20 years of successful cooperation between Egger and Soloplan

The company has already been successfully using the TMS CarLo® since 2002.

Egger GesmbH, with headquarters in Bruck an der Mur in Styria (Austria), is one of Soloplan’s most faithful customers. By now, they annually process 1,500 very specific transports requiring an immense amount of expertise – with 35 vehicles of their own and many external vehicles in fixed planning. In order to round off their transport offer and be able to face the economic changes of the time from a stronger position, Egger also offers warehouse logistics and warehouse services, real estate industry and consumer goods in the B2B/B2C area.

Egger already recognised how important the step towards digital workplaces was as early as 2002 and made the change with the implementation of CarLo®. Due to the continuous growth of the fleet back then, it was necessary to efficiently organise the transports to be able to fulfil the customers’ requirements with limited staff resources. An important requirement of Egger GesmbH was to transfer the previously existing “paper planning” into a comprehensive computer system.

Back then, they received orders by phone and fax. For every order, the dispatcher filled in a pre-printed cover sheet with the data. The allocation of the trucks/semi-trailers also took place on pre-printed sheets and additional auxiliary lists. After the transport and receipt of the transport documents, the respective lists were compared and manually entered into a calculation programme for invoice creation.

CarLo® convinces all along the line

The flood of handwritten lists is almost unimaginable by now–today, every order is processed completely digitally with CarLo®, from start to finish.

“To me, it was especially important to have planning visually integrated in the computer system, not only in lists. Another requirement was that all processes-from orders and planning to calculation and statistics-were to be connected so that the order did not need to be newly created in every step,” says Mr Egger, CEO.

The results that Egger GesmbH achieves by using the software are remarkable–they save a significant amount of time due to the one-time creation of the orders and the in part directly executed calculation. Furthermore, the uniqueness of the orders due to the order and tour numbers makes searches simpler, even years later. Users benefit from the work with CarLo®, since, thanks to the clarity and simple operation, tediously training new employees is now a thing of the past. Egger GesmbH also places a positive emphasis on the sophisticated interplay with Outlook, since the automated creation of e-mails with the desired attachments saves them work steps.

The foundation for the further cooperation has been laid

Both Soloplan and Egger GesmbH are owner-managed family businesses. In both companies, the succession through the sons has already been established. In spite of the closeness to tradition, the change towards digitalisation is very present at the forwarding company Egger GesmbH as well. Thus, in cooperation with Soloplan, they plan on continuing to rationalise the time required for all areas of work in the next years.

“It is great that requests and technical problems are quickly and simply processed by Soloplan. We are thrilled that we were able to customise our company solution with CarLo®. They did not force any programme components that we did not need on us. You only buy and pay for what you need,” says Mr Egger, CEO

In the future, they plan on managing appointments for permits etc. via CarLo® as well to avoid external lists. Additionally, the cost calculation integrated in CarLo® is to be directly incorporated in planning processes in order to see at the very beginning whether the truck is being used in a cost-covering/profitable way.

Soloplan processes in the course of time

Of course, much has changed in the last 20 years. Long-time Soloplan employee Mr Smyrek recalls the installation back in 2002:

“Generally, you cannot compare CarLo® then to CarLo® now. Only a few parts, such as the calculation, are still structured similarly to then.“

Egger GesmbH has also demonstrated strong growth in terms of personnel in recent years. As a highly qualified forwarder, the owner’s son, Alexander Egger, has taken over the entire management of the planning processes and has since then been building up a young, trained and highly motivated team around himself–with great success.

“My young dispatchers need the best tool there is to support them during their daily work. With the new CarLo® inTOUCH, we are giving them just that. We are looking forward to using the advantages of the new and highly professional programme. I am especially impressed by the topics artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, which are included in the new add-on developed by Soloplan and will make our daily work noticeably easier. To be able to make optimal use of the software solution, we regularly visit training events at the Soloplan Academy in Kempten.Cutting-edge training facilities and accommodation are available here,” says Alexander Egger, Authorised Signatory.

Today, installations are carried out based on the Ready-to-Work concept developed specifically for this purpose by Soloplan. Every customer is allocated a dedicated project manager who is responsible for the coordination during the implementation phase and serves as the main project contact person. Together with the project manager, a milestone plan is formulated and, before the actual installation and training appointments, all necessary partial steps are set out in an elaborate and individual concept.

Would you like to learn more about the logistics software CarLo® and its numerous add-ons?

Then feel free to arrange an individual presentation appointment today and contact us via e-mail to info@soloplan.com, by phone at +49 831 57407-300 or using our LIVE chat under www.soloplan.com.