R. Schmidt Int. Transporte GmbH: Double pioneer

Sound cost awareness is the key to success for Roland Schmidt. So the carrier from Steinhagen could cope well with the severe crisis years 2009 and 2010. Thanks to anticipatorily built up reserves and an extremely lean corporate structure, the owner-managed forwarding agency has now existed for 23 years.

The critical look at all expenditures of the company includes the shipping software as well. In 2005 Roland Schmidt had already decided in favor of cargo support dispo. “Ten years ago we were the first customers of the then still very young software company,” Schmidt recalls. Linked to this was a very cheap entry price, which suited this bargain hunter very well. However, eight years later the monthly costs of the maintenance contract were targeted by the carrier. “For us, the software was perfect and I therefore simply wanted no longer to contribute to the costs for the development of the program,” explains Schmidt. From that date, Schmidt renounced updates and service, which worked well for about two years.

But in the course of an office relocation on 1 January 2015 Schmidt looked for an entirely new transportation management system. For the entrepreneur it was apparent that no longer maintained software would sooner or later encounter its limits. A future-assured and yet affordable solution was therefore needed.

Flexible Cost Structure

Together with his dispatcher Henning Nitsche, Schmidt then studied the market for shipping software. “We discovered that none of the solutions in the lower price segment can be compared with the performance of cargo support dispo” admits Nitsche. Against this background, Schmidt once again contacted his previous software suppliers and thus learned about MAXFLEX, the rental version of which cargo support dispo officially first presented in May 2015. Maxflex is technically and functionally related to cargo support dispo and has an identical operating concept.

“MAXFLEX convinced me immediately through the flexible cost structure,” explains Schmidt. At MAXFLEX customers do not enter a contractual obligation and only pay for the actually accessed services. The costs comply thereby with the number of trucks, and not – as usual – with the number of workplaces in the company. To use the software only costs from 5.25 EUR per month per truck. “Should we ever need to sign off one of our ten trucks, our monthly rental costs decrease immediately,” says Schmidt.

Transparent Expenditure

Already on February 1 2015 MAXFLEX was installed on the computers in Steinhagen and the work could begin immediately. “We did not need any training, since we knew the software already,” said Schmidt. Compared to the previous version of cargo support dispo MAXFLEX had become even faster. One could clearly sense “the development progress of the past two years.”

MAXFLEX visualizes the economic situation of the company at a glance. The order list of the Transport Management System supports the dispatcher through color highlights: When the column “contribution margin” is highlighted in green, then the corresponding order is profitable. The color red indicates a loss. For the direct costing the actual costs which arise per kilometer and hour for Schmidt are deposited in MAXFLEX. The software matches on this basis the agreed freight rates with the actual expenditures.

Permanent Analysis

Very helpful as well are the ferry prices stored in MAXFLEX, especially since over 80 percent of the orders performed by Schmidt are in Scandinavia. The software knows the costs and timetables of all ferry connections between Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In route planning with MAXFLEX all connection alternatives with the corresponding costs are displayed to the dispatcher. Roland Schmidt SpeditionThus price inquiries can also be

answered quickly on the phone. When an order has been placed it is then assigned to a vehicle and sent via TomTom telematics directly to the driver. The likewise possible integration of TomTom in MAXFLEX was dispensed with by Schmidt. “The effort involved in the double entry of orders remains limited with us,” said the CEO.

Very helpful as well are the ferry prices stored in MAXFLEX, especially since over 80 percent of the orders performed by Schmidt are in Scandinavia. The software knows the costs and timetables of all ferry The company processes around 100 to 120 orders per month, which are allocated 80 percent into digital form. This volume represents a turnover of 140,000-170,000 EUR, of which the ferry costs alone account for approximately 40,000 EUR. Fuel, driver wages and the different toll rates of the neighboring European countries have to be added to this. Mainly because of the enormous costs in the transport sector the ongoing analysis of the economic situation is essential for survival. “Here MAXFLEX offers us almost unlimited possibilities. At any time we can view the earnings per driver, client or vehicles “, Nitsche reports. For Roland Schmidt controlling is at the core of an entrepreneur: “One needs to know where you stand and not only then when there is no more money.”

Positive Balance

Schmidt was in any case “really glad” that he followed his spontaneous impulse in January 2015 and once again called cargo support. There his shipping company might well have gone down in history: After Schmidt had already been one of the first customers of cargo support dispo ten years ago, he is now one of the satisfied pioneers of MAXFLEX. After the first operating year Schmidt draws up in any case a positive balance: “MAXFLEX is the ideal solution for small carriers. The system is running properly, so that we to date never before had to call the software company. “This also ultimately saves money.

Background: R. Schmidt Int. Transporte GmbH

R. Schmidt Int. Transporte GmbH specializes in trailer trucking and part and completely loaded containers between Scandinavia and Germany. Founded in 1993, the privately held company with headquarters in Steinhagen next to Stralsund employs 13 employees, who generated sales in 2014 of around EUR 1.5 million. Concerning the fleet, Founder and Managing Director Roland Schmidt focuses on the brands Scania, Volvo and MAN. In addition to the ten tractors, nine own box semitrailers and canvas trailers are in use.

Background: MAXFLEX Software

MAXFLEX Software GmbH & Co. KG specializes in the renting of integrated shipping software and is thus aimed at transport companies with smaller fleets. The solution MAXFLEX is based on the proven, widely used software cargo support dispo and supports the complete order processing from order entry through dispatching and feedback to billing.