Feb 22, 2018  -  Parcelport is an Auckland, New Zealand based logistics software company, and is in the process of expanding its business into Southeast Asia, preliminarily planning to set up an office in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, mainly as their CEO, Jimmy Wu has several contacts there, and also because it is close to Singapore where he may be able to raise capital. Another good reason for moving to Malaysia is that there are also government centres which assist with foreign investment.

Parcelport is a privately held company and they recently partnered with global transport and logistics group TNT to service New Zealand exporters, and they also recently closed a funding round with Zino Ventures and Ice Angles. The proceeds are funding the expansion and allowing it to consolidate and grow its business in New Zealand.

Next up for the company’s expansion are Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, countries which have been chosen owing to the expansion of their middle class. Southeast Asia also has a strong emerging e-commerce market selling to North America, Europe and China, which Parcelport is working to service.

Parcelport’s point of difference is that it focuses on servicing small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) while its larger competitors focus on bigger businesses. The way this works is than an SME places its customer’s consignment order with Parcelport which would assign the job to the appropriate courier company for delivery. Parcelport calculates the freight cost, prints tickets and shipping labels for the courier, and tracks the delivery.

Wu founded the company in 2011 which now has 10 employees in its Auckland office, and its customer engagement is contracted out to a local contact centre, so for more information on courier services NZ, pay as you go couriers and parcel post NZ please go to http://www.parcelport.co.nz

Source:  infonews.co.nz   ||  February 22, 2018   |||

Feb 14, 2018  -  When is a skip-loader of no use? The answer? When you need a hooklift truck instead. Now skiptruck and hookloader manufacturer Harsh has an answer – a demountable skiploader!


The demountable skiploader unit developed by Harsh based on the requirements of specific customer demand, is designed to fit onto a chassis fitted with a conventional hook- lift system (Ro-Ro/hookloader), which in effect doubles its capability, enabling one single truck to load and transport containers from these two popular, but otherwise incompatible systems.

“We can run a single vehicle as a standard hookloader for one journey, then quickly change it to a skiploader for the next job,” explains Freddy McAlister, fleet engineer at Malcolm Construction, the operator of this interesting new innovation.

“In the past, we’ve had
to operate both types of truck
– sometimes on the same con- tract. Now we only need one to handle both types of container. It’s given us a real productivity boost and increased our fleet flexibility,” he adds.


Designed to work at 26 tonnes gross weight, the new
Harsh ‘HS14T Demountable Skiploader’ provides a 14 tonnes lift capacity (or 10 tonnes at 4250 mm maximum reach with telescopic arms extended) and is able to handle skips of all sizes up to 10 tonnes capacity.

Harsh director Adam Hargreaves is also upbeat about the wider sales potential for this new addi- tion to the Harsh product range.

“This is a great example not
just of joint teamwork between customer and supplier, but is also a demonstration of how we at Harsh are able to design and develop imaginative solutions to meet our customers’ require- ments,” he comments.

Source:  WasteManagementWorld ||  February 14, 2018   |||

Feb 2, 2018  -  Rotterdam Authority and IBM announced on Jan. 31 that they will collaboration on a multi-year digitization initiative to transform the port’s operational environment using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in the cloud.  As the largest port in Europe, the Port of Rotterdam handles over 461 million tons of cargo and more than 140,000 vessels annually. Previously the port relied on traditional radio and radar communication between captains, pilots, terminal operators, tugboats and more to make key decision on port operations.

Jan 30, 2018  -  40-foot standard containers are the most frequently used sea containers worldwide. With internal dimensions of roughly 12 by 2.3 by 2.4 metres, they have a loading volume of 65m3 and a cargo load of up to some 26 tonnes. Unloading these containers is heavy work, still mainly carried out manually in the world’s ports.

Nov 28, 2017  - Software company Jade Logistics, supplier of the world’s number one Terminal Operating System (TOS) for mixed cargo ports, has continued to increase its global footprint by implementing its Master Terminal product at 22 sites in 2017.

