"We are proud to be able to offer our customers a solution that enables optimal tracking of their parcels," says Ulric Rechtsteiner, Managing Director of Arealcontrol GmbH. "The expanded app is an important step in our strategy to provide our customers with innovative solutions that optimize their business processes while meeting legal requirements."
The extended app will soon be used by a well-known distributor who sends around 10,000 to 14,000 parcels a day. The company uses the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Navision merchandise management system. This is where the complete warehouse management, customer relationship management (CRM) as well as the preparation of the tour and route planning and the shipment configuration takes place. The respective packages are then made available on pallets for each delivery vehicle.
With the help of the app, the driver scans the barcodes of all packages so that they can be booked on the respective vehicle. This takes place in the reverse order to the delivery tour, so that the drivers no longer have to rearrange when unloading.
Google navigation is used for route guidance. The app shows the nearest delivery stations and the packages to be delivered there, which are scanned again when handed over to the recipient. This means that it is always clear where which package is - and this across the entire supply chain from the manufacturer to the wholesaler, the distribution center and the recipient.
Different workflows are also freely definable in the app. Thus, for example, it can be differentiated whether a delivery is delivered with or without collection. Returns or disruptions such as damage or refusals to accept can also be mapped with it.
Due to legal, tax and insurance law requirements, the distributor also required 100% package and shipment tracking. With the expanded ArealPilot 360° app for Android, Arealcontrol offers its customers a solution that ensures the efficient and reliable tracking of packages with barcode scanning. The solution enables integration or connection to internal planning systems such as ERP, CRM as well as ticket and transport management systems. These can be well-known IT solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Navision and SAP, but also less common software solutions. Permanent and near-real-time communication takes place via XML web services, which is only delayed by the reaction time of the networks to one to five seconds.
Due to the constant updates between the app, telematics platform and backend, the current status of each individual shipment is known at the head office at all times. This is a contemporary level of information that meets many customer demands for real-time information and transparent arrival times (ETA - Estimated Time of Arrival). The data analysis over the time series in turn provides insights for further optimization in the delivery and distribution process for future tours.
Practically incidentally, the working time of the driver with the respective activities such as loading, unloading, driving, breaks, refueling or even disruptions are recorded. This means that the requirements for precise recording of working hours are met (see BAG judgment, September 2022 and ECJ judgment May 2019).
Against the background of the large amounts of data transferred, security and protection of the data play an important role: The Arealcontrol portal is hosted in two DIN/EN/ISO 27001 certified data centers (Level / Tier 3) as a "private cloud", which are mirrored to each other. A portal availability of 99.982 percent per year is guaranteed. This corresponds to a "down time" of a maximum of 90 minutes per year.
