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Host: TransFollow 

Guest: Eric CHAUMILLON

07/12/2023

 

Hello Éric, how are you?

Very well, thank you.

So, could you please introduce yourself and tell us more about YouStock?

Yes, of course. I'm Éric, director of operations from YouStock, and YouStock was created in 2015 in Monaco with the aim of facilitating storage. We realized that there was a significant inflation in square meter prices and a lack of cellars in new constructions. With the majority having 100 cellars and apartments getting smaller in city centers, the demand for storage logically skyrocketed. There are three main solutions: self-storage, which is expensive and cumbersome as the client must do everything themselves and often pays for unused or poorly optimized space. There are also storage units, but they are often located outside city centers in industrial areas. Finally, there's YouStock, a solution with Digital Cap in Pick and Store, allowing online inventory management and one-click storage or delivery orders. For example, if you entrusted us with your bicycle on Wednesday and see that the weather is nice, you can order the delivery of your bicycle, and we will pick it up for free within 48 hours. That's how it works. We are present in Paris, Nice, Lyon, Bordeaux, Monaco, and recently in Brussels. Our vision is to become a key player in the Smart City, offering intelligent, connected, economical, and practical storage services.

 

What led you to decide to digitalize your transports?

Since its beginning, YouStock has been paperless and time-efficient. Copy-pasting information into different tools to create waybills, send them to subcontractors, have them printed, and deal with client signals and subcontractor returns has ecological impacts and is time-consuming. So, from the beginning, the e-CMR was a natural choice for me. I conducted some internet research, contacted several providers, and found a product sheet that was quite simple. The creation of the e-CMR via an API to avoid redundant data entry, connection via an access code to avoid opening accounts for subcontractors everywhere, and, most importantly, the TransFollow App can operate offline . Since we operate nationwide, in basements, and garages, this operating mode was essential for us. We participated in demonstrations with Florent, our operational support, and discovered TransFollow. The first demo with Guillaume (Country Manager of France at TransFollow) described all the possibilities, and it was clear they understood what we needed. After a second meeting with Jean-Christophe (Lead Developer at TransFollow), more technical in nature, the interoperability and simplicity of the integration were evident. We found TransFollow on the internet, and among all the demos we had, it was the best and there was no other products could compare with it.

 

Was it easy to integrate TransFollow into your existing systems and workflows?

It went really well because everything we had imagined was possible with TransFollow. The integration went very well without any issues.

 

How TransFollow helps simplify your transport and logistics processes? What advantages do you expect from the e-CMR for your businesses?

I hate wasting time, especially in redundant data entry. Searching for lost waybills in trucks or staying in trucks is not feasible anymore due to the enormous time loss. Therefore, the e-CMR is a natural choice for us. Integration into our activity allows us to save time, especially in terms of responsiveness. Thanks to the Red Flag feature, as soon as we have an observation, it allows us to anticipate and immediately call the client to explain what happened, preserve their rights, and guide them on actions like sending a registered letter within 10 days. This level of reactivity extends to our subcontractors. They no longer need to worry about whether they received the waybill or not, whether the team leaders have it, and whether it's in the truck. We manage all of that remotely and save a significant amount of time.

 

What features do you find most useful when digitalizing your transports?

Clearly, as we saw at the beginning, the Fly Mode feature (access all data even without internet connection) is the most important for us. We were using another CMR system before, and there were numerous cases where the field called us to say there was no network, they were in basements, in areas with no signal, making it impossible to get signatures. We would then revert to the old way of printing the waybill, scanning, and sending. Everything we didn't want to do. With TransFollow, the API connection automatically creates all waybills because we already have all the information in our system. Without this, we would have had to re-enter the information into another system. So, we save a lot of time with the API connection.

 

With your operations now digitized, could you please outline your company's future projects and goals, and how will you implement to achieve them?

In the moving industry, there are specificities, especially regarding reserves. At any given moment, we must protect our company when entering a residence, common areas, indicating any reserves, scratches on elevators or staircases, etc. Improving both the simplification of tasks for our operational teams and the customer experience is crucial. We plan to customize the three observation options available on TransFollow to better align with the moving industry. Additionally, we'll explore solutions to automatically populate our freight operations register by combining information from our system and TransFollow.

 

Do you recommend your provider partners to digitalize their transport processes?

Yes—100%, that's our goal to make our partners to be equipped with TransFollow. We are currently in the first phase of deployment, covering 40% of our providers using the TransFollow solution. The initial feedback is positive, and they find the system very flexible to work with. We are at 40%, and reaching 100% is our goal.

 

Thank you very much, Éric, for your participation.

Thank you!

 

 

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