“The importance of strong client ownership and committed super users cannot be stressed enough, and we have been fortunate enough to work with clients that understand and support this collaborative approach”   On the back of significant sales growth and what has been a record year for the company, Jade Logistics’ global implementation team achieved go-live at terminals across multiple geographic locations including Europe, the Americas, Australasia, and the Middle East.

This impressive result was underpinned by a substantial Australasian project in which 16 terminals went live in less than ten months, and was complemented by an eight-week implementation of a multi-purpose terminal on the eastern coast of the UAE.

Chief Executive Officer of Jade Logistics, David Lindsay said, “We are well aware of the importance of getting our clients live as soon as possible, allowing them to quickly experience the benefits of a world class Terminal Operating System.

“The implementation times achieved during 2017 are exceptional, and are delivering real value to customers in terms of lowering their total cost of ownership.”

Adding to the varied geographic locations, the terminals represent a diverse range of cargo types including pure bulk terminals, break bulk and RORO terminals, and container only terminals, one of which is handling over one million TEUs per annum.

Jade Logistics Director of Global Services, Mark Ginnever says, “The key to any successful implementation is a dedicated project team, comprising representatives from both organisations.”

“The importance of strong client ownership and committed super users cannot be stressed enough, and we have been fortunate enough to work with clients that understand and support this collaborative approach,” added Ginnever.

Master Terminal is now licenced to over 110 terminals around the world, and Jade Logistics’ growth is set to continue with strong sales forecast into 2018 and beyond.

About Jade Logistics

At Jade Logistics, we’ve developed the expertise required to solve the complex problems of managing a variety of mixed cargo. From mixed cargo ports in Ghana to railways in Europe, Jade Logistics provides the tools you need to become competitive.

Since 1993, Jade Logistics has been designing, building, and supporting innovative software for organizations in the specialist logistics industries.

Our people have extensive experience and understanding of the global logistics industry, which provides the foundation from which we build trusting, long-term relationships with our customers.

We have offices in New Zealand, Australia, USA, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia.

| A BusinessWire release  ||  November 28,  2017   |||

 Nov 27, 2017  - Rail is delivering up to $1.5 billion a year to New Zealand in hidden benefits, according to a study prepared as part of a joint KiwiRail/NZTA team looking at integrated transport planning.

"That far exceeds what the taxpayer is spending on rail," KiwiRail Chairman Trevor Janes says.

The study, carried out by professional services firm EY, looked at some of the wider economic benefits the rail network brings to New Zealand.

"The areas where rail is delivering for New Zealand include cutting congestion, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving safety on our roads and lowering spending on road maintenance and upgrades.

"These benefits do not show up on the balance sheet, but they are very real, and they make a huge contribution to New Zealand.

"They need to be considered when choices are made about the transport options available, and how to allocate resources."

Mr Janes says the biggest contribution from rail comes from the reduction it brings in road use.

"Rail is taking cars off the road and it’s taking trucks off the road. That is saving the country $1.3 billion a year because it cuts congestion for all road users, including other freight movers.

"The study found that without rail there would be the equivalent of an additional 100,000 daily car trips on our roads each year - 76 million light vehicle hours reduced through rail - and 57 million of those hours were on Auckland roads.

"Rail also means heavy vehicles such as trucks are on the roads for 11 million fewer hours each year - the equivalent of 30,000 trucks driving for an hour every day.

"Using rail cuts New Zealand’s carbon emissions by 488,000 tonnes a year. That is the equivalent of taking 87,000 cars off the road, saving millions of dollars. Rail freight has 66% fewer carbon emissions than heavy road freight which is useful for New Zealand reaching its ambitious climate change targets.

"New Zealand has a road toll issue with deaths on the road rising markedly since 2013. Taking trucks and cars off the road makes for a safer New Zealand with EY estimating that because we have a rail network, there are 271 fewer fatalities and injuries on the roads.

"Most importantly, that means fewer Kiwi families suffering the heartache that road accidents bring.

"In economic terms, it means $60 million in savings."

The approach taken by EY was to model what it would mean for the roading network if there was no rail network.

"EY took a conservative approach. For example, in considering the economic cost of road accidents it took the same approach as the Ministry of Transport. If it had calculated the cost of road crashes the same way as ACC does, the savings from road incidents would have been more than $100 million.

