Bucharest, July 3, 2019 – Grup Feroviar Roman (GFR) announces the issuance of the first electronic consignment notes for the OMV Petrom railway transports, thus extending this service to all major players in the Oil Products industry.
GFR is the only Romanian company and one of the few operators in South-Eastern Europe to have implemented this service, as part of an extensive digitalization project. So far, the Electronic Consigment Note (STE) solution has replaced about 70% of local traffic transport contracts in paper format, with visible benefits in terms of efficiency, transparency and environmental impact.
“The STE application is an online editing, management and tracking tool of transports we do for our partners and customers,” Amedeo Neculcea, deputy general manager of the Grup Feroviar Roman and coordinator of this project, said. “The E-CLIENT GFR platform that STE is part of provides efficient, real-time communication between GFR and its customers regarding the status of empty wagons availability, shipments, any wagons in our fleet and, soon, the GFR-issued invoices. At the same time, it provides flexible management of documents governing the operational business relationship (consignment notes, subsequent orders, circumstances preventing carriage, takeover–handover lists, etc.) and the issuing of various reports. It is undoubtedly a valuable system that greatly simplifies the efforts made to manage contractual relations. We are pleased that our OMV Petrom partners validated the results we have achieved so far, making the decision to replace the old system with this performing solution.”
GFR manages more than 7,000 transports each month and issues the same number of consignment notes, of which over 2,800 locally. Of the total monthly consignment notes, 40% are local notes generated by the GFR, 16% are international consignment notes generated by the GFR, and 44% are international consignment notes generated by other operators.
In the traditional version, the issuing of consignment notes involves substantial resources (12 pages printed for each shipment, manual filling of forms printed on atypical printers, which require higher costs than normal printers). Transferring these operations into a computer system greatly reduces the environmental impact, but also the risk of human errors and delays.
GFR is constantly allocating human and financial resources to innovation and technology projects, seeking to provide customers with an experience tailored to market demands through integrated and easy-to-use platforms.
The operator has developed and implemented so far 17 software applications. Ten other applications or modules are currently in different stages of development. Many of these solutions aim at simplifying and streamlining operational and commercial activities – IT solutions that model processes such as empty wagons orders, using electronic consignment notes, shipment monitoring, access to various nomenclatures, automated reporting, etc.
About GRAMPET Group
Established almost 20 years ago, GRAMPET is today the largest private rail freight and logistics operator in Romania and Southeast Europe. Its 16-company structure is strategically designed to span the entire chain of rail transport solutions and products, thus offering clients an integrated experience at the highest level of competence: freight railway transport, building, repairs and upgrading of rolling stock, spare parts production, lease of rolling stock, freight transhipment, logistic services, as well as innovative IT solutions for railway operators.
With a declared objective to connect the Atlantic Ocean through the North Sea, to the Pacific, through the South China Sea, GRAMPET Group is one of the main drivers for the development of transport corridors that connect Europe to Asia.
Its flagship company Grup Feroviar Român (GFR) is one of the main rail freight operators in Romania and Southeast Europe. Currently, over 20% of traffic is international, with GFR offering complex logistic solutions to rail sector customers.
GFR is a member of all representative international organizations and has cooperation agreements with both state railway operators (BDZ Cargo, UZ, CFM, PKP Cargo, ZK, RCH, HZ Cargo, ZBIH) and private railway operators from Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Germany.
The Group’s companies Reva Simeria, Electroputere VFU Pascani, Reloc Craiova, and Electroputere VFU Craiova account for an important share of the Romanian rolling stock repairing market
In parallel, the group has an intense research and development activity, aimed at developing technical solutions that provide clients with a transparent and real-time experience. In 2017, GFR launched the E-CLIENT GFR portal, a first for Romania and Southeast Europe, which facilitates the management of the traditional carrier – customer-company relationship, from posting of orders to service invoicing, while going through essential stages such as ordering empty wagons, drafting transport contracts, providing unhindered access to process information, intelligent alert systems for decision-makers, and automated reporting.