Forwarding company H.J. BECKER drives further digitalization with Bosch L.OS

© H.J. BECKER

The forwarding company H.J. BECKER, founded in 1975, is a family-owned transportation company based in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) and has focused on the transportation of feed. With a dedicated team of nine full time employees, H.J. BECKER handles logistical tasks on a daily basis.

The challenge: Select and implement digital solutions without IT department.

H.J. BECKER runs a fleet of eight heavy trucks and includes different types of vehicles to meet the specific requirements of the transportation business. With one articulated truck, six tipper semi-trailers, one walking floor trailer and two food tank trailers, the forwarding company is well equipped. This variety of vehicles enables H.J. BECKER to respond flexibly to different customer requirements and to ensure efficient transport operations. In order to keep up with the times, it was clear to management that they also had to take the path to digitization.

The advancing digitalization offers numerous opportunities, but also challenges for small- and medium-sized companies such as H.J. BECKER. A special hurdle is to select and implement digital solutions without having to own an IT department. Katja Moll, Junior Managing Director of H.J. BECKER, looked for a solution partner at one of the leading industry trade fairs in order to take further advantage of digital solutions after her first steps in digitization. Her initial conversation with the Bosch L.OS team helped to identify the various challenges and prioritize them together. This resulted in a joint first project: the automated recording of drivers' driving and rest times as well as the audit-proof documentation and storage of this data.

The solution: Start with automated recording of driving and rest times.

H.J. BECKER chose the Geotab telematics solution, which is available on Bosch L.OS – the open Logistics Operating System. The L.OS platform, which is operated on Amazon Web Services (AWS), provides logistics and forwarding companies around the world with quick and easy access to digital services. Geotab's fleet management solution not only enables real-time monitoring of vehicles, but also the automated recording of driving and rest times. The collected data is documented and stored in an audit-proof manner meeting legal requirements and increasing efficiency and transparency in fleet management.

In addition. the following advantages of the solution are extremely important especially for small and medium-sized companies: The installation of the telematics box can be carried out easily and without great time expenditure by a service partner. The software solution can be used directly by the  user after a short training. And from an economic perspective, the introduction is also associated with little risk: billing is based on the pay-per-use model and thus enables flexible terms.

The result: Saving up time & cost

• Increased efficiency: By automatically recording driving and rest times, H.J. BECKER saves valuable time and resources that can now be used more effectively for logistical and value-adding processes.
• Transparency and compliance: Geotab’s telematics solution ensures complete documentation that meets legal requirements. Data is available at the push of a button and can therefore be called up at any time.
• Cost efficiency: By optimizing vehicle use and avoiding unnecessary downtime, the Bosch L.OS solution contributes to sustainable cost efficiency.

The outlook: It's just a starting point...

With Bosch L.OS, H.J. BECKER is sure to have found the right partner for further digitization. Upcoming topics are already tangible today: For example, the identification of CO2 emissions per transport will be relevant in the future or the smart expansion of the existing TMS with additional functions such as electronic invoicing. It is precisely this flexibility to provide solutions tailored to the user that is one of the strengths of the Bosch logistics service platform: the easy integration of various services from different providers.