metro tech

2024 tech road-map

Mar 20, 2024 | , , ,

Metro has been innovating leading-edge supply chain management, tracking and business-process technology for 20 years and in 2024 we will continue to increase our ability to integrate with stakeholders, share real-time data, accelerate workflows, automate processes and optimise our customers’ supply chains.

In 2024 we continue to focus on the core pillars of our technology strategy:

  • DigitalisationThe continued adoption of digital technologies that improve processes and create new opportunities
  • Digital twin: Creating indistinguishable digital counterparts to the physical supply chain
  • Platform Engineering: Accelerated development in customer facing applications
  • Big data: Integrate, manage, and analyse to uncover and deliver business value

The last quarter planning of 2023, including our cross-functional workshops, provided the springboard and momentum to start delivering against our product roadmap objectives, with the team achieving early successes in 2024 including:

January

  • Deployed comprehensive updates to our vessel tracking capability in MVT Track & Trace to provide customers with enhanced visibility, deviation reporting and insights resulting from the Red Sea crisis disruption
  • Development, launch and deployment of bespoke applications to provide enhanced control, visibility and regulatory compliance in specific parts of the supply chain for FMCG, Retail and Industrial & Manufacturing customers

February

  • Successfully completed the final cut-over from our legacy TMS to CargoWise CW1 product and initiated a continuous improvement programme to identify where we can drive further optimisation of business processes, with a blend of technology and automation
  • Successfully completed multiple system integrations to both customer facing (x6) and 3rd party (x1) systems
  • Initiated our ISO27001 information security accreditation, to demonstrate our commitment to compliance and cyber security practices in building customer confidence of our technology offering

March

  • Launched enhancements to our CW1 TMS and CUDOS customs platform application which further improves our customs clearance times and service delivery to customer
  • Further development to the Metro rebranding and new website, that showcases our services and commitment to deliver for our customers

These early successes spur us on to continue the delivery of our ambitious 2024-2025 plans.

We are excited to announce that we will be expanding the technical solutions team and, as part of our global strategy, we will leverage our wholly owned office in Chennai, India to base local developer talent to accelerate the pace of delivery.

We are confident that complementing our existing team with a cohort of colleagues in India will bring valuable insights, expertise, and creativity to our projects and help us achieve our vision.

If you know any high performing developers in India who are looking to join a dynamic, forward thinking and technology focused freight forwarder, please encourage them to submit their CV, via our careers page.

We are excited for what 2024 will bring and how our technology roadmap will aid the delivery of Metro’s strategic objectives.

Metro is leading the industry in developing the technologies and platforms that simplify and enhance optimal supply chain management.

Visibility, control, environmental, and customs modules, blend together with integrations of critical digital trade documents, including electronic bills of lading (eBL) to provide an unparalleled supply chain platform.

EMAIL Ian Powell for further Information on our digital capabilities and how we can support your global trade and business growth ambitions.

ECO globe

Sustainable business growth

Mar 20, 2024 | , ,

Differentiation, innovation, technology, profitability, customer focus and partnership building are all key components in business growth and are all inherently linked to sustainable businesses, which underlines the value that environmental strategies can add to your business.

Sustainability is good for business, because it builds brand value, meets consumer expectations, attracts talent and creates new opportunities, which is why Metro has been certified Carbon Neutral for five years, supports sustainable initiatives and drives innovation to help our customers monitor and mitigate their carbon footprint.

The vast majority of C-level executives agree that they can achieve growth while also protecting the environment, but they remain slow in implementing actions that embed sustainability into their strategies and operations, and cultures.

We lead the way by taking positive action, with proactive carbon reduction planning, offsetting projects, ISO 14001 accreditation and membership of the Air France KLM Martinair Cargo Sustainable Aviation Fuel Partnership.

Members of the West Midlands Net Zero Business Pledge, we support efforts to make the region a net zero carbon economy, with commitment to zero landfill waste, new recycling bins at our Birmingham HQ, together with more electric charging points and fleet replacement with electric vehicles.

Metro is measuring and monitoring the emissions of every shipment, by every mode, for all of our customers, with offsetting alternatives, so they can work towards carbon neutrality in their global supply chain.

Our MVT Eco module has reported over 250,000 shipments, with a total CO2 equivalent of more than 1M tonnes measured.

The EU adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) act in November, with fines and penalties for those failing to disclose their indirect Scope 3 emissions.

MVT Eco uses reporting methodology that is in conformance with the Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) and incorporates 30 pre-built charts and downloadable statements, to simplify Scope 3 reporting compliance for customers.

In 2024 Metro are expanding our sustainability team and are seeking individuals that could add value to this critical area.

If you, or someone you know are committed to the environment and making a difference that counts, we want an individual that has the confidence to work closely with our leadership team in setting strategic objectives and targets, and in ensuring the business meets these on an ongoing basis.

In the first instance visit our careers page and submit your CV with a covering letter.

BIFA trophies

Freight industry award finalists

Feb 7, 2024 | , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The British International Freight Association (BIFA) is the trade association for the freight, logistics and supply chain management sector. Their annual Freight Service Awards are the industry’s most contested and highly sought trade awards, because peer recognition is the ultimate accolade.

