Easynet
Logistics Solutions
Easynet is an international managed network and hosting company, part of the BSkyB Group, delivering superbly managed solutions for business and enterprises. With operations in eight European countries and China, the company recognised that it is well placed to provide its services to the logistics market, as companies involved in logistics tend to need to be able to transfer data quickly and effectively across the globe.
As part of their research into the market, including gaining an in-depth understanding of how the market works, they wanted to understand what high level issues the key players in the market had on their radar. This was not day-to-day operational issues specific to the industry, but a higher level view of the issues of companies providing or using logistics services.
Easynet retained the services of Davies & Robson to research this and present the findings to their team. Davies & Robson arranged a series of interviews with directors and senior managers of retailers, manufacturers, service providers and public sector bodies. At each interview the interviewee discussed the key issues affecting their approach to business.
The number one issue: The Environment.
Whether or not one agrees that it is a real issue, companies are taking it seriously and are expecting their suppliers to do so. Defra has set up the Food Industry Sustainability Strategy (FISS) project, with a number of workstreams one of which is Food Transport. This group has set a target to reduce the environmental and social “cost” of transport by 20% by 2012.
It is focussing on a number of target areas to do this: the use of systems to optimise the use of fleet, reducing empty miles travelled, widening delivery windows, the use of engine technology to reduce emissions, etc. Quite how it will develop solutions and implement them remains to be seen, but the pressure within the boardroom is already having effects.
The location of new distribution centres is being influenced by the number of miles travelled more than other considerations; Tesco is to start using the Manchester Ship Canal to carry wine to bottling plants in Manchester, saving 1.1 million kilometres per annum, taking 50 vehicles off the roads each week.
Laurie McIlwee, Tesco Distribution Director, says: “By 2012 we aim to halve the amount of carbon emitted per case of goods delivered.” For an already efficient supply chain, that is going to be a major undertaking. It remains to be seen how the focus of miles travelled will impact on the depot infrastructure. No one really seems to be calculating the carbon footprint of depot operations – carbon footprinting transport operations is relatively simple compared to warehousing.
Graeme Fraser, Corporate Marketing Manager at Easynet said, “Business understanding is part of our service experience, and insight delivered by Davies & Robson in to these issues really helped our team understand what makes the industry tick. Ongoing we can monitor and track these issues and understand the industry more fully.”
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