The key to on-time deliveries in liquid food transport

Those of us who work in road transport, especially the transport of liquid foodstuffs, know that to arrive on time at our destination, it is not important to drive fast, but rather to plan the route well and avoid setbacks.

Although we usually associate road logistics with experienced drivers, the truth is that behind the collection or delivery of milk, wine, glucose, etc., there is not only a driver and a truck with an insulated tanker, but also a team of people providing technical and planning support.

Our traffic team is based at our offices in Oroso (A Coruña, Spain), and their duties range from optimising route planning to resolving incidents that occur on our vehicles' routes.

Route optimisation ensures that each truck makes the most of every journey. If we have to deliver olive oil to Antwerp, for example, our traffic team looks for a nearby location where they can load the same product or a washing facility to clean the tanker and load it again so that it can return with a new load or
even be taken to another destination, such as Munich in Germany.

The traffic team also plans the farms where our trucks collect fresh milk every day to take it to the factory, taking into account the litres loaded at each farm, the capacity of each insulated tanker and the distance to the factory.

This entire real-time puzzle of routes, driving times, vehicle and isothermal tank positions, service points, loading and unloading points is organised using management software that helps us quickly find the best option for each scenario.

This technology requires continuous training for the team assigned to traffic so that they can implement the improvements that technology offers us through new telemetry systems, artificial intelligence and vehicle parameter management.

So, it has long since ceased to be a matter of starting the truck and heading to the destination. We plan, optimise, anticipate and finally arrive on time. Every collection is made on time and every delivery is made at the right moment so as not to interrupt the logistics chain for liquid food products as delicate as
fresh milk, cream or olive oil.