Sernam: Tracking Solution on Smartphones

I. Introduction

This paper deals with a problematic that a French Transport and Logistics company, Sernam, has faced in 2007. Basically, Sernam could not have information about the delivery statuses in real-time and had most of the time to wait several hours to know if parcels were well delivered and at what time.

Therefore, the French company decided to equip their drivers with a low bulk and lightweight solution, Mobitracker.

This paper aims to describe the company and its environment. Then, we give a deeper explanation of the problematic. The next chapter is dedicated to a tremendous description of the Mobitracker solution to solve the non real-time issue. It is followed by a chapter describing the impacts of this solution and then, broader perspective of this solution. Finally, a conclusion chapter concludes this paper.

II. Organization presentation

1) Company description

i. Sernam’s services offer

Sernam is a Transport and Logistics Company specialized in the delivering of parcels and pallets in France and across Europe. The company was created more than 40 years ago and has been growing ever since gaining experience and developing innovative technologic solutions for its customers.

Nowadays, the company mobilizes every day a national network of 52 branches, 600 road tractions, and 1900 employees to serve its 15000 active customers (Sernam 2012a). Sernam dispatches annually up to 14 million goods, an interesting figure to comprehend the size of sernam’s activity and the necessary know-how required to handle such a large demand.

The services that Sernam offers can be divided into 3 categories according to the region targeted and the specificities of the delivery;

Sernam’s products and services:

National Express and Parcel Delivery;This category of services regroups the deliveries of the client’s goods in France. Sernam decided to propose 3 types of Delivery options, each having different specificities and advantages;

• Sernam Express; This service focuses on providing a secure delivery that will arrive before 13h in 1 or 2 days depending on the destination. This fast delivery allows customers to have a secure delivery combined with a good reactivity required to face unexpected events.

• Sernam Advantage; The key specificities of this service it to propose an excellent quality-to-delivery time ratio combined with a fair price.

• Sernam Charting; The Sernam Charting service allows customers to determine