"The numbers produced reflect the value of rail at a point in time. We will continue to refresh the data with our transport stakeholders, ensuring we are reflecting the changing nature of rail in New Zealand.

"There are further benefits which are not quantified in this report such as the economic benefits rail brings to the regions through network resilience, land use and value uplifts, together with benefits from its tourism and freight businesses.

"It is also important to note that the study reflects similar work done in Scotland, Australia and the wider United Kingdom.

"This study is an important contribution to the transport debate and underlines the value of rail to New Zealand," says Mr Janes.

| An NZRail release  ||  November 27,  2017   |||

Nov 24, 2017  -  Northport Ltd is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Cargo volumes at Marsden Point have more than doubled since the port opened in 2002 to a record 3.64 million tonnes last financial year. Ship calls have increased from 93 a year to 250 a year over that period, with berth occupancy now at a record 66.4 percent, up from 52.9 percent just five years ago.

The company, a 50/50 joint venture between Marsden Maritime Holdings Ltd and Port of Tauranga, is marking these milestones by launching a public discussion about the potential future size and shape of the port.

It has published its ‘vision for growth’ online at www.vision4growth.co.nz and is inviting people to ask questions or make their views known to its management team via the website.  Chief executive Jon Moore stressed that the vision was not a confirmed plan, or even a formal proposal. No decision has yet been made by Northport’s Board to grow the port.

“It’s a conversation-starter; a vision based on what we believe is possible here,” he said. “At this early stage all we’re doing is prompting a discussion among tangata whenua, other Northlanders, our neighbours, customers, port users, suppliers and other stakeholder groups with an interest in what happens here, about what role they see Northport playing in the future of our region.”

Mr Moore said that in recent years, and particularly in the run-up to the recent general election, there had been much discussion about what should happen at Northport. Although Northport Ltd had no firm growth plans at this stage, its management team wanted to make public their vision for future growth.

“Some of the most frustrating narrative we’ve listened to over recent months has been around the perception that it’s not possible to grow Northport beyond its existing size,” Mr Moore said. “Our vision for growth demonstrates clearly that this is not the case. It introduces some reality to the discussion and shows that we are, in fact, well positioned to support economic growth both in Northland and in Auckland.”

Mr Moore said Northport would need to grow if it was going to play a key role in the future growth of the upper North Island. “Importantly, we don’t need to expand northwards into the harbour. Instead, we can extend our existing linear wharf east and west,” he said.

Northport Ltd’s vision for growth at Marsden Point includes 1,390m of linear berth, more than twice its current length, and involves growing its overall footprint from 48ha to 75ha.  Mr Moore said his team felt this was necessary if Northport was to play a meaningful role in developing Northland's economy and supporting Auckland's growth.

“Growing a port is an expensive and complex undertaking. To support economic growth and meet the forecast demand for shipping across the upper North Island we need to plan and build for the future, not just today.”

The vision Northport Ltd is making public today is based on many years of research, technical planning and engineering input from a raft of experts in this field. The company now has a good idea about what is physically and technically possible at Northport, and what isn’t.

It has not put any dates to its decision-making process around possible growth.

“We know full well that what we look like in the future will be shaped to some extent by our communities and our customers,” Mr Moore said. “So first we want to hear from these groups about what role they see us playing in Northland’s and the upper North Island’s growth.”

This initial discussion period will be followed by further technical and environmental studies and modelling, and if there are no surprises the company will then embark on a detailed stakeholder consultation exercise.

About NorthportNorthport, situated at Marsden Point at the mouth of Whangarei Harbour, is New Zealand’s northernmost port. It is a flexible facility catering for large, multi-purpose vessels and full cargo handling facilities are available from its 570 metre linear berth.

Logs, woodchip and processed timber for export comprise the bulk of cargo processed by the port. Other export items include kiwifruit, dairy products and manufactured goods. Imports are an important part of Northport’s business and include fertiliser, gypsum, coal and palm kernel. Northport has full container handling capability, including a mobile harbour crane. Containers are being imported and exported, as well as shipped around the coast.

