Rail&Sea's Vision of Smarter, Efficient Freight Management
Railway transport and logistics with Rail&Sea
Freight traffic in Europe is a cornerstone of the continent’s economy, facilitating the seamless movement of goods across diverse regions. Today, according to Eurostat (Eurostat Rail Freight Statistics, 2022) more than 1 500 Million tonnes are transported by rail in the EU.
In this sector Rail&Sea Logistics GmbH has established itself as a highly specialised transport company with 21 locations in 10 European countries. Rail&Sea transports 4.6 million tonnes of goods annually and offers a wide range of services, including railway logistics, railports and terminals, connecting railways, and digital services for railway logistics. For over 25 years, they have been developing innovations that enhance freight transportation across Europe’s railways, consistently aligning with their vision of smart logistics. In pursuit of this vision, they wanted to visualize their logistics planning and brought TARA Systems on board to support them in creating a user-friendly frontend, furthering Rail&Sea’s commitment to operational excellence and efficiency.
Simplifying complexity
Rail&Sea coordinates various goods transports across Europe daily, managing routes and shipments from their source to destination. This complex planning process requires considering a wide range of factors, including train loading locations, personnel schedules, and given time slots for certain routes. The nature of this business demands precise data tracking, real-time updates, and efficient management to ensure smooth operations and optimal performance.
As a result of the company’s growth new requirements have arisen and Rail&Sea envisioned developing a frontend solution that could streamline their processes and visualize their comprehensive real-time data archive. Rail&Sea also considered the idea of making these visualized data available to their customers, allowing them to stay informed about the status of their transports. For this to be effective, it was essential to visually simplify the complex, highly specialized data, ensuring that customers could easily understand and utilize the information.
To realize their vision, Rail&Sea turned to TARA Systems for support in developing an intuitive interface for their logistics planning. The primary goal of this interface was to enhance the efficiency of their planning process, improve responsiveness to real-time changes, and ultimately provide a user-friendly experience for both their internal team and their customers.
nanoRail – state-of-the-art logistics planning
Initially, TARA Systems took on an advisory role, working closely with Rail&Sea to understand their needs and goals. Through comprehensive discussions, an analysis of the current situation, and well-defined objectives, it was decided to adopt an agile UX design process. This approach led to the development of the logistics frontend named “nanoRail.”
In close consultation with Rail&Sea, we recommended “Flutter,” an open-source framework by Google for multi-platform applications, as the most suitable development kit. This decision came after thoroughly examining various frameworks, including React/React Native and others. Flutter was preferred for its robust support for web, Android, and iOS platforms, its well-maintained ecosystem, and its extensive array of high-quality modules, ensuring versatile development capabilities.
For the implementation, we initially supported Rail&Sea in finding the right specialists to develop nanoRail. Although implementation was always under TARA’s supervision, we later took over the implementation process ourselves and built a robust and scalable flutter frontend, incorporating advanced data visualization techniques and real-time tracking capabilities to provide up-to-the-minute information on Rail&Sea’s fleet and operations.
Our commitment to Rail&Sea’s success has not wavered over the past three years and our team has been readily available to address any issues, ensuring smooth and efficient implementation, transforming Rail&Sea’s complex data into an accessible, easy-to-use interface.
What’s next?
nanoRail significantly improved data visualization and streamlined the handling of orders, leading to increased operational efficiency. User feedback has been positive, with staff praising the intuitive interface and the ease of data retrieval. The simplified workflows and real-time tracking capabilities have enhanced overall responsiveness and decision-making processes.
Currently, the internal team at Rail&Sea, along with select customers, are using nanoRail, benefiting from real-time insights into the status of their transports.
Rail&Sea is also considering the development of a native app to further enhance accessibility and convenience. Additionally, there are plans to integrate AI for forecasts and probability assessments, aiming to predict defaults and other potential issues proactively.
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We’d love to learn about your project plans and offer our services and expertise to support you through the entire development cycle.