Business-owner Glen Cameron has come a long way since establishing his firm in 1975 with one sub-contractor-owned truck and the use of a phone box outside his depot.
Today, the Glen Cameron Group (Camerons) is a major operator servicing some of the largest and most diverse customers across Australia. The Group has grown to become a multimillion dollar logistics operation with more than 80,000m2 of warehouse space and a fleet of 350 company-owned vehicles plus 200 subcontractors.
It has expanded into five major divisions. These are: local trucking, couriers, warehousing, 3rd Party Logistics and interstate transport.
The Melbourne-based carrier has long been recognised for its commitment to advanced and integrated customer service. In fact, the GCG has won the Australian Freight & Logistics Award four times.
Deliberate growth plan
By 2001, Camerons owner Glen Cameron recognised that he couldn't take his business forward "without the backing of smart, fast, reliable systems". Camerons went in search of a technology partner to factor as an integral part of its shift from organic growth to a deliberate expansion strategy.
"Our old inhouse system had served us well but we outgrew it as the business became more complex, more diverse and geographically spread, and the demands for speed, access and integration increased," Cameron said.
"We have a flat structure and very hands on management and so can be responsive and highly flexible. We needed a tight match between our culture and our system functionality."
Camerons selected the TransLogix Sapphire Transport Management System (TMS), which is said to provide integrated and comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the transport and logistics business.
In the last ten years the business has grown four-fold, yet Camerons has needed to increase its user count by only 60 per cent for staff in its operations, sales, administration, accounts, warehousing and workshop areas across Australia.
Externally, the Group's customers are "pushing for access to more information, faster, all the time. Those information requirements vary from customer to customer, but they have pretty broad expectations. Our systems are vital to the management of their businesses and their ability to drive down supply chain costs," Cameron said.
Securing clients such as Coles and Woolworths demands the backing of highly functioned, reliable systems.
"To be able to beat the large operators in the market, we need to be able to offer tailored service and to manage dedicated, purpose-built fleets for customers. Today's strict contractual delivery targets mean there is no room for error," said Cameron.
"When we went out to tender [for a Team Management System] ten years ago we were asking for a lot of things that were out of left-field at the time. Things like mobility, radio frequency and warehousing functionality were not commonplace. We have been the catalyst for a lot of TransLogix's development and the first to use many of their modules.
In recent years the Group has become an extensive user of the Sapphire Mobility suite which manages all vehicles and drivers, including subcontractors. The most recent successful rollouts have been the 'smarter' modules such as web, mobile, radio frequency, document imaging and workshopping.
The web portal is under constant development as Camerons streamlines the availability of customer-related information. Clients have complete access to all supply chain information, via secure passwords and logins, including warehouse and picking, job booking, rate cards, POD images, inventory and accounts.
Pioneering plan
"When you change everything, as we did in 2001, you take the organisation through a lot of pain, as you have to change every thought process. But all areas of the business, our customers and our employees have won," said Cameron.
The Cameron Group is now reportedly at the forefront of technological development for competitive advantage. The company is able to offer tailored and flexible service, and meet strict contractual delivery targets. Camerons is also enjoying major time and cost savings through the customer web portal, and is reportedly working smarter, faster and in real time, and improving job allocation management along the way.
"The Sapphire suite has kept us at the cutting edge so that we can pre-empt customer expectations and deliver to their requirements," said Cameron.
Cameron's freight delivery system ensures it can meet strict contractual on-time commitments. Glen Cameron cited the example of being able to "consistently achieve KPIs for major customers of 99.8% on time delivery." Customers are reportedly realising the benefits of being able to do business across the Group easily and quickly.
Satisfaction levels continue to improve as billing delays are eliminated and paperwork is reduced.
"All reporting required by our customers is scheduled to run automatically and is available to them either via the portal or distributed via email. They have all their operational information and key performance data at their fingertips," Cameron said.
"We're now working smarter, faster and in real time. It's all about the processes. Good, stable software gives us the information we need for better decision making."
Vehicle tracking allows Camerons to not only monitor fleets and better allocate jobs but: "We can protect our drivers and fleets with exception reports displaying such vehicle management issues as speeding, over-revving, excessive idle time and waypoint stay time," he said.
Camerons optimises functionality within the Sapphire system to continually improve the workplace by ensuring safety and creating efficiencies. Real time updates of driver job status and truck positions means "greatly reduced communication between drivers and dispatchers".
"There are major savings in customer contact because of the functionality of the web portal. It takes the strain off our people," Cameron said.
* Anselm Waterfield is the managing director of TransLogix.