Scope at General Transport

Mr Speiser, what services does General Transport offer its customers?

With our 60 employees, we operate all modes of transport – by air, sea and road – and send packages weighing from one kilogram, piece goods, part and full loads, and freight. We also take care of customs formalities for our customers. We are particularly strong in air and sea freight on routes to and from Asia and the US.

In European land transport, besides frequent network departures, we also offer our customers special services from and to the UK with seven of our own trucks and a cold-storage transporter. In Switzerland we operate from four locations: Basel, Basel Airport, Zurich Airport and Geneva. We take full advantage of Scope here. The system provides us with complete control over all processes and deliveries from all locations.

We also specialise in plant and project deliveries, supporting the Swiss machine and system manufacturing sector by handling their logistics for large projects that sometimes extend over several years.

Which tasks do you handle in this area?

We take on the complete logistical planning and management of projects, organise transportation and packing of individual components that are collected together sometimes in Switzerland, sometimes in other countries. After this, we deliver the parts to the point of assembly where they will go into service. These demanding tasks require a great deal of experience, knowledge and specialised workers. We are among the leading specialists in Switzerland in this domain.

Where do your key competitive strengths lie?

General Transport is a medium-sized forwarder based in Switzerland. Founded in 1948, it became part of the Geis Group in 2011, a year in which we generated revenue of around 100 million Swiss francs (72 million euros). Our customers value our individual service, our expertise and our network above all, particularly at our main destinations, as well as in West and Central Africa and the Middle East.

When did you start using Scope, and how do you use it?

We switched our airfreight branches in Zurich and Basel and head office in Basel to Scope between January and July 2012. After testing various systems, we found that Scope was the most convincing in terms of innovation and adaptability to future requirements. We now exclusively use one transport management system for all areas including customs clearance.

How does it actually work?

Scope features special modules certified by the Swiss Federal Customs Administration. What’s more, all employees can access complete dossiers, including business data, copies of invoices and freight documents. Suppliers and customers are likewise connected. As an example, CASS data is fed into Scope directly for central calculation of airline freight costs, booked against provisions for liabilities and charges, and charged on to our customers accordingly.

Why did you decide to use a cloud solution?

That’s right, we use Scope as Software as a Service (SaaS). The system is hosted and maintained in Riege’s main data center in Frankfurt, guaranteeing a high degree of data security with low costs, because we reduce our own maintenance outlays and require less hardware.

What are the advantages for you in using Scope?

The simple-to-use, intelligent user interface has massively cut down the workloads of our 50 users. Processes are now more efficient, saving us costs. The absolute transparency of each and every process allows us to immediately evaluate all orders commercially, which has introduced a cultural change and genuine progress, making us more competitive.

Do you feel equipped for the future with Scope?

We are definitely in a better position to face the future, because Scope helps us network more closely within the Geis Group and with our global partners, and has ensured that we can introduce tracking and tracing across the board and exchange order data. We can enter into new market segments, for example bulk deliveries, and the system ensures easy and uncomplicated processing.

Assisted by the competent service and local know-how of Riege Switzerland, and the resources provided by head office, we now have a powerful partner on our side.