Tarvi Transport handles 25% more jobs and saves 250 hours of invoicing a year with Planlogi
Tarvi Transport
Company profile
Tarvi Transport is a family business founded more than thirty years ago. They specialise in scheduled line-haul between Estonia and Finland: twice a week a truck leaves Estonia for Finland, comes back, and goes out again.
Most of Tarvi Transport’s work is part loads (groupage), which means a single run averages 40 stops where something is loaded or unloaded. The constant “Lego” puzzle of sequencing freight that this business model creates has to line up with very precise stop times.
Today all of that planning is run from the office by just one person: transport planner Ott, who joined the company when transport management still ran on a notebook, phone calls, emails, paperwork and memory.
"The amount of work we do today, we simply couldn’t manage it with a notebook any more. At least not this well."
In this case study we ask Ott exactly how Tarvi Transport swapped the notebook for Planlogi, and what that actually delivered for a growing line-haul carrier.
Company size
4 (transport planner/dispatcher + 3 drivers)
Service area
Estonia ↔ Finland scheduled line-haul
Order volume
98% part loads. Two runs per truck per week; one run averages 40 loading and unloading stops
Customers
Various industrial and manufacturing companies and wholesalers
Services
International part-load/groupage transport (LTL/LCL), scheduled line-haul
Accounting
Merit (integration with Planlogi)
Before Planlogi: a notebook, a phone and an office whiteboard everyone tried to keep in sync
In their own words, Tarvi Transport’s old workflow looked like “a transport management method from the nineties.”
A customer would call, the planner would jot it down in the notebook: what goods, where to, how much. From there it was worked out in his head and slotted onto the trucks. On top of the calls came emails, paper and printouts. To pull the whole picture together there was a single whiteboard in the office where everything was supposed to be written up.
For a company running repeat routes with lots of small consignments and cross-border paperwork, that kind of friction hits hardest where it hurts most: it holds back growth and slows down the everyday work.
Tarvi Transport had known about the problem for a long time, but rising volumes and the need to change their processes made finding a solution critical.
"A call would come in, we’d write it in the notebook (what, where, how much) and then work out in our heads where it might fit on the truck. Things were all over the place. If we had to do all of that from memory in a notebook today, we’d slowly start going mad."
The biggest bottleneck: half-finished CMRs and delayed cashflow
The most tangible loss came from money that had already been earned often going un-invoiced for a long time.
The paper CMR was the only document an invoice could be raised from. When that paper reached the office half-filled-in, two weeks late, reliant on the memory of a driver who had since watched hundreds of consignments pass before his eyes, the invoice dragged.
It meant constant manual paper-shuffling, sorting and finally forwarding to customers. Because invoicing was such a heavy job, and hard to find a bigger block of time for in a busy day, it kept getting pushed back, which in turn delayed cash flow even further.
"Working back through old CMRs and invoicing took up a huge amount of time. It was brutal work! Cash flow just kept getting slower."
Why did Tarvi Transport choose Planlogi?
The decision to find a new solution didn’t come from a single disastrous day. It was more the constant, self-renewing chaos in the processes and the growing volumes. They first moved transport management from the notebook into Excel, but quickly realised that didn’t make the problem any smaller, it just moved it from paper to screen.
In their search, Tarvi Transport had two clear criteria. First: the tool had to be simple for the driver.
Second: the solution had to be a TMS built specifically for carriers. Because during the search it became clear that most TMS products on the market are built around the needs of logistics companies or warehouses.
"The whole supply chain is in our hands from start to finish. Our customers, our trucks, our transport. For a workflow like that, Planlogi was the most logical choice. It’s a transport management app made by a carrier, for carriers."
Planlogi was the only carrier first TMS that met both criteria.
"Planlogi’s driver app is so simple and foolproof that the real problem turns out to be people not knowing how to use a tablet."
Planlogi features that made the everyday work simpler
The decision in Planlogi’s favour also came down to concrete, day-to-day solutions:
Drag-and-drop stops with live re-sequencing — If something runs late somewhere, the points on the run can be quickly rearranged in Planlogi’s map view, especially useful for a carrier whose single truck can have more than twenty stops in a day.
A two-panel desktop view: the stop sequence on the left, the map on the right — One screen, the whole run in sight. Tarvi Transport particularly values being able to follow the entire run at a glance.
