Total logistics, on road, on rail and on sea (II)
When you are manufacturing almost 300,000 cars, the deliveries represent a problem that has to be managed very carefully, and Dacia doesn't hesitate to use all means of transport available - trucks, trains and ships.
As we underlined in the previous issue, the volumes managed monthly on the Dacia platform are truly impressive - almost 600 trucks a day. In the delivery of the cars, things evolved much lately. "3 or 4 years ago, we were transporting only on road, this mode of transport being, at the date, the most rentable, flexible and available on the market, the rest of the transport means not being mature enough for our needs. In the meanwhile, we started to identify possibilities to diversify the ways of transport", said Stefan Gaibu, chief of department for parts and vehicles transport at Dacia Groupe Renault.
In 2008, Dacia started to use the railway transport, which offers the same level of cost as the road transport.
Train versus truck
With Dacia's volumes of transport, the train even can successfully compete with the truck, each mode of transport having advantages and disadvantages.
"The advantage of the rail transport is that you can transport a very high quantity of merchandise in a short time. Currently, we have a frequency of 2-3 trains a day, which account for over 50% of our transports of cars. The trains have between 15 and 21 wagons, according to the destination, between 208-210 and 290 vehicles per train, according to the dimensions of the cars. On road, we have 6 to 10 cars on a trailer and 150-160 trucks a day. The days when we have 3 trains a day, the number of trucks is up to 120", declared Stefan Gaibu.
To be able to manage the high frequency, Dacia set up special zones dedicated for road and rail expeditions. So, a trailer is loaded in around one hour - one hour and a half and a train in 5-6 hours.
"We are doing very well in both cases; we have damage ratios under the limit we established. We adopted some special measures to reach these results. For instance, for the rail transport, the provider hires security teams. We also identified the zones with high degree of risk and we modified the schedule so that the transports will go trough these regions during nighttime. We also have 3 locomotives and specialized employees who help us", explained Stefan Gaibu.
For Dacia, the quality demands and the costs are going hand in hand, the price of transport not being the most important criterion.
"The cheapest transport solution can attract supplementary costs regarding the security of merchandise and the terms of delivery. If it would be only about the absolute values of the transport costs, these are comparable on all ways of transport, the difference being around 1-2 cents. For certain regions, the winner is the road transport, tanks to its flexibility, but if you are talking about very high volumes, you can't manage them only with the trailers. Before we started the rail program, we were transporting only on trucks. In certain moments, we had a lack of trailers where we needed them and the absorption of the high volumes was slow. But the road transport would be, currently, the first solution in case of major emergency, to unblock a certain quantity", underlined the chief of parts and vehicles transport department of Dacia.
The functionality of this huge logistic project impresses even more when we are thinking about the problems of the Romanian road and rail infrastructure. We've seen with our own eyes the road that goes to Dacia platform - a district road with one lane on way, where the trucks can hardly pass. And they are around 600 a day!
Even though the good organization on the Dacia platform can compensate for the problems of the infrastructure, problems can still occur.
"On railway, for instance, when there are high temperatures during summer and the passenger trains have delays this affects our transports as well. Then we have to calculate supplementary reserves of time or to have road transport solutions to replace the trains. On railway, the passengers have priority, but we had understanding and help from the operators to unblock the trains that were waiting", said Stefan Gaibu.
And on boat...
When Logan appeared, would anyone have imagined that Romania will export cars also by boat? But it really happens.
It is a combined transport formula, on train to Constanta and on sea from Constanta to the distribution centers in Europe.
"We have 5-6 trains a week to Constanta and the rest go to Italy, France, and Germany etc. On boat, we are transporting minimum 500 cars and, if it's about exotic countries, 2,000-3,000 cars a week per boat. They are transported generally to the Mediterranean area, especially to France. It is a maritime line that was chosen according to cost, quality and terms of delivery. Each week we have at least one boat. The time is 6 days tour and 6 days back, correlated with volumes from other factories. We are trying to set a return flux with Renault vehicles", said Stefan Gaibu.
Attention to the loading
There are special conditions of vehicle conditioning in the sea transport, according to the time of transit.
To send such a high number of cars, you need a very big and very well organized platform for loading. The parking for the new cars has a surface of 23,000 sq m. The capacity is of 10,150 vehicles with Renault quality standards, meaning that each vehicle has an available surface of around 27 sq m. The IT system offers a correct "image" of the stocked vehicles; one could check the position of each car, any moment. The operator knows exactly the place where he has to go to pick the right car for the right order.
After a vehicle is finished, the responsibility is transferred by means of formalized processes.
"The documents show the equipment and the ID code of the vehicle. The cars are taken over by the jockeys (platform drivers), then they are ran through two checking points, where the codes are scanned for stocking. In the first phase, the code, the destination, color, equipments are identified and then each car gets a stocking address. After the car is stocked, the transport programming stage takes place, according to the daily orders from the customers or dealers, where the lists with stocked cars and vehicles for loading are made. In their files, it is specified if they are for loading on trucks or trains. There is, also, a special area for handing over/taking over the responsibility to the provider, who has to check the cars from the quality and equipment point of view. Our responsibility is to provide the rows of cars prepared for loading, and then the provider of services has to load, check and secure the merchandise", explained Stefan Gaibu.
Safety protocol
Each transport provider has a safety protocol with rules that have to be respected and each driver has to have a copy of this protocol, which has to be shown when entering the Dacia platform. "If he doesn't have the copy, this becomes a safety incident. Also, we check if he wears the safety equipment. He also has to respect behavior rules, the route he is allowed to follow inside the platform, a certain position during unloading the truck; he must not consume alcohol, he must have a decent behavior etc. There were some problems in the past especially with the Turkish drivers, but after discussions with the management of the companies, they haven't happened again", added Stefan Gaibu. Not respecting the rules could lead to severe measures, even denying access to a certain driver in the platform for a period of time. The loading area for trucks ensures the "servicing" of 30 trailers in the same time. The loading time is between one hour and one hour and a half, according to the destination. The driver is responsible for loading and securing the vehicles on trailer. "We want to further optimize the loading degree of the trailers. Last year, we had a value of 8.4-8.5 vehicles on trailer, compared with 6-6.5 three or four years ago", said Stefan Gaibu. In addition to the transport of cars, important volumes of parts for other factories leave the Dacia platform. 40% of the total volumes of these transports leave towards the factory in Russia, and other destinations are Morocco, Columbia, India, Iran, South Africa and Brasil.
Stefan Gaibu, chief of the parts and vehicles transport department:
"We don't want to take sides when it is about the modes of transports. We have as a goal to serve our customers in the established time. We have around 50/50 road and rail transports and we are focusing on flexibility according to certain demands, volume variations or seasonal variations, where problems occur because the precipitations or heat".
When a car is stocked, there are 19 points to be respected, such as: the left side should be on the white line, the driver seat pulled all the way back, the documents should be at board, the accessories in the trunk, the safety brake released, the gear lever in the neutral point, the car unlocked, the wipers in a certain position so that they won't freeze during winter or stick to the windshield during summertime and the keys should not be in contact.
Radu BORCESCU
radu.borcescu@ziuacargo.ro
Publicat in revista Ziua Cargo din June 2010
