All articles by Malcolm Wheatley
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ArticleE-book: Productivity gains in real time – Unlocking ROI in vehicle logistics tracking solutions
Download this free e-book to learn how the return-on-investment for next generation real time location services has changed for finished vehicles in the post-cloud, post-AI technology landscape, with significant cost, operational and time advantages for OEMs compared to legacy systems. In partnership with Cognosos.
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ArticleWeighing the cost of the EV revolution
The rise in the number of electric vehicles being transported in Europe is bringing with it some significant challenges for those carriers tasked with volume shipments. They are having to deal with heavier and higher voltage vehicles that need charging on routes that cross countries with differing regulations on load dimensions
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InterviewBlockchain: Potential unlocked?
Vehicle-makers, tier supplies and logistics providers are progressing with ‘digital ledger’ technology that provides greater visibility and control over complex supply chains
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ArticleAll mixed up: the impact of the SUV trend on European car carriers
Volumes of finished vehicles may have recovered from the recession, but users and manufacturers of car transporters are now having to handle a very different array of vehicles, including larger and heavier models – with implications for capacity utilisation
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ArticleDelivering a smarter factory
Magna Steyr’s vehicle assembly plant in the Austrian city of Graz is not a typical automotive factory; the site, which in 2018 brought its cumulative total production tally to 3.5m vehicles, produces vehicles under contract for OEMs such as Daimler, BMW and Jaguar Land Rover. Efficiency is important in any ...
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ArticleConnecting the dots
Buy a new BMW, and it’s no surprise to find it stuffed with hi-tech telematics. Real-time traffic information, GPS navigation, automatic speed limit display, rear vision display, parking assistance, smartphone integration, intelligent diagnostics and status display – all of these and more are fast becoming part of the modern driving ...
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ArticleTaking cover from the heat
In late August 2017, Hurricane Harvey – the storm that devastated the Caribbean, flattening Puerto Rico – made landfall on the Texas coast. The second-costliest tropical cyclone on record and the third hurricane of the exceptionally active 2017 hurricane season, it inflicted a reported $125 billion in damage and, according ...
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ArticleThe future of logistics?
A manufacturing plant in Pittsburgh with an urgent requirement to send a pallet of freight to Chicago has few attractive options, as there is currently no direct highway route between the two. But if the visionaries at Virgin Hyperloop One have their way, that will soon change. By loading the ...
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ArticleTime to fall in line
In April 2016, a fleet of trucks – some of which had driven almost 2,000km – arrived in the Dutch port of Maasvlakte and made modest headlines around the world. A few months later, a three-strong convoy of Volvo trucks hauled three containers on the interstate highway from the port ...
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ArticleA match made in heaven?
According to a study carried out by the European Commission in 2014, almost a quarter of truck journeys on Europe’s roads are carried out empty. In individual member states, the prevalence of empty running can be even higher: in the UK, for instance, Department for Transport (DfT) statistics put the ...
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ArticleReal-time tracking: Is it Here yet?
Real-time cargo tracking has always had its appeal. The problem has been finding a technology that could actually deliver on the aspiration
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ArticleLogistics IT: Is there an app for that?
At US finished vehicle logistics specialist Jack Cooper Logistics, recounts president Andrea Amico, as part of a contract for carrying out the collection and inspection of ex-fleet vehicles on behalf of a US carmaker, the need to supply seven images of each inspected vehicle was suddenly upped to a requirement ...
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ArticleDisaster recovery: Prepared for the worst?
As the scale of the destruction wrought by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan’s north-eastern coastline in March 2011 became apparent, managers within BMW’s purchasing function were asked if it would affect the company. Their answer? No – because BMW had no suppliers in Japan.But that wasn’t quite ...
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ArticleMines of information
Having invested over the past 20 years in data acquisition technology, the automotive industry is now casting around for ways to make sense of that data.
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ArticleThe twilight of global trade?
Globalisation and free trade may be reversing towards regional supply chains for a mix of policy and economic reasons
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ArticleVehicle protection: Trying to cover all bases
In June this year, upmarket Volvo S90 sedans built at Volvo Cars’ plant in Daqing, northern China, began arriving at a car terminal at the port of Zeebrugge, Belgium for European distribution. Travelling not by sea, but by rail, they are transported in containers across Russia along the China-Europe rail ...
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ArticleMiddle East and Africa: Ford opens up the highways
An army marches on its stomach, Napoleon is reputed to have said, in perhaps one of history’s earliest endorsements of the wisdom of sound logistics infrastructure. These days, as those in the automotive industry know, good logistics in the marketplace is often the key to winning business and meeting the ...
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ArticleEducation and training: The hard line on soft skills
[in_this_story align="right" border="yes"]General Motors’ executive director for global supply chain, Todd Scott, meets frequently with the faculties of several universities. At Cranfield University School of Management – ranked number one outside the United States in Supply Chain World’s annual Top 100 Universities survey – senior supply chain executives from industry, ...
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ArticleCross-Channel freight: Trucks, tariffs and tunnel vision
Automotive Logistics reports on vehicle and component movements between the UK and the rest of Europe in the post-Brexit climateThe past year has brought freight movements between the UK and mainland Europe sharply into focus, including for automotive parts and finished vehicles. Britain’s vote to leave the European Union brought ...
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ArticleIndustry 4.0: Chipping away at the future
Automotive Logistics reports on the Fraunhofer Institute’s research into autonomous warehouse decision-making and how it is working to deliver practical advantages from Industry 4.0 conceptsIn this story... 4.0 reasons to look ahead Letting the devices decide Intelligent bins Safe space for dataGermany’s Fraunhofer organisation isn’t easily explained. Founded in 1949 ...