A weekly coastal container service links Northport with other ports around the country.

The company has published its ‘vision for growth’ online at www.vision4growth.co.nz and is inviting people to ask questions or make their views known to its management team via the website.

The port is owned and operated by Northport Ltd, itself owned jointly and equally by Marsden Maritime Holdings Ltd and the Port of Tauranga Ltd.

| A Northport release  ||  November 24,  2017   |||

Nov 22, 2017  -  Company to streamline business operations and support a drive for efficiency across the entire organisation.  Coda Group, one of New Zealand’s leading and most innovative logistics companies, has commenced deployment of Promapp’s cloud-based business process management software (BPM) to streamline business operations and support a drive for efficiency across the entire organisation.

Coda Group was established two years ago as a joint venture between Port of Tauranga and freight and logistics company, Kotahi, to boost the efficiency of New Zealand’s nationwide supply chain, remove wasted capacity and reduce the costs of consolidating the cargo necessary for big ships.

The joint venture brought together four of New Zealand’s leading freight brands, including DTL, Tapper Transport, Priority Logistics and MetroPack, each with their own processes, many of which were paper-based and held in a variety of formats. Many of these processes couldn’t be shared, accessed and updated across the entire Coda Group business operation.

“In order to support the overall business in driving continuous improvement, optimising freight flows and creating a leaner, more efficient organisation we needed to ensure that our processes across the business could be easily aligned with business objectives,” said Wendy Mallowes, Business Process Improvement Lead, Coda Group.

Coda Group has company-wide processes, including those involving freight management, import-export procedures, and health and safety. These need to be consistently adhered to while individual customer requirements also add to the complexity of processes and procedures with specific legal and compliance requirements.

David Choong, Coda CFO, says, “As the business has grown and gained momentum, we concluded that we needed a central repository of business processes and documents on anything relating to operations, from staff induction and everyday warehouse operation to import and export procedures. We needed these processes to be universally followed and updated by our 310 staff at any time and from any location."

Promapp was selected to support Coda Group’s requirements based on its ease of use, friendly graphical user interface and its central repository which enables individuals in an organisation to store and update processes, supporting continuous business improvement.

“Being cloud-based also means that Promapp gives us the ability to share processes with our customers and provide staff with the comfort that they are always working with the latest information,” said Mallowes.

“Promapp’s feedback options will support Coda Group’s approach to continuous improvement which will enable customers to provide feedback and remove waste from the logistics network, boost efficiency and help streamline operations."

Coda Group has also set its sights on deploying Promapp’s Process Variant Management (PVM) software which will help the company manage or eliminate process variations.

Coda Group will be able to standardise processes across the entire company, while simply incorporating process variations to meet the requirements of a specific location, product, or customer.

PVM will also enable Coda Group to customise activities and manage service delivery for key customers helping to improve customer service.

“Ultimately, Promapp will support our strategy to remove wasted capacity, reduce the cost of consolidating freight and create real change in the logistics network. The end game is to provide greater value to our customers and logistics partners and to meet our target to handle more than five million metric tonnes of containerised cargo annually,” said Mallowes.

Promapp will be gradually rolled out across all Coda Group business units during 2018.

| About Promapp

Established in 2002, Promapp (https://www.promapp.com) works with hundreds of organisations worldwide to foster a thriving business improvement and process management culture.  Promapp’s cloud-based business process management (BPM) software makes it easy to create, navigate, share and change business processes, enabling continuous improvement, risk management, quality assurance and business continuity. Providing an intuitive online process repository, an integrated process mapping tool, and a process improvement toolset, Promapp’s proprietary software supports the development of smarter and safer ways to work, while encouraging sharing of information by operational teams rather than limiting it to process analysts and technical specialists.

