3PL (Third Party Logistics) Software

Beer, wine, cider, we don't do anything else, we don't do general freight. We stick to what we know and we try and offer really great service to our clients. Pound for pound we want to be the best.

There was a period of time where we didn't really have any warehouse system, we're archaic in how we're operating so we still had everything on paper. If those pick tickets don't make it back to the office, you don't charge your client. You're running the risk of not getting all the revenue that you've physically done. The invoicing process was very cumbersome, very labor intensive, and we acknowledge that there was a shortfall in our operation. We had a US based cloud software, which was okay but it wasn't paperless, it was a bit hard to get information. So we did a bit of research and found CartonCloud. I saw Rob at a trade show, he gave me a CartonCloud pen and said, you shouldn't need this. I took it away and I've gone, yeah, that's right.

We started rolling out CartonCloud and fully integrated everyone onto the new system, and the training behind that has been a matter of hours. Within a day they're all over it, know what they're doing. Just from a simple cost perspective we've been able redistribute our staff and what they do in different areas. So we're saving between 40 and 60 hours a week on admin, but we're doing 30 to 50% more work. You got the time and money you've saved there, plus the ability to invoice our clients in a more timely fashion. There's been a huge impact business. People are much happier to come to work knowing that we're running in an efficient way. Our staff are satisfied, our clients are really happy and looking back, I didn't think we've been able to achieve what we've been able to achieve the last 12 months without having the software there. Overall, it's just been a really great implementation from CartonCloud.

I'm Matthew Norton and I'm the commercial manager here at TNS Logistics TNS Logistics is a fully integrated Port Logistics provider we've been operating from the port of Brisbane for the past 16 years. It was our vision to create a one-stop shop for our clients, so we could speak directly to Freight forwarders on their behalf, we could arrange with our own vehicles collection of containers from the port of Brisbane, bring them back to our facility to unpack store it, and then 3pl pick, pack, and fulfilment.

We came up with the idea that we wanted to streamline the logistics process for them. That meant that they could pick up the phone if you get the right person each time and they could handle either contact directly with a freight forwarder or a shipping agent right down to the final delivery to their clients front doors.

My mom and dad started the business 16 years ago, where they concentrated mainly on Port Logistics so they kind of got to the point where they had to concentrate on one side in the warehouse or the transport. They ultimately went towards the transport and they operate and grew that side of the business before my brother and I came on board.

So when we first started I think we had one rack. From that point, we are now at managing 4,000 square meters under roof, where we have the capacity to hold over five and a half thousand pallets within racking, and we made the decision that we wanted to concentrate on e-commerce Pick and Pack.

We quickly got our first client, this client brought a few new headaches. The first being that um how we're going to manage this on an Excel spreadsheet, how we're going to move forward with it, how we're going to charge the client, and how am I going to actually be able to add on these ad hoc charges and actually capture it, so we can make this warehouse what seems like a little hobby at the time for the business into a real business.

We needed something that had an app, something like that could upload our clients products, I could actually break it down onto different pallets into different locations, and then tell all the boys obviously where they're picking it from.

Where we are now holding kind of 5,000 pallets in racking it's really important that the boys know what they're picking but also being able to scan the product to ensure that it's correct - that's the way that we can offer same-day dispatch.

The second one was someone that I could also ring and go hey I've got this problem because remembering we're quite new to this warehousing space and the e-commerce side of things so we're going to need a little bit of assistance, and the third was someone that can actually pick up the phone and go how good is this?  They know what I want, they can actually be hands-on with it and help me with the integration side.  So having a team that could support us on that endeavor was really important for us.

One of the things I really liked about CartonCloud was the fact that the team had come from a warehouse background. They'd seen the operational difficulties from day to day and have created a product that was actually able to help us.

From day one to where we are now I think we're probably only using five to ten percent of the features and capabilities that CartonCloud offered us.  Where now each client that we bring on brings in different needs and requirements. We've learned and adapted and CartonCloud’s helped us kind of optimize that process throughout.

Using CartonCloud has given us the ability to reach International markets. We now have a client that's based in Canada and through easy Integrations we're able to receive orders live from overseas at any time so for all of our clients that come on board we spend probably two or three days on boarding each particular product, we then link that directly into CartonCloud from their Shopify and the CartonCloud team builds the integration from Shopify directly into CartonCloud.

Even with International clients the integration process allows clients from all over the world to be able to settle our orders to us live which ensures that we're still getting same-day dispatch which is really important for our clients.

Our clients love that the shipping feature is a part of CartonCloud so our staff and the client aren't having to use multiple platforms. Through our couriers we can print courier labels directly from the platform, which means that we're limiting time and mistakes. It's really important for our clients to also see when stock’s leaving our warehouse so if we're spending half the morning picking and packing we need to be able to provide proof to our clients that it's left on time and it's on route to the final delivery. 

We do that through the consignment feature we leave that dispatch where couriers are assigning on glass for multiple Consignments at once which then sends an automated email directly to our clientele letting them know that it's left and it's on its way that's what we're offering our clients now and I feel like we're doing a pretty good job.

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I'm Chloe Fisher, and I'm the director of Sendable. So Sendable is a third-party logistics provider, and we're Australia's first social enterprise 3PL. So we offer pick-pack services to both e-commerce and bulk commodities clients with the hopes of going national.

 It really came off the back of my son Byron being diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. Basically what we were finding is that all of his future career prospects and his schooling as well was put into a really negative light after his diagnosis. As we dug into that a little bit deeper, we were finding that there were employment barriers for people with a disability, and we basically said, "ok, what can we do to create employment opportunities for people with a disability in warehousing and logistics?". So that happened in 2019, and that's sort of where Sendable started.

We pick, pack, and dispatch with purpose, and what we really mean by that is that each individual item that our staff members pick and pack into their satchels and send out is done so with purpose in the fact that it offers employment opportunities an hour to people with a disability. So, I think that's a really big thing that we would like to get across is that you can actually use your supply chain to change someone's life.

I think for e-commerce clients, especially those ones who are utilizing a 3pl, there is a high demand to have oversight of their inventory levels at any given time, as well as the progress of dispatching customers' orders daily.

Through the utilization of CartonCloud, we are able to offer oversight of how many orders we dispatch per day as well as the inventory stock levels in real time.

Given the work that we do at Sendable, having a system that was easy to use and simplistic for our staff members to operate was a key priority for us.

CartonCloud has made the receivable of stock quite easy for our team, and being able to scan a barcode and allocate it to one of our locations and then have our staff pick from it all within like a 24/hour period. I think for the customers, they really like promoting the social enterprise part of our 3pl business, so it's really around focusing on those employment opportunities that they are able to create directly through the sales of their product. We're able to change the lives of these individuals, and as we're doing it, I always have my son Byron in mind. We don't have to have these employment barriers in place; we can overcome them, we can create an inclusive environment that everyone can have opportunities to work.