Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) is a U.S.-based short-line railroad holding company that owns or leases more than 100 freight railroads serving 3,000 customers globally. Its UK subsidiaries, Freightliner and Pentalver, are the largest intermodal rail freight provider and leading container logistics suppliers in the UK. Though Pentalver specializes in road fleet operations and Freightliner manages rail and inland container terminal handling, both brands share a drive to provide end-users with safe and efficient transportation services.
Freightliner and Pentalver have always had a strategic pulse on innovation, with a proven record of successfully scaling operations and coverage across the UK. However, in recent years, they have experienced increased container volumes and compounded congestion, posing threats to efficiency.
And as shipping volumes increased, it became more challenging to ensure timely delivery of goods for beneficial cargo owners (BCOs). Increased volumes led to truck or train bottlenecks at the terminals that became difficult to predict and manage. This congestion caused further impacts down the supply chain, including trucks being delayed in arriving at a warehouse or distribution center. Truckers were then missing their appointed gate time, meaning they would likely miss their delivery window — creating additional backups and delays at the terminal and surrounding communities.
G&W’s UK team decided it was time to revisit its strategy and explore a variety of terminal operating solutions that could address congestion, embrace automation, and position Freightliner and Pentalver to handle increased freight volume in the future.
The group launched a modernization program, Wave 2, to automate operational processes throughout the brand's terminals with a significant focus on operational optimization and integration efforts.
“Tideworks was the best product out there. For me, it was a no-brainer, there was also new functionality within Intermodal Pro that appealed to us.”- Chris Cavanagh
Program Lead with G&W UK Operations
As part of this executive modernization program, G&W had begun integrating technologies that would enhance vehicle booking and gate management. For years, G&W had relied on Tideworks Technology (Tideworks)’ intermodal terminal operating systems (TOS); however, after the acquisition of Freightliner and Pentalver, G&W leadership conducted comprehensive analyses of existing vendors, and as part of the Wave 2 program, new leadership wanted to assess all providers on the market.
G&W needed a TOS solution that could integrate with the vehicle booking and gate management tools, drive automation throughout the terminal, and scale across different sites. This was the first integration of its kind attempted across the company and the UK intermodal rail sector.
Freightliner and Pentalver also wanted to make better, data-driven business decisions and take the guesswork out of specific tasks like locating containers or keeping track of rail activity, all functions exacerbated by congestion. Integrating terminal operating, vehicle booking, and gate management systems would deliver data that could inform decisions across the UK supply chain.
In 2018, as part of the executive modernization plan, G&W's UK subsidiaries launched an extensive RFP process to search for the right TOS provider. The TOS provider G&W selected would serve as the solutions provider across its entire UK rail network, complete the integration and play a critical role to help G&W achieve the automation and scalability goals it had outlined. Tideworks was in the consideration set, and G&W kicked off the expansive market assessment.
G&W’s rigorous evaluation process brought them to different sites across the U.S. to view live deployments of solutions on the market. Here, they spoke with actual users and a variety of terminal operators to get feedback and learn about their experiences with various providers.
After witnessing live deployments and reviewing various competitive bids, G&W selected Tideworks as its TOS provider, more specifically, Tideworks' intermodal TOS solutions, Intermodal Pro and Traffic Control. With its demonstrated effectiveness in the market and ability to create a single, unified access point for multiple systems, Tideworks was the best fit for G&W's modernization objectives.
In addition to Tideworks' operational proficiency, the group had worked with G&W’s other partners, Advent eModal, the world’s largest port community system, and Camco Technologies (Camco), a technology provider of gate automation solutions for container terminals, rail and intermodal terminals and Ro-Ro terminals. G&W knew that Tideworks’ existing relationships with these providers would support a seamless integration and make it feasible to establish a singular platform for all the solutions.
"We asked ourselves questions about where we wanted to be in the future as a business and could these products take us to our vision of optimization. We chose solutions that would allow us to say that we have the best, most reliable, and forward-thinking terminals in the UK. - Nick Matthews
Managing Director of Terminal Services for G&W UK Operations
Following Tideworks’ selection as G&W’s TOS partner, Tideworks spent the next two years planning and executing the rollout of Tideworks’ intermodal solutions to 24 UK terminals, 10 of which would receive the complete integration solution — a massive undertaking that required careful planning. Further, implementing the new systems during the pandemic posed additional challenges as the companies charted unknown territory and various global guidance. Not only did teams need to consider health and safety guidelines, but they had to navigate implementation and communications across four companies and multiple time zones.
