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Having grown from an Italian family-owned transport provider, today Codognotto Group offers transport services across all of Europe through its intermodal and road asset network. Codognotto’s capacity, along with its advanced TMS solution which includes 2000 GPS integrated loading units, makes them a perfect fit with sennder’s business model.
To explore how this partnership came to be, and learn more about how our businesses support and complement each other, we sat down with Diana Gaidarji, carrier manager from our Madrid office, and Vincent Mesplede, managing director of Codognotto France to discuss the collaboration.
How did the partnership between Codognotto and sennder start?
Diana Gaidarji - Our collaboration started over a year ago. I remember one evening around 5 PM, I was desperately looking to cover an urgent load. I called Vincent who had already carried a couple of loads for us.
I appreciated his willingness to help, and his effort – even at such a late hour – when most carriers would not even pick up the phone. From that moment, I knew that I could trust him with our business
Vincent Mesplede - From then, step by step we started to talk more and work together more.
From a business standpoint, how has this collaboration changed over the past year?
Vincent Mesplede - Our relationship has evolved in a positive way. sennder understood how we were working, and Codognotto was able to offer sennder needed capacity.
Diana Gaidarji - At first we collaborated only on a spot basis, without a contract or agreement between us. Later, seeing the regular capacity that Codognotto could provide and the gradual increase of loads they were shipping for us week by week – I saw an opportunity to establish a partnership on our regular lanes.
Vincent Mesplede - That’s right. We’ve increased the number of loads we do together for sure, and we’ve established some contracts on lanes.
On a personal level, how has this partnership directly affected your work?
Diana Gaidarji - In the beginning, I communicated with Vincent through a lot of emails and very formal phone calls. Now that Codognotto is actively using our digital tools, our operations have become much more efficient. It saves both of us time, because we don’t need to discuss items like origin, destination or load details for instance. All of these details are on sennder's digital carrier platform called orcas.
Vincent Mesplede - On orcas I can see if we have any orders waiting, and also I can place bids on the marketplace. I can see all the loads that sennder has, and if I have trucks in the area, I can bid on those loads. Our own transport management system is able to connect to orcas, which makes it really easy to exchange data and automatically book loads.
What’s the biggest benefit of this business partnership?
Diana Gaidarji - Speaking for sennder Iberia, I´d say Codognotto is one of the few carriers who regularly takes loads from Spain to France.
More recently, Codognotto´s willingness to work on dedicated contract lanes has been a big plus, because regular and committed capacity is essential for growing our business.
Vincent Mesplede - The biggest benefit for Codognotto is that we can offer spare capacity to the market without having to search on different transport exchanges.
We are building a partnership that is beneficial to both companies, sennder can access some of our extensive capacity in Europe, and we can utilize our fleet to a higher potential.
Additionally, sennder has fast payment options, and always pays on time.
What lanes do you work together on?
Diana Gaidarji - Most of the lanes I work with Codognotto on are from Barcelona to France, and back, from France to Spain.
Vincent Mesplede - Additionally we have added a lane from France to Germany. My colleagues in other countries are also in contact with other sennder’s offices in Europe and we plan to grow the partnership at a European level.
Are there certain technologies that help to make covering these lanes more efficient?
Vincent Mesplede - I like working on sennder’s orcas platform because it's very easy to understand and use. We can quote, place bids, accept loads, and add a plate number without making a phone call.
Diana Gaidarji - On the technological side, Codognotto has become more integrated with the orcas platform, and it really makes our communication and partnership more efficient.
I would say the orcas platform and GPS tracking are the two most important technologies for this collaboration.
Speaking of GPS tracking, how does this affect sennder and Codognotto’s collaborative business?
Diana Gaidarji - The fact that Codognotto’s trucks are GPS integrated is a big bonus. It saves time for me, because I don't have to ask Vincent about the location of a truck or the estimated time of arrival, I can just see their trucks on the map.
Also for our customers, GPS allows us to provide real time visibility. If there is an incident, we can look back at the data to see what happened. It never happens that there is an ambiguous information hole. On my side, that is super important.
Vincent Mesplede - GPS tracking is helpful on both sides, because no one needs to call or send emails to follow the trucks. All involved parties have access to see where the truck is, when it will arrive and so on. It saves a lot of communication.
Our GPS technology allows us to track every single asset managed by Codognotto. Since our TMS is connected to orcas, the GPS data is exchanged without any stress for our transport managers.
How do you expect that this partnership will continue in the future?
Vincent Mesplede - We expect this collaboration will increase, and we will exchange more loads. We are growing both sales and capacity, and working with sennder creates an opportunity for the two companies to mix our strengths, and to work better together.
Diana Gaidarji - I agree. I believe there is more opportunity to grow with Codognotto.
We are working on adding different lanes in our agreements, and we aim to increase the volumes we are moving together. This year, we in sennder’s Iberia office are looking forward to ship not only outbound from Spain but also inbound.
Vincent Mesplede - I am sure in the coming months we will expand our collaboration quite a lot.
Learn how to grow your business and get better fleet utilization with sennder HERE.