Pacific Transfer’s Shift to Digitise their Container Freight Station and LTL delivery operation

Pacific Transfer is a Honolulu-based logistics and transportation company that specialises in pier drayage, freight, intermodal logistics, and warehousing services. They are one of the largest container freight operations in the Hawaiian Islands, operating both an LCL freight terminal facility and a neighbouring island LTL consolidation and warehousing facility on the island of Oahu. Pacific Transfer is also the largest pier drayage dispatch operation in the Central Pacific (where they deploy 50 tractor/haulers and process approximately 1600 FCL dispatches per week). 

The success story of Pacific Transfer is not just one of logistical expertise. It’s driven by seeking out and deploying leading edge information technology solutions. As part of their quest for innovation and continual improvement, Pacific Transfer’s President and COO, Chris Redlew, was on the search for a replacement solution to manage and improve their Container Freight Station (CFS) operations. However, it was not easy. Chris found the technology options in the niche area of CFS very limited. 

“When I initially started looking for technology solutions in the marketplace I struggled to find any viable solutions that actually met our specific needs. Quite simply, very few software vendors were operating in this specific CFS space. However, once I landed on the Origin solution and started to look at what it could do, I found their platform solved most of our functionality issues and opened up many new possibilities for PT.” says Chris.

Origin’s CFS software was a good fit for Pacific Transfer, not only to replace PT’s existing CFS software and LTL TMS, but also to provide a clear roadmap of current and future innovation that will further streamline their operations and ultimately remove the need for paper processes across their container consolidation/deconsolidation and LTL delivery operations.

Pacific Transfer's container deconsolidation operation

Purpose-built and ready to evolve

The Origin CFS solution stood out due to several capabilities Pacific Transfer sees as crucial to success and maintaining a competitive edge. Two of those capabilities include:

1. The introduction of a CFS mobile app to remove paper from their dock operations
2. The use of EDI integration with clients for enhanced order processing and visibility

“Printing and filling out paper dockets just to track where freight is in a depot is inefficient and time-consuming. With instant real-time integration and a purpose-built mobile app, CFS processes become digital from end-to-end. Not only freeing up staff to work on higher value tasks, but importantly giving customers even better visibility of their freight.” says, Will Harding, Origin’s Head of Product.

Beyond Origin’s exciting product development roadmap, a cultural fit was also crucial in the decision. Introducing new software and processes into a business requires a spirit of understanding and partnership between the technology provider and the customer. 

“One of the things that instantly struck me was how well our cultures meshed. Instead of trying to modify and adapt our needs and workflows to fit their pre-existing solution, Origin analysed our needs and requirements before presenting their proposal. This needs-based assessment and solution development is nearly identical to how we approach assessing and fulfilling the needs of our clients.” says Chris.

After the implementation of the Origin CFS product solution, the next steps are to assess Origin’s Transport management functionality across Pacific Transfer’s transport operations.

“Ultimately, PT will define success as a seamless transition to the Origin platform without our customers noticing it at all. Following that, it’s going to be the elimination of paper manifests and freight bills from the dock operations. Then we will implement digital truck routing, electronic delivery receipts, and signature capture on the in-cab app, allowing PT to be a much more efficient operation. Currently, we are extremely paper-heavy and paper-dependent.” says Chris.

With the Origin CFS solution in place, Pacific Transfer can look forward to the following streamlined outcomes

• Paperless consolidation and deconsolidation of containers
• Instant data integration with 3rd party systems via Crossfire (freight clients, customs/compliance systems, and PT’s accounting systems)
• Mobile app functionality, unlocking visibility and efficiency throughout the operation 
• Automatic generation of client and compliance documents for major customers
• Increased container and cargo visibility for both internal stakeholders and external customers
• Elimination of existing paperwork from multiple sources (piers, cabs, manifests) into a digital/paperless space  

Origin and Pacific Transfer have only just begun their journey, but their goals are shared. Between them, they have the tools and knowledge to streamline CFS operations, pickup-delivery and other transportation related functions throughout Pacific Transfer’s operation.