Promapp’s wide range of public and private sector customers includes: Coca-Cola Amatil, Air New Zealand, WesTrac, Lumo Energy, Toyota, Ricoh, McDonald's, Audi Australia, Department of Justice, Victoria, Adelaide City Council, Waikato District Council and Southland Regional Council. The company is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. www.promapp.com

| A CSO release  || November 22,  2017   |||

Nov 20, 2017  -  AirAsia is the best low-cost airline in the world and CEO Tony Fernandes wants to shift the airline’s business towards e-commerce launching a payments platform called BigPay. Fernandes also believes the first class cabin is going away within five years.  Sixteen years ago, Tony Fernandes, with a small group of intrepid entrepreneurs, took over a failing Malaysian Government-owned airline for $US0.25 and the promise to assume its $US11 million in debt.

Since then, AirAsia has helped bring affordable flying to the masses in South East Asia.  In the process, the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based company has become one of the most disruptive forces in commercial aviation history while making the always affable Fernandes a rockstar in the business world.

What started as a two-plane operation has now expanded to a fleet of more than 150 Airbus A320 jets with another 200 aircraft on order.  And for the past nine years, AirAsia has been named the best low-cost airline in the world by Skytrax and its reviewers.

Recently, Fernandes spent a morning with the Business Insider at our headquarters in New York. Our conversation touched upon several topics including the company’s future endeavours in e-commerce, AirAsia’s move towards fintech, where the airline industry is going, and advice from his mentor Sir Richard Branson.

AirAsia is betting big on e-commerceFor the airline’s next great adventure, Fernandes wants to move AirAsia’s revenue model beyond simply selling tickets and into the world of e-commerce. With an ample supply of customer data, AirAsia wants to anchor its new e-commerce operation around the sale of duty-free goods.

“So when you book your ticket (online), we’ll offer you the chance to buy duty-free and you can pick it up on the plane or at the airport,” Fernandes told us. “It gives our customers much more time to browse and potentially we can create a marketplace for shops to put content on our website.”

According to Fernandes, the average passenger has an hour to an hour and a half to shop at the airport. With the online shops, AirAsia passengers can shop 365 days a year with personalised recommendations.

Further, Fernandes wants to use the airline’s fleet to transport goods purchased to destinations throughout Asia, thereby creating a logistics business.

“If you take Amazon, they started with a website and great distribution, now they are buying planes,” Fernandes said. “We’ve got the planes and we’re working backward.”

Of course, AirAsia’s e-commerce revolution won’t get off the ground without retrofitting its fleet with high-speed Wifi, a process that’s currently underway. It’s an element of the passenger experience Fernandes admits had been lacking onboard his flights.

The airline is focused on getting rid of cashThese days, cabin crew on board AirAsia flights wear several hats, among them salesperson. But due to the nature of AirAsia’s network that spans the entirety of Southeast Asia, cash poses a major problem. Which is why Fernandes is excited to jump into the financial technology (fintech) business.

“We’re so excited about the fintech revolution,” Fernandes said. “We hate cash. It’s a pain for our cabin crew. FX is a super pain. It leads to fraud. It tempts my crew to do things they shouldn’t do.”

As a result, AirAsia launched a new payment platform called BigPay that will allow the airline’s customers to buy products through their smartphones. According to Fernandes, the platform is built with group travel in mind. Which means it will allow people to share bills and transfer money to one another.

Initially, BigPay will also be available with a pre-paid card, but Fernandes and his team are working to make it more app-focused using QR codes and near-field-communications.

There will be a currency exchange feature as well.

“We think our customers are being ripped off by banks,” Fernandes said. “If you were travelling to Bali, [Indonesia] from Da Nang, Vietnam and wanted to exchange your Vietnamese Dong to Rupiah, we would facilitate that for you at a much lower rate.”

BigPay currently works with 10 currencies, but Fernandes expects to up that figure to 14.

Ultimately, the AirAsia boss believes BigPay will be able to expand beyond the airline ecosystem and into mainstream retail.

Where AirAsia and the airline industry are headedEven though AirAsia is thriving, the airline won’t be expanding beyond its bread and butter low-cost economy model. When asked if AirAsia is looking to offer a low-cost, long-haul business-class-only product like La Compagnie, Fernandes quickly shot down the idea.

“No, not while I’m at AirAsia,” he told us. “I think focus is key and we’re good at what we do and [long-haul business-class-only] is a different model.”

With that said, Fernandes understands the reasoning behind a dedicated business-class airline and is baffled by why airlines would offer so many different cabins on board a single aircraft.

