Seras looking forward to the road ahead with Mandata

In the midst of internal reviews and company changes, Seras share their excitement at continuing their journey with Mandata, with the TMS at the core of their future-proofing plans.

Seras UK , headquartered in Widnes, Cheshire, are one of the industry leaders in the transportation and supply of wood waste biomass energy.

Formerly under the name Stobart Energy, and most recently Esken Renewables, the team at Seras have undergone multiple changes throughout the years, yet continues to achieve exceptional goals.

Although still in its infancy at 11 years old, Seras has grown exponentially, and now boasts itself as the number one biomass producer in the UK, providing 1.7 million tonnes of fuel to biomass plants in the UK. This equates to an equivalent of 2% of the annual UK domestic electricity demand.

Consequently, with this fast growth, they needed to move on from manual operational planning, and finding a more efficient method to help manage their workload, soon became a key priority.

Lacey J. , the Head of Projects and Service Delivery, sat down with us to discuss how moving from paper-based transport management to the Mandata Enterprise TMS has helped the team as Seras in its mission to improve operational efficiency by digitising transport planning.

Seras' journey to a ‘paper-free’ planning environment

“All planning was done on paper”, Lacey recalls. “The problem that you have is paper planning relies really heavily on everybody working in the same manner.”

“Then as you then get the next generation of people through, or new staff from other businesses, they can all work differently, which makes things challenging. It was just all a little bit clunky.”

“So ultimately we brought in a package that suited our needs. And over time, we have made adjustments to adapt to various changes in the business and in the industry.”

Seras have now been using the Mandata Enterprise TMS for 8 years, with Lacey seeing clear evidence of an improvement in their operations, with the TMS offering a simpler way to manage their work.

“Mandata has just made things so much easier”, Lacey adds. “You can have a range of people working on that product that have varying skill sets, but it makes it so simple for everyone, as we’re all working in the same manner.”

Drag and drop simplifying their planning

Within the Mandata transport planning module, the drag and drop functionality, whether planning for full load or multi-drop jobs, allows planners to easily plot and amend drop off points as they see fit and accommodates a more efficient planning process.

“The drag-and-drop traffic pad has just made things so much better. As an example, we had an ERP system that didn’t have drag and drop, and we had staff that had trouble working at a pace that was required, and others with less technical ability struggling.”

The staff at Seras are continuously prospering from the benefits of the simplicity of the drag-and-drop job planner, which is great news for Lacey and her team.

“With Mandata, even with new or trainee transport planners, they find it so easy to pick up. Even our most experienced transport planners, who have planned with paper for years, have easily adopted Mandata. It’s all pretty self-explanatory!”

Paperless operation on the horizon

Aiming to further their journey to becoming fully paper-free, the team at Seras are currently exploring Mandata’s Manifest app for ePODs.

“We are in the midst of testing the Manifest app”, says Lacey. “We’ve been itching to get Manifest for a long time, to go digital with our proof of delivery.”

The Manifest app allows drivers to digitally capture signatures, and photos for proof of delivery when completing jobs. Not only does this speed up the document return policy, as they automatically upload to the TMS once the delivery is signed for, but it also relinquishes the administrative burden on the office staff, as they no longer need to scan and process every piece of paper.

The people at Mandata are what sets us apart

2024 is a special year for Mandata, as it’s our 50th anniversary of working in partnership with hauliers. We are proud of every one who has worked in the business throughout the years.

“Mandata is about the wonderful people that work there,” Lacey says.

“It’s about having the trust in those people to deliver on what they say, and I think now under new leadership, you guys are capable of doing that.”

“With Mandata you can genuinely see that they do care, which is lovely.”

“What you do get with Mandata is a really honest conversation, with someone like Teresa Davidson [Premium Account Manager] or one of the Tech Ops team. They are transparent when there is a problem, and keep you updated throughout. It’s refreshing, as you don’t get this with other tech companies. It’s the honesty of those people that, you know, makes you trust them.”

“You know you can create a wonderful product, but if the people who support it don’t care about it, what’s the point? And with Mandata you can genuinely see that they do care, which is lovely.”

Future-proofing through partnerships

“It is genuinely wonderful to see where Mandata is now versus where it was not even just 12 months ago, and to see how far people and the business have come along.”

“There’s a real feeling of moving forward. They say ‘we’re going to do it’ and they deliver it”, which is genuinely wonderful and exciting to hear.”

“Our relationship with Mandata is one of the best we have with all of our suppliers.”

Interested to see how the Mandata Transport Management Solutions can help you to manage your operations with greater efficiency and visibility? Contact us through the link below to speak to our team today:

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