Following the announcement that Gefco Brazil is opening a new 6,200m2 logistics hub in Guarulhos, northeast São Paulo to consolidate multi-modal services for PSA Peugeot Citroën, the company’s Director of Transport Logistic Automotive, André Bortolotto (pictured), has told Automotive Logistics this week how the facility will provide a more rapid and integrated service and support Gefco’s entire road transport network in Brazil and Argentina.
The hub, which is due to open in January 2010, will integrate the Industrial Logistics and Transportation function, which includes road, air and sea transport, currently handled by the company’s Vila Guilherme and Vila Olímpia facilities. Those two facilities will now be closed and all employees located to the new hub.
“The hub unifies the three activities providing a more rapid and dynamic integrated response,” said Bortolotto. “Other solutions can be provided, such as storage for a period of time longer than the cross-docking model, consolidation and cracking load, and urgent or dedicated transport. In other words the hub aims to optimise solutions in a more cost optimised and competitive manner, while keeping them flexible to the needs of our customers.”
The Guarulhos site will manage supply for both the PSA Peugeot Citroën plant in Porto Real Brazil, and the one sited in Palomar, Argentina. It will also co-ordinate ground transport for overland services in the São Paulo region, but as Bortolotto was keen to point out, the hub supports the entire road network in Brazil and Argentina.
“It means an integrated coordination of Gefco Brazil and Argentina fleets, monitoring the load in line with the client’s demand,” he said. “For example, there are loads where the vehicle must be tracked every 15 minutes, identifying its position by satellite. Within this scope there is also the management of information. In other words, whether the customer's load will get to destination within the expected time frame – not before or after.”
Strategically located close to the airport and with an easy access to important Brazilian highways, it will also be responsible for clients’ storage and products management collected from the automotive milk-run service.
“The ideal is to move the load always by road,” continued Bortolotto. “But the location next to GRU [Guarulhos International Airport] allows fast action to provide the need for rapid handling of cargo by air, as foreseen in our contingency plans. The contingency can occur for several reasons, such as an accident at the Dutra highway that could interrupt the flow of parts in PSA’s line.”
