Trailer

European division continues expansion

Jun 21, 2023 | , , ,

Five months ago European Director, Richard Gibbs, outlined his vision for Metro’s road freight and short sea services, in developing the business’ capability across the EU. Today, he updates us on his progress and next priorities.

“Since the start of the year we have been working very closely with our continental partners and carriers to add new ‘lanes’ to our transport network, extending the scope of our regular services, alongside our daily EU-wide FTL and LTL services.”

“At the same time we’ve been increasing our operational capacity, by growing the European team and adding new freight centres and groupage hubs in Leicester (Desford) and Manchester.”

“Service design has a been a primary point of focus, but so too has customs compliance solutions and advanced technology, to deliver visibility, control and supporting services.”

“The development of the CuDoS customs platform by our technical services team and the digitising of customs compliance has been a ‘game-changer’ for our customers and particularly those trading with Europe.”

“Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning CuDos optimises data capture and customs declaration processes, with an SLA of 98% on turnaround times of under two hours and record turnaround speeds under 8 mins.”

“Since Brexit, the UK is considered as a third country and transactions with the EU are no longer intra-community, but considered as imports and exports, which means that VAT and duties need to be paid in the country of import, creating a trade barrier for many exporters.”

“Some EU importers are comfortable arranging import clearances and our standard T form services accommodate these movements, across single and multiple borders. However, some EU importers do not want to arrange import clearances, which is why we have created a range of options that allow UK exporters to complete transactions with their EU customers simply and seamlessly and even as if it were a domestic transaction.”

“The options are varied and can be adapted to suit specific transactions and customer relationships. They are listed below, but really require further explanation, which we will provide in a future post - or you can EMAIL me now.”

The Delivered Duty Paid or ‘DDP’ Incoterm means the exporter takes responsibility for the transport of the goods and customs formalities in the UK and EU, by becoming the ‘Importer of record” in France (or another member state) taking the burden away from your customer.

 - Regime 42 is for DDP transiting France for another EU destination. 

 - Regime 40 is for DDP shipments where the exporter has a French VAT number enabling clearance in France for free circulation in the EU.

 - DDP Light is where the consignee authorises their VAT number to be used as the importer of record but any duty is paid by the exporter. 

To learn more about our expanded European capability, including our CuDoS and EU/DDP solutions EMAIL Richard Gibbs. 

solar panels

Delivering the sustainable future, today

Jun 21, 2023 | , , ,

Alongside customers in key verticals, including food, drink, cars and commercial vehicles, Metro is committed to the highest environmental standards, by maintaining carbon neutrality, investing in alternative fuels and supporting our customers with technology-enabled sustainable supply chains.

The global food system will face significant  pressures over the medium term as demand for resources and the effects of climate change intensify, which is why the sector is fully committed to cutting CO2 emissions, embedding environmental standards in transport and increasing sustainable supply chains.

Despite the challenges that 2022 brought, including supply chain issues, labour shortages and threats to energy security, our food and drink customers remain focused on sustainable, resilient, and responsible supply chains, with an ambition to reach Net Zero by 2040 – a decade earlier than government targets.

The automotive sector continues to improve its sustainability, reducing energy use, sourcing more responsibly and increasing recycling. Indeed, total energy use has declined, by -6.1% on last year, and water use per vehicle fell -6.3%. Waste to landfill also hit a record low, of 0.6%, with 17 leading companies reporting zero waste.

Supply chains need to become more sustainable but you can’t change what you can’t see and experts at Automotive Logistics’ supply chain events agreed that better tools and partnerships are needed to identify emissions in complex supply chains, as a means to start reducing them, because what you can’t measure, you can’t work on.

Hot on the heals of our industry investment in Sustainable Air Fuel (SAF) and the Sustainable Flight Challenge, Metro has invested in solar panels at our UKHQ to move beyond our net zero achievement, toward Climate Positive and joined the Midlands Net Zero Hub, to share the region's vision to decarbonise and support key priorities for the Midlands.

With Metro’s MVT Eco module, all the CO2 measuring and emission analysis tools our customers need can be found in one single place. Eco calculations conform to EN 16258, to provide data and reporting that complies with the most demanding frameworks and methodologies.

Our ‘on demand calculator’ module means that shippers can predict CO2 impact, by any mode and location, based on IATA or UNLOC codes and use those insights to create efficient, low-carbon supply chain solutions.

Using our latest generation MVT Eco module, we develop intelligent supply chain solutions, based on accurate and representative data, that are respectful of the environment. 

Low-carbon multi-modal solutions that blend air, road, sea, inland waterways and rail, together with NGV and electric vehicles.

