping lines and freight forwarders will offer the service of containers delivered to the ground when vying for new business. Introducing a sidelifter to a fleet of conventional skeletal vehicles gives the operator more options.”

Containerlift handles all standard container sizes – 20ft, 40ft and 45ft, weighing up to 36,000kg. There are many benefits for shippers who take delivery of shipping containers onto the ground. Joost presents the case:

“Sidelifter technology’s potential is only just being realised. The first incentive is the Health and Safety benefits associated with working at ground level. The HS&E advice is that where working at height can be avoided, the employer must do so. The new offence of corporate manslaughter has focused the attention of senior management and company directors, who are increasingly demanding their containers be delivered to the ground. Following the launch of the Health & Safety Executive’s new campaign to raise awareness of the risk to workers of injury or death following falls from vehicles, an increasing number of shippers are seeking our service.

“The second reason for using sidelifters in this way is that shippers don’t need specialised load equipment like ramps or loading bays, and aren’t restricted by how many of these they have. Next, shippers are free to load or unload shipping containers at their own pace, with no charges for vehicles and drivers kept waiting. Chances are, loading of the container will be more efficient too. We have many customers who keep a sidelifter onsite and lift containers to and from conventional vehicles as they arrive.”

Steelbro – World leading technology
Containerlift has been Steelbro’s UK distributor for approximately 15 years. In 2003 the Steelbro sidelifter won Commercial Motor magazine’s Special Purpose Trailer of the Year. Steelbro’s head office is in New Zealand: assembly takes place in locations around the world, including Europe.

“There are various models of sidelifter available,” says Joost, “but for the UK market we focus on the most flexible machines, that handle all standard size containers.”

Typical Containerlift customers, says Joost, are anyone using containers to handle palletised or non-palletised goods: “As the video on our web site shows, clients include electronics companies: the Army, for moving tanks: civilians shipping cars, tractors and other large items: supermarkets wanting temporary storage: construction sites: a charity shipping grain to the third world: and a removals company’s consolidation centre wanting extra storage.”

Containerlift regularly get involved with helping customers modify their operation to use containers effectively in this way, and will happily carry out demonstrations and trial deliveries: “By being more involved and understanding customers’ operations, we can demonstrate where savings can be made to offset the additional delivery cost.”

On track for success
Containerlift is regularly engaged in rail activity, and a typical week sees 30 or more containers moved by rail, says Joost: “Our vehicles’ lifting services are often employed in intermodal applications. We also rent, lease and sell sidelifter equipment for rail work.”

The financial incentives for UK industry to move goods by rail instead of road are often overlooked. Joost explains: “A big cost component of moving containers by rail is incurred when the container changes transport mode. Typically a reach stacker is used to handle containers between the train and road vehicles. The cost of a reach stacker and the infrastructure for its operation are huge. When there are no trains, the fixed equipment and infrastructure remains idle.”

Recently Rugby Cement avoided these huge costs when they purchased two Steelbro sidelifters for moving containers to and from EWS trains at the Heathrow Terminal Five project.

Truckcom – communication on the move
Truckcom, as its name suggests, is all about trucks and communication. As with Containerlift, once you grasp the concept, the benefits are compelling. Hugh Wightwick explains: “Truckcom puts drivers in two-way communication with their office; the vehicles are satellite tracked using Truckcom; and customers can see the status of each movement – pending, in progress, completed – together with instantaneous POD signatures and a map view of where the vehicle is.

“Truckcom started in 1997 as an Excel spreadsheet,” says Hugh, “and we’re now on the third generation product.”Truckcom was spun off in 2006 as a separate business, though the Truckcom team still work very closely with Containerlift. The heart of the system is the mobile software, which runs on PDAs. A driver using a Truckcom-enabled mobile can get his work instructions; record his vehicle walkaround checks; record his working time, POA and tacho rests; get SatNav guidance to his destination; advise late running; and get customer signatures directly on the screen. Drivers can even book holiday time on-screen. The device also works as a ‘phone and a camera. Truckcom also features a powerful office system, which can automatically receive jobs from customers, price them, supply quotations and generate invoices.

“Once Truckcom is in place, users tend to focus on the exceptions – dealing with jobs that go wrong, for instance – because the normal business is handled pretty much automatically.”

Truckcom also has a barcode system, used for warehouse management. Other recent new additions include security tracking, which works even if the PDA has been stolen or thrown out of the window in a theft or hijack. Another feature is vehicle telemetry, tracking how vehicles are driven, monitoring heavy acceleration, fuel wasted while idling. Automatic tachograph monitoring is built in, giving a level of control over fleets that operators could only dream of a few years ago. Truckcom records and reports to the client head office in real time so dispatchers can look on screen and see their performance. The system also sends pop-up warnings about abnormal events. Truckcom is aimed at organisations of any size involved in haulage and logistics. “Many of our customers,” says Hugh, “are larger operators with more than 100 vehicles, but we’ve got several smaller customers too.

“Our largest customer is a container haulier based in Felixstowe, who operates over 200 mobile devices and has 40 users in six offices around the UK. Our smallest customer is a pallet and parcel operator in Skipton, who runs nine vehicles on the system. We’re very pleased with the take-up, considering we only started actively marketing it during 2006. More organisations are realising they need to move into this kind of technology, and we’re seeing a lot of new interest.

“Unlike other software vendors, all our development is done here. We pride ourselves on being in touch with the real haulage and logistics world: our software is developed in offices that handle haulage operations every day. This co-location helps us develop the software in the best way.”

Truckcom is supplier-neutral. If an operator runs a mixed fleet, they can install Truckcom in every vehicle for a standard solution. When vehicles are sold or returned, it’s very easy to remove Truckcom kit and put it into another vehicle. “A lot of operators don’t use permanently mounted fittings for Truckcom, just a suction mount and cigarette lighter charger. The idea of the system being a glorified mobile phone has its advantages!”

Truckcom has rapidly proved its potential as a fleet management software solution, says Hugh Wightwick: “It’s now being used by a number of high profile operators, and has attracted the interest of many more. By listening to its users and asking what else they would like it to do, we will keep Truckcom in its market leading position.”

The way forward
“Together or separately, our two operations are perfectly placed to meet industry’s needs,” Joost Baker concludes. “For Containerlift, the biggest single driver in uptake is the H&SE focus on injuries sustained through falling from vehicles. Working with containers delivered on the ground is simply the safest option. The other pressure driving customers to us is economic. Fuel, warehousing and labour cost are rising all the time, and containers delivered directly to importers or exporters, whether or not they have specialist loading facilities, cut out a lot of these costs. “On the Truckcom side we offer customers one of the first complete fleet management software packages to incorporate vehicle telemetry information feedback from the vehicle fleet to the office in real time. Both propositions are very strong, and in partnership they add up to a unique service.”

Containerlift
Tel: 0800 174 546
www.containerlift.co.uk

Truckcom
Tel: 0870 350 0821
www.truckcom.co.uk