The Carreras Group is an international logistics group offering all the typical services of the sector: national and international transport, multimodal transport, warehousing, distribution, handling, re-packing, etc.

Carreras approached Toyota for help in reducing damage costs and improving their material handling operations. The first tests of Toyota I_Site began two years ago and, since then, and based on the results obtained, Carreras has decided to implement Toyota I_Site in most of its logistics facilities across Spain and Portugal.

Solutions
Toyota I_Site is a combination of technology, information, expertise and support created by Toyota Material Handling to optimise and manage the handling of goods.
Max J. Cockcroft (National Service Manager TMHES) explains: “Toyota I_Site’s main objectives are to reduce operating costs, improve safety and increase productivity. It is based on information.
  
We supply information from our pan-European service database, and combine it with technical, financial and administrative information about the Carreras fleet. This includes data coming directly from the machines, which are communicated using GPRS wireless technology. Out of Carreras’ total fleet of 450 machines, 300 are now managed through Toyota I_Site.
 
Toyota I_Site has been implemented within a year – initially in nine centres – two in Zaragoza, two in Madrid, one each in Seville, Barcelona, Tarragona, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Tenerife. It was recently was in¬troduced in Portugal (Lisbon and Pombal), Alicante and Valencia. Carreras intends to implement Toyota I_Site at all of the company warehouses.
Facts & figures
Carreras
— 20 sites in Spain and 2 sites in Portugal
— 450 counterbalanced & warehouse trucks
— 300 trucks managed with Toyota I_Site
— 1.130 drivers use the PIN access control function available with Toyota I_Site
Results
— Productivity increased by 10% *
— Total Costs for machines reduced by 57% *
* Between 2009 and 2011

At each centre warehouse managers, and operations and maintenance staff were chosen to carry out local implementations based on the experience of the first site in central Zaragoza. Similarly, Toyota Material Handling staff have been working with Carreras, including execu¬tives from Toyota Material Handling Europe’s headquarters, who travelled to Spain to analyse the results of the implementation and give advice to Carreras on how best to maximise fleet performance.

“Toyota I_Site has helped us to optimise the sizes of our truck fleets and, although the cost of implementation has been significant, the advantages brought by the solution mean it is already paying for itself,” says Jesus Carreras, Director of Purchasing at the Spanish logistics group.

At the operational level, according to Victor Dominguez (Machine and Installations Manager – Operation Dept, Carreras), “We had a clear increase in safety with a re¬duction in shocks and accidents, and have significantly reduced costs in areas that were previously very difficult to control, for example, battery charging. In fact, thanks to management through Toyota I_Site, the Logistics Di¬rector has been able to establish better working practices, creating a ‘top five’ driver ranking system and other incentives to staff to reduce damage and costs.”

“Since we started productivity has increased by 10% and the total cost for machines has been reduced by 57% between 2009 and 2011. And we are on the way to taking more steps to further improve our operations,” says Fabio Furukawa (Productivity Manager – Operation Dept, Carreras).