The MVT ECO module is available free-of-charge to customers on their MVT dashboard. To request a demo or discuss your requirements, please EMAIL Simon George.

computer worker

CargoWise and Metro’s MVT provide unrivalled technological edge

Apr 26, 2023 | , ,

Executing highly complex shipping transactions across multiple users, functions, offices, countries, currencies and languages, Cargowise automates workflows, optimises business processes and provides real-time data visibility.

Cargowise is providing more time for Metro to concentrate on the service it delivers and the development of the highest quality solutions for its clients.

Simon George, Metro’s technical solution director talks about Metro’s Cargowise investment and implementation.

“We care about our customers and our people, which is why we invest in technology like Cargowise, that supports the most valuable assets of our company, with tools that help them adapt swiftly to customer needs and make effective decisions immediately.

Metro began implementing Cargowise as our core freight forwarding operations platform two years ago, with large parts of the business successfully transitioning through the lockdown period, with modular learning, devised by our internal training team.

In adopting Cargowise we are enhancing our paperless office environment, with digital processes, business rules and workflows, designed to identify and eradicate errors before anything untoward happens.

Instead of ‘fire-fighting’ operational issues, our people will be free to concentrate on enhancing solutions and identifying opportunities that add more value for our customers.

Real-time visibility, detailed financial reporting and improved data quality provide the freedom to speed up processes and make strategic decisions faster than ever before.   

The reporting and broad-based KPI’s that we can track is providing us with the accurate data that supports immediate and agile, customer-focused decisions.

Integrating Cargowise and our MVT supply chain platform increases the volume of data we can share with customers, enhances the way in which they can view and manipulate this information and means that most data feeds are in, or close to, real-time.

Shipment visibility is a core functionality, with real-time tracking monitoring schedules and global mapping of assets, together with our investment in AI for predictive ETAs, that support efficient planning, while avoiding fees and penalties.

Performance tracking is being simplified and means that customers can track our performance alongside carriers and key vendors globally.

In understanding our customers' ambitions and business goals, we can identify opportunities to cut costs and make improvement in their supply chain, with our innovative Cargowise/MVT technology providing total control and visibility.”

The Metro board continues to invest in internally developed and externally acquired innovation in 2023-2024, which promises to be an exciting and rewarding period for the business and our customers. EMAIL Simon George, Technical Solutions Director, to learn more.

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<strong>Award recognition for CuDoS customs platform</strong>

Mar 29, 2023 | , ,

We are delighted to win Gold at the ‘Stevie' Sales and Customer Service Awards 2023, with our key technology partner, WNS, for their ground-breaking contribution to our CuDoS customs platform, in digitising customs declarations, enhancing customer experience and ensuring a smooth transition into the post-Brexit environment. 

For over twenty years Metro has been investing in technology, software developers, system analysts and data scientists that have conceived, designed, created and supported four generations of our supply chain management and visibility platform MVT.

MVT is multi-award winning technology that connects shippers to their entire supply chain; providing real-time visibility, milestone event management, control and intelligence, in a secure cloud based environment.

The platform embraces new and emerging technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to support existing core and new modular functionalities, like our ECO and Customs (CuDoS) solutions, with the latter recently winning a prestigious award for a key-partner, WNS.

WNS is a leading Business Process Management (BPM) provider that combine technology, analytics and process expertise to co-create innovative, digitally led solutions. 

For Metro’s CuDoS solution this meant the automation of cognitive data extraction and contextualisation, using the latest AI/ML and automation capabilities to overhaul and optimise the data capture and customs declaration processes.

The ‘Stevie Awards’ are the world's premier business awards, honouring and generating public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions that organisations make. WNS have won the customer service category for the work they have done with Metro, to accelerate CuDoS’ customer experience through hybrid learning in reduced dependency on multiple systems for data extraction and verification.

With WNS’ digitisation support, Metro’s CuDoS solution is now achieving a SLA of 98% on turnaround times (customer submission/request through to document delivery) of under two hours.

Other CuDoS performance statistics are just as compelling:

 - 20% reduction in headline costs, with 25% increase in volumes

 - 96% of declarations processed and submitted to HMRC within 30 minutes of documents receipt

 - 99% processing accuracy

 - ML/AI contributed to record turnaround speeds under 8 mins

Metro are at the forefront of automated customs brokerage solutions, with our CuDoS declaration platform and dedicated team of customs experts, reacting swiftly to changes in the UK’s trading regime with the EU and rest of world.

To learn how we can simplify and automate customs declarations for your businesses, please EMAIL Elliot Carlile to review the options.

Metro continues to invest in MVT and CuDoS innovation in 2023-2024, which promises to be an exciting period for the business. EMAIL Simon George, Technical Solutions Director, to learn more.

Category: Technology

Environment | Metro | MVT | Supply Chain | Technology

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