An Post partners with VT Electron to track over 3,800 roll cages and containers connected to the Sigfox 0G Network
Challenges
An Post needed an automated solution to track thousands of returnable roll cage and container assets across its distributed delivery network of 200 depots and 3 hubs, to improve asset utilisation and supply chain efficiency, reduce spending on replacement assets and improve customer experiences.
Solution
An Post contracted VT Electron to design, build, and deploy a reliable, cost-effective, mass asset monitoring solution to remotely track over 3,800 roll cages and containers across its distribution network.
Results
VT Electron’s IoT asset monitoring solution allowed An Post to:
- Improve supply chain efficiency and resilience end-to-end
- Significantly reduce the number of lost assets
- Decrease CAPEX and OPEX
- Increase asset turnaround time time and hence utilisation and ROI
- Scale efficiently to support rapid growth
- Meet Service Level Agreement (SLA) and enhance customer experiences.
0G Network Operator
VT Electron is Ireland’s exclusive 0G Network Operator and an IoT pioneer that empowers enterprises to transform business models and operations with leading-edge device-to-cloud solutions.
Customer
An Post provides a world-class universal postal service across Ireland to citizens and businesses, spanning post and parcel handling and financial and communications services.
An Post is Ireland’s leading postal, e-commerce, and financial services supplier. Daily, the organisation delivers two million mail items to 2.2 million address points nationwide using thousands of returnable transport units, such as roll cages and containers, across an extensive network of distributed mail hubs. An Post’s efficient service quality relies on integrated processes requiring the ready availability of empty roll cages and containers at every mail hub.
Tracking large asset fleets across multiple locations is a daily challenge for An Post. Roll cages and containers are often misplaced, lost, mistakenly collected by competitors, or used as storage across supply chains. Seasonality drives fluctuations in freight volumes, and An Post’s returnable asset availability must respond dynamically to demand changes. Shortages of roll cages and containers across mail hubs delay deliveries, erode customer satisfaction, increase operational expenses, and often result in unnecessary new asset purchases through under-utilisation of existing assets.
Masters at creating exceptional delivery and customer experiences, An Post is intentionally evolving from managing traditional mail services to the new world of providing e-commerce parcel logistics and B2B services. The company is rapidly digitalising its supply chain tracking capabilities as part of this transformation.
To accelerate its supply chain digitalisation, An Post needed a solution that remotely monitored and managed the availability of its returnable asset fleet to prevent costly losses, reduce opex and capex, improve efficiencies, optimise fleet utilisation, and better inform data-driven decision-making across its distribution network.
How IoT asset tracking and the 0G Network helped An Post digitalise its supply chain
An Post engaged VT Electron, IoT experts, and the operator of Ireland’s 0G network, powered by Sigfox 0G technology, to revolutionise its supply chain with IoT tracking devices. VT Electron designed and deployed an IoT asset tracking solution, connected to the Sigfox 0G Network – a global, public, low-power, long-range network specifically designed for low-cost, energy-efficient device connectivity – for An Post to solve its operational challenges.
The solution features compact, shockproof, weather-resistant IoT devices attached to each roll cage and container. Installation takes minutes, and once in place, the low-energy battery powered device can last up to ten years without maintenance.
Throughout each day, every device transmits small bytes of location data over the 0G Network to a central dashboard, giving depot managers a clear idea of precisely how many trolleys are at each depot. This on-demand visibility allows An Post to organise their activities and the distribution of its IoT-tracked trolley fleet, thereby, improving lead time and reducing handling costs.
Connecting to the VT-IoT 0G Network eliminated the barriers associated with traditional networks, such as price, battery life, and connectivity. The 0G Network reliably operates across 95 percent of Ireland, even in traditionally difficult locations such as underground warehouses, without needing dedicated or additional hardware.
Tracking 3,800 assets with the IoT and 0G Network helped An Post cut costs and improve supply chain resilience and customer experiences
Today, An Post tracks over 3,800 roll cages and containers with VT Electron’s mass asset monitoring solution. The solution delivers An Post meaningful, on-demand location insights, which let the company improve fleet utilisation and quickly resolve bottlenecks and asset gaps. Transparency into its fleet location also helped An Post reduce asset losses and, ultimately, the size of its overall fleet of roll cages and containers. Better asset availability and utilisation improved supply chain resilience, enhancing customer experiences and satisfaction.
VT’s state-of-the-art solution has resulted in significantly increased transparency in our postal distribution network, ensuring world class quality of service for our customers and lower operational costs through improved containerisation efficiency.Mark Devine, National Engineering Maintenance & Performance Manager
at An Post
Our collaboration with An Post is an exciting step forward into the future of industrial IoT and a key milestone toward connecting billions of IoT devices globally on the Sigfox 0G Network. We are confident our solutions have the power to truly revolutionise the way logistics and supply chain companies do business, resulting in significantly reduced costs and increased efficiencies.Mark Bannon, CEO at VT Electron
VT Electron’s collaboration with An Post is an exciting step forward into the future of industrial IoT. This initiative and others at organisations like DHL, CouriersPlease, and Austrian Post demonstrate how IoT solutions connected to the low-cost, long-range, low-power 0G Network can tangibly revolutionise logistics, creating unprecedented supply chain efficiency, resilience, and cost-effectiveness.Remi Francois, Chief Operating Office at UnaBiz