Rhenus Trucks Equipped with Trimble Computers and Scanners

Transport and logistics provider Rhenus has equipped its French fleet with Trimble’s CarCube embedded on-board computing systems. Using the CarCube, the company is optimizing its operations and billing process by improving the efficiency of its mobile workforce and flow of technical data. With over 26.000 employees and operating on more than 500 sites worldwide, Rhenus provides contract logistics, freight logistics, port logistics and public transport.

About a hundred industrial vehicles belonging to the Alsatian branch of the group are being deployed as well as six light commercial vehicles. The trucks are using the CarCube solution with a large touchscreen display in the cab. The remaining vehicles are equipped with Truck4U on-board computers without a display.

Benoît Haumant, Transport Director at Rhenus Logistics France, explains the optimization strategy of his company. “Our first objective is to enable data transmission from the vehicles to our transport management software (TMS). This was not possible with our previous embedded computing system. In particular, we will code all of our recipients GPS coordinates in the TMS and have the completed assignements automatically calculated in real-time. A portion of our vehicles are dedicated to fleet services and are at the disposal of our customers.”

The Trimble embedded computing also facilitates real-time workforce management: “The driving time registration is now reliable,” says Haumant. “The data is automatically transmitted from the Trimble on-board computers connected to the tachograph, to our social management software Solid, which is the leading archiving application in our business. It’s the same information system used by legal authorities.”

Solid is used by the 2,000 inspectors at the Ministry of Labour. Trimble acquired Solid in 2015 and the connection between the two applications is particularly fluid.

In order to ensure a smooth digital exchange of transport documents, Rhenus will also install embedded Trimble scanners.

Haumant also appreciates the quality of the Trimble service as well as the back-office application.