Route optimisation right on the Planlogi map — Distances and sequence are visually easy to understand at a glance, making it fast and simple to build the most optimal routes.
One-click invoicing — As soon as a run’s stops are green in Planlogi (order completed), the planner ticks all the lines he needs and raises the invoices with a single click.
Fast eCMR creation and a paperless workflow — A signed eCMR is instantly available to everyone through Planlogi and ready for invoicing.
A simple driver app — Drivers were comfortably using the Planlogi mobile app within a week, and see their whole day (orders, routes, stop sequences, eCMR, etc.) straight from the tablet.
How does Tarvi Transport manage transport now, with Planlogi?
The difference between the old way and now is felt at every step.
Previously, planner Ott spent a significant part of the day calling back and forth: where are you, did you drop it, did you pick it up, how’s it going? Planning each new task relied on calls or guesswork. The whiteboard in the office tried to reflect all the activity, but keeping pace with everything was hard.
What does Tarvi Transport’s workflow look like now with Planlogi
The planner enters orders into Planlogi by hand, to keep the system under his control. All active runs are open on screen all day: the stop sequence on the left, the map on the right showing each truck’s location.
When an order is completed, the stop’s point turns green on screen. The planner sees it immediately and can plan the next pick-up or drop without a single phone call.
If a run starts to go sideways somewhere, he gets the information at once and can rescue the situation, rather than discovering it after the fact.
"Now I can see when and where something’s been dropped. I can plan the next pick-ups and drops straight away, much faster."
Drivers fill in the eCMR on the tablet, right in the app.
On the Finnish side, where some customers still ask for paper, drivers take a paper copy as well, but for Tarvi Transport the whole process still runs digitally through Planlogi.
At customs, the driver shows the necessary documents from the tablet. When all of a run’s stops are green on the Planlogi screen, the planner ticks them off and the invoices go out to customers.
"Once all the points on a run have gone green, I raise the invoices, forget about it, move on, and just wait for the money to come in."
The mobility of the system and workflow is a change in its own right for Tarvi Transport. They can now manage their transport from anywhere, because the whole system is in the cloud and accessible from phone, laptop and office computer.
"Wherever I am, if something changes or a new order comes in, I take out the laptop, reorganise the runs and add orders."
All of this has given Tarvi Transport a major competitive edge, meaning they can now plan 25% more stops per week with the same fleet and the same team. Volumes keep growing, and the company is ready to grow with them.
25% more successful jobs per week with Planlogi
Tarvi Transport’s biggest win with Planlogi is that the company’s growth is no longer stuck behind slow, chaotic processes.
More completed stops with the same team and fleet
With the old workflow, taking on 25% more stops would have meant hiring another person in the office. Now one person handles that growth in volume.
"Week on week, we can now plan around 25% more stops and earn more from a single run, simply by becoming more efficient with Planlogi."
Faster cash flow and 250 hours of working time freed up a year
Every run earns more, and invoicing, which used to stall cash flow for weeks at a time, now takes just a minute. Across a year, that’s 250 hours of working time freed up.
"On invoicing alone I now save at least four or five hours of working time a week."
To sum it up...
Before Planlogi, Tarvi Transport’s transport management lived in a notebook, in phone calls and in the team’s memory. The system had been built up over the years and worked perfectly well at notebook level, but it could no longer keep pace with growing volumes, nor give the team the speed and accuracy that dozens of part-load runs need every day.
With Planlogi, three things changed at once: the status of the entire run is visible in real time from a single screen, whether the planner is in the office, at home or at a bus stop. Invoicing, which used to wait two weeks for paper to come back, now happens immediately after the goods are handed over. And weekly planning capacity has grown by 25% without having to expand the team.
But Tarvi Transport’s story also shows something broader. The everyday reality of line-haul carriers (many stops, many small consignments, constant re-sequencing, cross-border paperwork) is often too specific for universal logistics and warehouse software.
As Tarvi Transport pointed out, with Planlogi it isn’t. Planlogi is built from the carrier’s point of view. Our customers own the whole chain from start to finish, and our features are built around how the workflow actually works. If your team manages transport with a notebook, Excel and a phone, then Tarvi Transport’s story will feel familiar. And the solution doesn’t require hiring a new person or a months-long rollout. Only the willingness to move your workflow onto the tablet, the map and the cloud.
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