Blog December 4, 2013

MRI Intermodal’s tank operating software helps VOTG’s continued growth

By Nicola Byers

Back in 1999 when VOTG first started using MRI Intermodal’s tank operating software, the company had over 2,000 tanks and was a small to medium size player in the industry. VOTG Tanktainer, originally founded in 1997 was a joint venture between VTG and Royal Vopak. It became a 100 per cent subsidiary of VTG Aktiengesellschaft in 2007 and is today, one of the top tank operators with over 7,000 tanks in its fleet and eight offices worldwide.

VOTG is a logistics service provider for the chemical industry serving all areas of transportation where an intermodal tank container is required. It has six European and two overseas offices, along with a global network of partners and agents to cover Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and Africa. Its fleet is constantly adapted to meet customer requirements and consists of standard, swap, electrical, gas and compartment tank containers.

MRI Intermodal’s Monitor4000 solution has been an integral part of VOTG’s development over the past 14 years. It has enabled the company to grow substantially and improve its business processes. Monitor4000 is a specialist tank container software system that has continually been enhanced to meet the needs of the tank industry.

VOTG produces transport plans within Monitor4000, using pre-calculated costs and routes. It translates quotations into orders and generates sales invoices automatically using stored contract terms and costs. Additionally, it manages Maintenance & Repair, demurrage and fleet control within the system, saving weeks of time and effort and without the need to manually check and validate procedures. “The major benefit of MRI’s system to VOTG is the fact that it is continually evolving,” explained Tayfun Oezcan, VOTG’s IT Manager.

Improvements to VOTG’s planning process will come with an upgrade to MRI’s latest planboard/equipment allocation tool. This will further reduce data entry time and provide a single data source for identifying tank availability and current utilisation.

“There are many improvements that integrated planning and allocation bring to VOTG,” declared Oezcan. “Overall better informed planning decisions ensure that equipment is optimised at all times and the potential for idle units is reduced.”

MRI Intermodal Software is working with VOTG on projects to improve the EDI input into Monitor4000 so as to ensure that data is in ‘real time’ and that the status of the tanks is always current. Faster and automated updating of this information via depot messaging will increase the efficiency of the business even further.

“VOTG has a good partnership with MRI Intermodal Software,” confirmed Oezcan. “There is steady ongoing development of both the Monitor4000 operating software and the Rental4000 leasing software. We are confident of MRI’s commitment to the products and can see that a recent boost of employees to the MRI team and its launch of additional modules to improve the range of functionality are helping its customers to make more savings and improve their competitive edge. The focus on EDI capabilities is of key importance to VOTG and we look forward to further enhancements in 2014. MRI’s links with other organisations such as ITCO (International Tank Container Organisation) confirm its position to us as an intermodal specialist.”

“It is of key importance for software to provide companies like VOTG with the tools to reduce costs and improve profitability,” concluded Jeremy Dunnett, senior consultant at MRI Intermodal Software. “MRI has a dedicated team of developers and consultants that specialise in tank container operating processes and will continue working with VOTG to ensure that its Monitor4000 solution meets the ever-changing demands of the industry.”