Deliver, shelve, tidy up: Logistics that makes people happy

Special Services: by means of delivery directly onto the shelf, trans-o-flex demonstrates how smart logistics can take account of individual recipient requirements today. At the same time, the US biotechnology and medical-technology specialist Beckman Coulter uses numerous other services from trans-o-flex and can thus reduce the number of logistics providers it uses.

We launched our range of Special Services for Beckman Coulter at exactly the right time,” says Eugen Günther, Chief Sales Officer at trans-o-flex. “Beckman Coulter was in search of a partner in 2024 that could transport both parcels and pallets and also organises and reliably implements individual delivery agreements with numerous recipients. In October 2024 we started with the first addresses for special deliveries.” Thus the US biotechnology and medical-technology specialist, which has developed, manufactured and marketed laboratory and measuring equipment and the necessary consumables for more than 90 years, became one of the first users of the Special Services from trans-o-flex. The corresponding department was established in the same year and has since implemented a wide variety of individual customer requirements (see below: Special Services: Nothing is impossible!).

In the case of the medical-technology customer the special service specifically consists of the delivery driver not simply handing the ordered goods over to the recipient, but unpacking the pallets, shelving the products, tidying up the packaging material and taking it away. trans-o-flex deploys specially trained drivers who distribute Beckman Coulter’s goods on special routes from the respective branch for these services. Furthermore, the deliveries have previously been agreed in person with both the sender and the recipients. For Beckman Coulter this particular type of delivery is now an additional sales argument used in the customer acquisition. But how time-consuming is the preparation of this service?

“We receive an annual plan of when the individual recipients are normally to be supplied from Beckman Coulter,” explains Anna Maria Cirimele, who established and now leads the Special Services division at trans-o-flex. “This plan is based on the ordering behaviour of Beckman Coulter’s recipients and on discussions with the customer – and it is largely accurate.” Based on this information, the Special Services department of trans-o-flex then contacted the recipients and asked when the best time for delivery would be. “If the answer was, for instance, “between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon”, then that is considered in our route planning.” In addition, recipients receive advice on the day of delivery stating that, and when, new goods will be delivered. “Other special considerations are also taken into account, for example that a recipient will receive both parcels and pallets but cannot be served by a lorry but only by a van,” says Cirimele. All arrangements relating to the special tasks and the operational implementation are organised by the Special Services team at trans-o-flex. “As a result, there are fixed contacts for both senders and recipients, people know each other, people know the processes. That instils a sense of confidence and security.”

© Beckman Coulter

“We had already gained that trust in previous years through the collaboration with trans-o-flex and gradually entrusted the company with further tasks,” says Frank Pels, Director Transportation EMEA at Beckman Coulter. “The wide-ranging product portfolio that trans-o-flex offers, is ideal for us because it enables us to cover all our needs.”

Thus, trans-o-flex not only transports the Special Services consignments for Beckman Coulter, but also express consignments with deliveries by 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. or 12 noon on the next working day or temperature-sensitive products that are transported by ThermoMed with active temperature control at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. This also facilitates synergies during the collection process. That’s because all goods are collected once daily from the company’s European central warehouse in the Dutch town of Wijchen. The two-compartment vehicle takes receipt of both the refrigerated goods and the express and Special Services consignments. The lorry unloads the express goods in Duisburg. From there the consignments are distributed nationwide to all the branches in an overnight run. The lorry then continues to drive the rest to the ThermoMed hub in Baunatal. The nationwide distribution of the refrigerated goods is performed from here. Pels: “By means of the active temperature control we not only ensure the quality of our thermo-sensitive products but also save large quantities of special packaging that we would otherwise have to buy, hold in stock and dispose of.”