Homecare-Service: First industry solution for nationwide deliveries to homecare patients in Germany - New logistics solutions to the challenges of the demographic change in society - Move away from rigid formats of B2B and B2C systems
Weinheim, 19 September 2011 - With its new homecare service, the company trans-o-flex Schnell-Lieferdienst, which specialises in logistics for the healthcare market, is providing a new tailor-made, nationwide direct delivery service to homecare patients and patients in care facilities across Germany. The service is due to start on 3 Oktober 2011. "More and more people are reliant on care. They are either at home or in care homes and regularly receive medical technology or special products for food or hygiene", says Kai Schmuck, Director Marketing and Sales at trans-o-flex. "The services range from food for invalids to dialysis products through to products for sterile wound care." According to findings by trans-o-flex, networks have thus far not catered to the special requirements of homecare patients and the respective products. For this reason, by working closely with its customers, the company has devised a new solution, which it has tailored to the specific needs of its recipients. It differs greatly from conventional logistics procedures.
More time per stop necessary
By way of illustration, for a homecare delivery, even the planning of the delivery tours takes account of the fact that drivers require more time when making these deliveries than for normal stops. "Generally speaking, although homecare patients are at home, they sometimes require a relatively long time before they can respond to a ring on the doorbell and to get to the door", explains Schmuck. "What is more, we don't simply drop the parcels off, but carry them to the exact place they are required. This is particularly important when delivering to patients in homes." Most delivery services drop their consignments off at the receiving area or at the main reception, leaving it up to the care home management to ensure that the deliveries reach the patients. This often entails a whole week's or month's supplies and also what are quite often heavy parcels, for which - in only very few cases - is suitable equipment available, such as hand trucks for transporting the parcels into the home. "Consequently, more and more homes are refusing delivery", says Schmuck from trans-o-flex market research talking from experience. A further distinguishing feature is that the homecare consignments are provided with special labels. They can be assigned additional options such as delivery by 8, 10 or 12 o'clock the next working day.
Logistics solutions to the demographic change
"The Homecare-Service is a new service designed to provide homecare patients with a delivery service that is tailored to their specific requirements", emphasizes Schmuck. "trans-o-flex has looked intensively into the logistics requirements of the demographic change in our society and, by launching this service, we are presenting the first practical product result." The director is convinced that the fact that there will be an increasing number of elderly persons living in our society presents numerous opportunities for logistics service providers. "To take advantage of these opportunities, we must however depart from the beaten track and for example abandon the dividing lines between business-to-customer deliveries (B2C) and business-to-business deliveries (B2B)." For example, we expect homecare shipments to be sent in a large number of cases to private addresses, although they are not strictly speaking B2C shipments. "Normally, the patient is at home, but cannot always come to the door immediately. In addition, the deliveries involved are regular consignments."
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