“Airlines were crazy to have first class, business class, premium economy, and economy on one friggin plane,” Fernandes said. “That’s four business models on one plane.”

“You don’t have Four Seasons hotels with budget rooms and super suites, they basically have one standard, but with bigger rooms,” he added.

Instead, the AirAsia boss believes market segmentation in the future will see airlines specialize in one or two particular products.

“I’ve always said airlines will eventually become low-cost carriers and business class,” he proclaimed.

According to Fernandes, we will see the end of the first class cabin within the next five years. In addition, the economy cabin on full-service airlines could disappear altogether with dedicated low-cost carriers taking over that segment of the market. This means traditional, full-service airlines could be left operating flights with only business and premium-economy cabins.

The best advice Sir Richard Branson told him during the early days of AirAsia During the mid-1980s, Fernandes spent several years as the financial controller for Virgin Communications. Through the years, he’s become known for his close friendship with Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson.

But Fernandes makes it clear that he has no ambitions to become Asia’s Branson.

“Everyone thinks I want to be Richard, but I can confirm to Business Insider that I don’t,” he said. “I have no preconception of going on a balloon at 36,000 feet nor do I have any intention of going to the moon.”

While at Virgin Group during the early days of Virgin Atlantic Airways, Fernandes told Branson that his decision to go into the airline industry was crazy and advised him to sell Virgin Records. It’s something Branson remembered during the early days of AirAsia.

“One of the first people to call me up when I started AirAsia was Richard who said, ‘I thought it was really stupid to start an airline’,” Fernandes said jokingly.

As far as advice goes, it was pretty simple, yet profound.

“He just said have fun and make it a fun place which we’ve tried to do,” the AirAsia Group CEO added. “But we would have done that anyway.”

“Virgin was very informative in my whole cultural experience in that it was a fun place, it was a place where there were no suits, it was informal and ideas and innovation are encouraged,” Fernandes said.”That rubbed off on me.”

According to Fernandes, this open and innovative culture has defined the company’s success. For example, AirAsia encourages its employees to design their own uniform choices and to show off their personality as individuals.

“If they’re comfortable coming to work, they will be happier and more themselves,” he said.

| A BusinessInsider release  ||  November 19,  2017   |||  

16 Nov 2017  -  The launch of Virgin Australia’s daily Melbourne-Hong Kong services on 12 November was designed to meet growing demand for cargo capacity on the route, according to Virgin Atlantic Cargo, which provides long-haul international cargo sales and management for Virgin Australia.

Volumes have been increasing steadily in both directions since Virgin Australia commenced five Airbus A330-200 flights a week in July. The extra capacity provided by the new daily service will support the peak perishables season ex Australia as well as thriving e-commerce and courier business from Hong Kong.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo has generated over 1,200 tonnes of freight and courier traffic since the route began. Regular shipments have included garments, shoes, electronics goods, vitamins, milk powder and meat. The appointment in August of Jarrod Paterson as account manager in Melbourne has also helped the airline develop other lines of business, such as shipments of fresh lobster, Abalone and chilled salmon from Tasmania to Hong Kong.

Continued inward business investment in Melbourne is also expected to help sustain long-term cargo demand. Amazon is one of the latest global brands to announce fresh investment in the state of Victoria with its plans for a 24,000 square metre e-commerce distribution centre in Melbourne.

Pip Palmer, Virgin Atlantic’s Regional Sales Manager, Australia and New Zealand, said: “Cargo volumes to and from Melbourne have exceeded our expectations so far. There are a series of positive business indicators that show not only a consistent level of demand from our current customers but also opportunities for new traffic like we have started to generate from Tasmania.”

Virgin Atlantic, which has provided long-haul international sales for Virgin Australia since 2009, also sells capacity on Virgin Australia’s operations from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to Los Angeles. Shipments to and from Australia can also connect with its global network over both Los Angeles and Hong Kong.

Freight volumes have been increasing steadily in both directions since Virgin Australia commenced five Airbus A330-200 flights a week in July.

| A T&L New srelease  ||  November 16, 2017   |||