Betonson, the Benelux prefab-concrete supplier, has outsourced its entire production site logistics operations to TDG Son in an deal worth £26m (40m euros).
TDG Son will operate Betonson’s inbound logistics, pre-loading of trailers and all the outbound logistics including project planning, orders, customer service issues.
It expects to handle more than 30,000 outbound truckloads a year.
TDG Son has been working with Betonson for 50 years. Roel van Eert, logistics manager of Betonson, said: “As our market has become more complex, we have been forced to look for additional efficiencies in our supply chain without losing our logistics performance.”
A strategic review resulted in investment by both companies in a joint venture. Betonson now has a new warehouse department, employing six full time staff, supported by TDG’s investment in new systems and capacity. Together they will arrange and optimise the links between internal and external movements, stock activities, loading and pre-loading vehicles and keep the customers informed about deliveries.
Patrick Stolker general manager of TDG Son said: “Within the concrete transport-business, 99 per cent are time deliveries. But with the increasing road congestion and tighter project planning on building sites, we were forced to look for other new logistic solutions to keep our high performance level of 98 per cent on-time deliveries.”
One of the particular challenges of the prefab concrete business is that the products tend to be exceptionally large and heavy, and are individually made to a customer’s specification. TDG Son specialises in transporting these loads, typically up to 60m length and over 100 tonnes in weight, and has now developed a revolutionary logistic concept within the prefab-concrete business.
It has invented a 13600 mm swap-body which can be used throughout the whole supply chain, from the production line right through to deliveries to Betonson’s customers. This concept makes just-in-time deliveries possible as it has many operational and financial advantages in comparison to the normal standard trailer.
They can be used for internal transport movements because the investment is 75 per cent lower than the more traditional alternative, and maintenance costs are expected to reduce by up to 60 per cent. In addition, these swap-bodies can be efficiently stacked 4-high on return to Betonson’s production sites.