BIFA’s 35th and biggest Freight Service Awards – with over 500 attendees and a 30% increase in award entries – took place three weeks ago in the City of London, with Metro overcoming the increased competition, to be selected as finalists in the Sustainable Logistics and Specialist Services categories.

Grant Liddell, Metro’s Managing Director. “Our solutions, technology and customer focus are truly leading-edge and being selected as finalists in BIFA’s Freight Service awards yet again is recognition of that capability and is an independent endorsement of the value that we deliver consistently.”

Metro’s submission for the Sustainable Logistics Award described how a client’s commitment to create more sustainable supply chains was supported by three Metro initiatives, that focused on their critical air freight channel.

Over a two-year span Metro created:
1. A cloud-based tool to measure and monitor the CO2 emissions of every shipment
2. Became the first UK forwarder to invest in the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) programme
3. Participated in Sustainable Flight Challenges to generate CO2 savings exceeding 37%

The critical insights gained from the Sustainable Flight Challenges were invaluable in developing the operational templates that are now paving the way for a more sustainable air freight channel for the featured client.

Metro’s focus in the Specialist Services Award category was to highlight the value that we add, to enhance the freight element, and the difference that makes to our customers.

The Metro entry, chosen by the judges as a finalist, outlined how, at a time of limited transport capacity, a car manufacturing client’s finished vehicles were safely shipped to international markets, using a solution that reduced transit times, cut costs, lowered emissions and avoided disruption at destination.

By building connectivity between Metro’s supply chain management platform and the client’s ERP system, together with visibility of critical supply chain milestones, the client could grant their dealers direct access to Metro’s visibility tools, providing reassurance on vehicle orders in transit.

With Metro’s solutions the client could continue delivering customer orders in a challenging environment, with the solution running for over 12 months, to protect tens of millions in sales.

If you would like to learn more about the solutions highlighted here, please EMAIL Andrew Smith, Metro’s Chief Commercial Officer. 

wing merro dusk

Supply chain; a year in review

Dec 19, 2023 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2023 was supposed to be the year that global supply chains bounced back from pandemic lockdowns and factory shutdowns, trade wars, tariffs and war in Europe, but now container shipping is disrupted by attacks in the Red Sea and restrictions on the Panama Canal.

The COVID pandemic and its aftermath, with supply-side fluctuations, shipping delays and port congestion created a logistics storm so brutal that many wondered if supply chains would ever recover.

The dramatic increase in consumer spending during the pandemic that left shippers scrambling for air, road and sea space, quickly fell away at the beginning of the year as consumers faced potential recession and a cost of living crisis.

That fall in demand provided the breathing space for carriers and ports to resolve their capacity and performance issues, clear backlogs and reposition equipment effectively, with markets reverting to pre-pandemic levels in terms of capacity and pricing.

The uncertainties surrounding tariffs, trade wars and geopolitical tensions remain, but there has been no significant move away from China, though we are seeing some diversification of sourcing, with Vietnam and Bangladesh - among other origins - increasingly popular.

While container shipping demand fell away the global shortage of RoRo capacity for finished vehicle shipments led to some car manufacturers to acquire their own vessel assets, while others looked to our containerised shipping solutions, for cheaper sea freight movement and certainty of service.

On the air freight front, having joined the Air France, KLM, Martinair Cargo Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) programme in 2022, we were extremely pleased to support their second sustainable flight challenge in the summer, which was followed a few months later by the first transatlantic SAF-powered crossing, accelerating the transition to a more sustainable airline industry.

Metro’s road freight division has grown significantly in 2023, with more team members joining our UK Birmingham HQ and new support operations located close by manufacturing hubs in Desford and Wythenshawe.

Under new leadership the road freight team have increased European FTL/LTL capability, adding more lanes and expanded our groupage offering, alongside the increasingly popular European Distribution (EU/DDP) solutions. 

As the UK deferred post-Brexit food checks for the 5th time, to avoid adding to food inflation, the EU expanded its Emissions Trading System to the container shipping sector, in a move that will cost carriers, and by extension shippers, $Billions from the start of 2024.

In a move that took the market by surprise (but shouldn’t have) the European Commission announced that it would not renew the container shipping sector’s Consortia Block Exemption to operating alliances in 2024.

Despite the initial panic, it is likely that the EC’s decision will have little real impact, particularly as the Maersk and MSC 2M alliance was already ending, with the others likely to reorganise into new structures.

With 2024 just weeks away, scheduled Trans-Pacific and Asia to North Europe container shipping capacity was up 30% and 10%, raising fears of a massive blank sailing program to try and support rates, but now, with the Suez Canal transit suspended and Panama Canal disruption, we may see increased rates and delays, with air freight’s popularity rising.

We are hopeful that the US and coalition navies can restore maritime security quickly, because the prolonged re-routing of vessels away from the Suez Canal, via the Cape of Good Hope will increase transit times and costs, with a massive reduction in available capacity and a return to equipment imbalances.

Whatever challenges 2024 may bring, you can rest assured that we will keep you informed and protected, because we always have your back covered.

Category: MVT

Customs | EU | MVT | Technology

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