Fast Forward Freight active with Scope in three countries

Fast Forward Freight, founded in 1995, is a niche player in the international transport industry. Headquartered in the Netherlands and with multiple offices worldwide, FFF is an international freight forwarder with global knowledge and experience. On January 1, 2011, FFF Germany switched over to Scope. A year later, the Belgian branches followed and the offices in Amsterdam and Rotterdam switched over in the second quarter of 2012. Riege is the right partner to support FFF’s increasing growth with Scope and its functionalities.

Customer-oriented logistics service provider

Fast Forward Freight strives to be Europe’s most customer-oriented logistics service provider by offering the highest degree of service. All employees are highly motivated to provide customers with the very best service possible. “Teamwork, innovative thinking and customer focus are our key words,” stresses Van Breugel. In geographical terms, FFF is specialized in sea, and air freight shipments to Africa. Although FFF can transport all commodities, the emphasis is on shipments for the printing, food and offshore industries. “We provide a consignment from A to Z, including all the necessary documents and we thus relieve our customers of all their concerns,” said Van Breugel.

“Because we are a niche player with a unique approach, we cannot make do with the outdated software packages that are flooding the market,” said Robert van Breugel, a member of the Fast Forward Freight management team. “We were looking for a package that contains all functionalities. We found these in Scope, the product offered by Riege, and a special module has even been developed for our AOG (Aircraft on Ground) division.”

FFF previously worked with a package from another provider. Unfortunately, we found that the development of the package had stopped. “And we needed a partner who could think along the same lines as us, who could keep pace with our increasing growth,” said Van Breugel.

Distinctive capacity

With Scope, Riege offers a system that perfectly meets the most diverse customer requirements. When a customer is looking for a specific functionality that the system does not provide, the Riege team gets down to work creating a solution for the customer. In the chain, increasingly more work is being done digitally, so these new tasks must be be possible from a software perspective. “Other software companies want to, but can no longer keep pace. With Scope, Riege has a relatively young product with which it is possible. This is what makes the company stand out from the rest,” says Van Breugel.

The integration of Scope with the Exact accounting program is a good move. Through Scope, outstanding balances from Exact can all be managed at customer level and reminders can be sent automatically from the system. The three countries in which FFF is located are also well connected. If a customer is a debtor in one country, they know that in the two other countries also. You can imagine that with more than 130 Scope users in several countries, this is a huge advantage,” says Van Breugel.

The customer is a partner

There is intensive consultation between Riege and Fast Forward Freight: Once every two weeks, both teams sit together at a table in order to go through all ongoing business and discuss issues. The Schiphol headquarters are also visited four times a year by the management of Riege Germany. Riege finds the personal contact with its customers very important. The software supplier likes to keep its finger on the pulse in order to respond proactively to the wishes of the customer, who is regarded by Riege as its partner.

Van Breugel endorses this excellent cooperation: “Scope is intuitive and it is a logical whole. Overall, it is good to manage as well as to control. The base is designed in close cooperation with Henk Boorsma, Martin Wood and Nardo Bezemer, three colleagues from Riege Netherlands who know the business, which is very important. They all come with a freight forwarding background, they speak the language and they understand logistics processes.”

Innovative spirit

FFF has recently purchased an X-ray scanner. A scan is not only used for the declaration of safety, screening of shipments of hazardous and / or illegal substances, but also for customs compliance checks. Customs can monitor real-time, based on the entry number of the shipment. Monitoring and screening are thus shifted from the 1st to the 2nd line.

After purchasing the machine, the question immediately arose for FFF to automatically add images of the scan to the file. Van Breugel: “The men from Riege Netherlands immediately set to work on our question. Soon, we will also link the scans to Scope at the push of a button.”

Riege is currently developing an advanced Track & Trace module in Scope. This is of great additional value because it allows each party to log-in and view their part of the shipment. “And this shows once again Riege’s innovative spirit which is so appreciated by us,” says Van Breugel in conclusion.