Unifreight fights shrinking volumes using RangeGate

Unifreight, a Zimbabwean general freight services provider, has upgraded its wireless barcode scanner solution and implemented integration software from RangeGate to help maintain volumes in a shrinking market. The R3 million deal sees the business replacing Intermec handheld equipment with Symbol 6846 handheld devices and Intermec M200 controllers with Symbol AP 4121 access points.

The RangeGate INTER-GATE integration suite has been implemented to provide a connection between the Symbol handheld devices and an IBM AS400 server. Symbol`s Zimbabwe partner, Benau, provided the handheld devices.

"The handheld devices we are replacing are no longer in production and the controllers they work through are also outdated, which means that we cannot get support for them," says David Cruttenden, chief executive at the Unifreight Group.

Unifreight offers a guaranteed freight delivery service called Swift. Most of the routes covering the entire country are overnight but in approximately 35 of the more remote areas three deliveries per week are made, still guaranteed.

Between 7 500 and 8 000 consignments are shipped daily and in excess of 20 000 items are moved nightly. This adds up to an average of between 1 500 and 2 000t of freight every 24 hours. Packages range in size from 1kg up to shipping container sizes. Guaranteeing the service requires a tracking facility of some sort, which is sometimes difficult due to the uncertainty of communications services in the country.

"At the heart of our business model is an IT system in which all the parcels are barcoded, allowing us to unite our accounting and freight location systems. The united system, called Pacer, was installed five years ago, replacing a manual paper-based process," says Cruttenden.

Although Unifreight has updated the equipment it uses, processes remain unchanged since the installation of Pacer. Drivers collect freight of all sizes, scan barcodes and consignment notes, return to the depot where parcels are scanned into the depot, routed and shipped to their final destination.

Parcels are scanned as they leave the depot and scanned on arrival at their final destination, where a time stamp is also taken. This is critical to meeting the requirements of the guaranteed service Unifreight offers, one of the few differentiators in a tough market. On returning, the depot scanners feed their information into the onsite system. For 20 sites around the country, information is remotely updated to the AS400 server at the main depot.

"The mobile computing and Pacer systems automate many of the tasks performed manually in the past. The goods received note with the customer`s signature is scanned into Pacer and made available online. That`s especially important for the international courier companies that use us to fulfil the final leg of the parcel`s journey and formed a large part of our staff`s duties in the past," says Cruttenden.

The final part of phase one of the upgrade project was completed in mid August. This is the customisation of the INTER-GATE software from RangeGate that integrates the barcode scanners with the AS400 system. The key to successful mobile computing is allowing mobile devices to interact with business systems. Enterprise application integration allows the value of mobile computing to be fully realised.

"We are customising the solution for Unifreight so that no code sits on the handheld device and should the WAN links go down between sites, information can be synchronised at a later stage," says Gavin White, senior account manager at RangeGate.

Keeping the handheld device free of code minimises the computing power required at that point of the system and, therefore, costs.

"Now that the INTER-GATE solution at Unifreight has gone live the company can begin maximising its control system efficiencies. We expect this project to prove extremely successful due to the simplicity of its design and ongoing support requirements. Simplicity, imperative to mobile applications, does not compromise on functionality," says Graham Grewcock, national sales director at RangeGate.