User case: Transports Cordier SAS & TESS

A successful tailor-made eCMR integration Transports Cordier SAS from France

A family company created in 1970, Transports Cordier provides high volume transports for industry, construction and food processing from its headquarters in Is-sur-Tille (France) and five agencies spread across France. The company, which generated sales of 50 million euros in 2019 and processes an average of 1.8 million paper transport documents each year.

In order to optimize administrative management while improving the company’s carbon footprint by reducing paper, Ludovic Colley, co-manager of Transports Cordier, has chosen to integrate the TransFollow digital consignment note into their information system, which is operational since October 2020.

TransFollow, as benchmark supplier in terms of eCMR in Europe, has fully integrated its solution with the TMS TESS Road Manager and TESS’ solution SMARTroad Fleet Management System (FMS), enabling to centralize the management and monitoring of eCMRs.

This means the eCMR can be created and managed in the already in use software of the Transports Cordier operators. Therefor, back-office operators and drivers keep their tools and working environments like they were used to.

Digitalization for Transports Cordier

“The implementation of the eCMR aims to strengthen the digitization processes to make our data business compatible. After a presentation of TransFollow, the solution convinced us by the security it offers and its strong capacity for interactivity with our TMS. In addition, the European footprint of TransFollow was also a guarantee of reliability which translated into good support throughout the implementation process “, comments Ludovic Colley.

Deployed for a few months, the solution has yet to be rolled out to all Transports Cordier’ customers, who are divided in three categories. “Some are proactive with the eCMR and have already adopted it, others are being rolled out, while some customers want to keep the traditional transport document on a paper format,” explains Ludovic Colley.

“For this reason, we started the eCMR in beta test with three of them (in the field of insulation and transport of packaging) and informed all of our clients so that everyone apprehends this new way of working at their own pace. But there will be no turning back! Dematerialization remains difficult to understand for some carriers, but it will become really in force in a year or two. The paper consignment note will soon disappear.  We must therefore use the eCMR to our advantage and transform it into added value. TransFollow is the right partner to support us in our approach to equipping our customers, ”he says.

For Transports Cordier, the gains are already noticeable. The time spend on invoicing has been cut by half, compared to the previously process time for handling paper documents. Significant time savings are noted by operators when creating orders and when retrieving transport data on a daily basis. In addition, integration into TMS and FMS systems streamlines the exchange of information and simplifies the management of digital consignment notes.

The keys to successful integration

To meet the challenge of fully integrating the eCMR into the Transports Cordier’ information system, TransFollow has approached the software provider TESS, continuing the partnerships already established with TMS providers on the market. “Our aim is to provide maximum interoperability. Many national and international software providers have joined us so that the TransFollow eCMR and Transport Management Systems can communicate without having to re-enter information. The integration with TESS brings Transports Cordier the preservation of the tools to which users are already working with to minimize the organizational impact linked to digitalisation “, says Guillaume Salembier, Sales Manager France from TransFollow.

Beyond the performance of functionalities and API connections facilitating the integrations with transport software, TransFollow also conducts permanent regulatory monitoring, which is a source of trust for software suppliers. TransFollow is finalizing the integrations with several Transport Managemt Systems on the market, while the suppliers of WMS, ERP or FMS solutions confirm their commitment through customer projects linked to supply chain management.

Guillaume Salembier adds: “We are proud of the trust Transports Cordier have in us to support them in their development aimed at the digitization of their business. Our API connection allowed successful integration with the TESS Road Manager and Smart Road products without difficulty. At the request of Transports Cordier, we have even developed an additional functionality allowing the driver to deliver the eCMR by SMS. This will allow users to have an even easier adoption”.

Operational integration, what are we talking about?

On a daily basis, the operators of Transports Cordier use the TMS Road Manager to assign transports and missions after receiving an order and then generate the eCMR. This is distributed to the truckdrivers on their smartphone via the SmartRoad application, which makes it possible to validate the steps, retrieve transport documents and upload the data to the TMS. Data is exchanged via RoadManager web services between the TMS and the driver’s mobile application, the eCMR is therefor integrated into the TMS and made available to the customer on a web server. “Everything is automated in the TMS and transparent to the operator. We have developed all the methods necessary to automate the process of the eCMR (creation of the document, reception and integration into the TMS, creation of user accounts for each driver, and attaching additional documents to the eCMR…). The tools made available by TransFollow have enabled us to manage the consignment note from our SmartRoad application ”, explains Gilles André, Director of TESS.

By request of Ludovic Colley, TESS is currently working on the development of a functionality to add delivery form to the digital consignment note. They will be added to the transport order when the goods are loaded, transmitted to the TMS Road Manager and automatically attached to the eCMR.

Meanwhile, TransFollow continues to deploy its solution amongst French transport companies and logistics service providers. For example in SALVA transport (FR66) which started using the eCMR in November 2020, fully integrated with TMS and FMS software. Other carriers and also shippers are targeted and contracted.

Transports Cordier in brief:

  • Headquarters in Is-sur-Tille.
  • 5 secondary establishments in St-Evarzec, Bonneuil, Chalon / Saône, Avignon, Trith-St-Léger.
  • 2019 turnover: 50 M €.
  • 400 employees.
  • 350 vehicles.
  • Activity: high volume transports for industry, construction, food processing, petrochemical industry and combined rail-road transport on the South axis, Paris North and Paris North South.
  • Types of goods transported: packaging, metals, plastic iron, insulation products, hygiene products.