About: Luani Matthyser

02 August 2021

Improved transparency, reduced delay in GRV distribution and higher efficiency – all of which can be achieved with an automated goods received voucher.

In the past, a typical day at our North Riding Warehouse included receiving cargo at the warehouse, conducting a material inspection, counting and measuring cargo weight and dimensions, returning to the office, commencing with the manual goods receipt process, printing all paperwork, binding the GRV with the delivery note, scanning documentation and manually sending it to the customer.  This time-consuming and inconvenient process might sound familiar to the vast majority of the transport and logistics industry.  However, at Alistair Group we constantly look for ways to remove bottlenecks and improve our efficiency.

The goods received voucher (GRV), also known as a goods received note (GRN), was oftentimes reported to our team as being a problem area; taking anywhere between two to four days to deliver. This paperwork intensive process was flying under our efficiency radar and costing our business a lot of time and effort to manually process. GRV’s play a key part in notifying customers that their cargo has successfully been delivered. Without a timely and accurate GRV, our customer’s processes are delayed; BV inspections and load planning is stalled and thus transport of goods to the final destination is set back. Whilst auditing our GRV process, in the subsequent discussion with our warehousing team, it was made evident that manually processing the GRV took a large amount of time in data entry and distribution to customers. Additionally, our current process allowed for things such as human error, lack of accuracy, delays in sending the GRV and the inclusion of multiple unnecessary steps. Staff often had to walk more than 300m to book a goods receipt.

It was these conditions that led Alistair Group to develop and introduce an automated GRV system. The countless back and forth to receive cargo in the warehouse and input the data at the office, all of which was captured manually, has now been replaced with a user-friendly web-based application (see screenshot below). Our staff are now able to utilise their mobile phone or the office tablet to immediately capture all information while with the cargo. Thus, data entry can be done on-sight as soon as the cargo arrives; resulting in real-time data capturing and delivery transparency to customers. 

The new application is equipped with predetermined fields, automated customer information, cargo and delivery-note photo capturing and uploading capabilities, automatic GRV distribution and dashboard delivery status updates. This allows staff to book the cargo much faster. Through this improvement, Alistair Group has been able to make a substantial leap in the digitalization and automation of delivering GRV’s. Reducing the goods receipt process and drastically shortened the GRV delivery time; now allowing us to deliver GRV’s to customers within ten minutes of cargo delivery. The same data which is captured in the GRV note is then used to automatically prepare further documents such as Road Consignment Notes, Packing Lists and Clearance Documentation.

2021 marks 13 years of Alistair Group; a significant milestone for a company that began with one truck and the desire to solve problems. As of today, Alistair Group is the preferred logistics provider for a vast majority of industries in South and Eastern Africa. The Group operates across 20 countries worldwide, employs over 800 staff, manages 1039 assets and has 18 offices across Africa.

“Did we expect to still be here; to have grown this much? Honestly? No.” says Founder and CEO, Alistair James. “I suppose we always had our heads down and focused on the job back then. So, this is a good moment to look around and see all that has been accomplished by everyone involved.”

The company took its current form from a problem-solving basis. Alistair was originally based in the bush when he began working in Tanzania back in 2002. Due to his remote location, he had to overcome many logistical issues in terms of accessing food, spare parts and basic requirements. It quickly dawned upon him that there were many commercial opportunities to solving the present logistic restrictions within the community. His initial investment was in grain trading. He had witnessed the frustrations caused by the fluctuations in price and thus, became particularly good at predicting them. With a rented warehouse and a single small truck, he began trading in 2008. When he struggled to make the financials add up on such a small scale, he knew it was time for a bigger truck.

Alistair did not claim to be an expert in vehicles, he was learning on the job. However, with the potential of upscaling to a larger truck, he recognized the need for an experienced opinion. It was at this point Angelo Caruso joined forces with Alistair to provide hands-on maintenance and advise on the next investments. Angelo’s professional background in mining and road maintenance, coupled with his fascination with all thing’s vehicle related made him an ideal fit and a key component in the Group’s team. Angelo, now one of the three directors, is often described as “a well-oiled German machine; a petrol-head with a real heart for what we do”.

With Angelo’s input, the company invested in two fuel tankers, leading to a little more success. Unfortunately, only a few months later, amid their rising success, one of the fuel trucks caught fire. When describing these events Alistair makes it apparent that they “could have given up then and there.” Instead, Alistair sold the remaining fuel tanker and his personal car to cover the cost of the lost fuel and to finance two new flat-bed trucks. Little did Alistair and Angelo know that these two flatbeds would be the start of their ever-growing fleet. A stroke of luck turned things around in the form of a rental contract on Mafia Island for the oil and gas industry.

As business improved, the focus never wavered. Two years later, Clementine James, Alistair’s sister, joined the company and become the third director. Clementine had the expertise and skills to assist with finding the resources to grow the business. At this point, the company only had around ten trucks. Fast-forward 13 years – Alistair Group now has a fleet size of over 400 trucks and transported more than 200,000 tons of cargo in the last year. The company may be asset-based but its culture of efficient execution and best practice has set it apart in the world of logistics solutions. Alistair stated that “sometimes when people ask me what I do I just say I’m a trucker but it’s no longer really true”. He continues to explain that the company has grown into the success it is today because of their ability to continually make things work better.

Our past is our foundation, and that’s vital to remember. However, it is in the future where all of the opportunity lies. However, for the present; Alistair Group is going from strength to strength and it’s hard not to notice the buzz in the air as the company expands into more countries, gains new assets, embraces new technology and continues to evolve. It’s a new era for Alistair Group and the company is poised for further success.