In late 2020, Tideworks’ Intermodal Pro and Traffic Control solutions went live at Cardiff and Birmingham terminals. The go-live included integration with Advent eModal's vehicle booking system and Camco’s gate management system. It was essential for G&W to integrate its TOS, vehicle booking, and gate management systems so they could seamlessly access and manage all the tools.
In addition to seamless integration and a single platform view, G&W wanted a provider that would be a long-term partner and drive improvements immediately and in the future.
Since implementation, G&W UK operations have increased automation and efficiency across their terminals. Most notably, Tideworks’ solutions and the integration have helped ease terminal congestion — one of the supply chain's most significant challenges but also a primary goal for G&W. One factor that eased congestion right away was gate check-ins and turn times. For example, before deploying the new TOS, it took the Birmingham terminal two hours to clear the gate queues at the start of the week. With the automated solution in place, the task can be completed in only 20 minutes.
"We've certainly seen a massive improvement around congestion. Rather than having 60 or 70 trucks turn up within an hour, we'll have 40 trucks one hour and then 40 trucks the next hour, which is a lot more manageable"Jason Williams
Operations Manager of Freightliner’s Birmingham Terminal
Further, G&W is now able to use data generated by the integration to better manage operations. Using Tideworks’ TOS, teams can tap into key performance indicators to understand where problems occur. For example, G&W can generate a daily report showing the number of trains that arrived at a terminal, how many arrived on time, how full they were, and how quickly trucks could turn.
“In a week’s time, G&W’s Birmingham, Cardiff, Doncaster, and Liverpool terminals handled over 4,000 truck visits. The average turnaround time across the four terminals was below 26 minutes. " - Nick Matthews
Managing Director of Terminal Services for G&W UK Operations
Recently, the groups put the integration to the ultimate test.
"One of our cranes was out for the day, and we had roughly 450 vehicle visits at the Birmingham terminal throughout the day. Despite this setback, our turnaround time maintained at 32 minutes. In the past, if a crane had gone out, we could have witnessed delays between three to four hours,” added Matthews.
The integration's ability to drive productivity despite equipment downtime was evidence of success to G&W UK operations and users at the terminal that day.
The new systems and integrations also provide G&W UK operations with increased visibility and planning accuracy, enabling improved gate management and other planning processes. Instead of tracking down the container's location, the new TOS allows teams to see exactly where the container is and the precise time that it will be collected. The team can use this data to ensure operations are running smoothly within the ebb and flow of traffic that day, week, or month. The combination of these efficiency improvements has allowed Freightliner and Pentalver to gain savings elsewhere in their operating and technology budgets. “We've managed to make significant operational savings," said Cavanagh. “And we believe that the project will repay itself within five years,” he added.
“It’s been transformational. I believe that G&W is leading the way in the UK because no one is trying to optimize their terminals the way we are. We are trying to build a product for the future, not for the present, and Tideworks is helping us do that.”- Nick Matthews
Managing Director of Terminal Services for G&W UK Operations
Even during logistical and safety challenges resulting from the pandemic, Tideworks helped G&W UK operations navigate the ups and downs of a complex implementation. G&W leaders appreciated the high level of support that Tideworks provided to ensure a seamless integration that would achieve Freightliner and Pentalver’s goals and drive business development efforts across the brands.
The impressive results have been integral in providing the G&W UK sales team with the data they need to attract new customers. "The ability to tell a major customer we can turn their trucks around in 26 minutes consistently is of value and makes it easy for our sales team,” said Williams.
For Birmingham and Cardiff, Tideworks served as the connective tissue to link Advent eModal and Camco’s tools and successfully deploy an automated, integrated gate and TOS solution that supports advanced appointment needs and facilitates predictive container planning.
Though the scope and breadth of the project were significant, the integration continues to perform well.
G&W UK's focus on innovation, customer experience, and improving the sustainability of its operations continues to drive the project forward.
Tideworks is rolling out its Intermodal Pro TOS and Traffic Control solutions across G&W’s UK-wide rail and intermodal terminals. The VBS and GMS integrations are already live at Cardiff, Birmingham, Liverpool, Doncaster, and Leeds. Still ahead are Manchester, Cannock, London Gateway, Felixstowe, and Southampton terminals, which will be complete by the end of 2022.
With Tideworks’ solutions deployed, G&W’s UK terminals will be able to leverage the most reliable and forward-thinking technology to solidify their position as a leading rail freight operator.
Through its ongoing partnership with Tideworks, G&W UK is eager to add additional layers of automation within the TOS processes across its terminal network. With Tideworks' continuous upgrades and integrations, G&W UK operations are poised to remain a strategic terminal operator that will support customers as the supply chain evolves.
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