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The Metro team talk: Mark Dainter

Aug 18, 2020 | , ,

Graduating university with a degree in chemistry, Mark quickly realised that a career in “blowing things up” was not for him.

 Joining Metro in 1996, almost two and a half decades ago, Mark elicits his versatility through working across a wide variety of departments in the business, ranging from import and export operations, to documentation.

Over the last 15 years, Mark’s involvement with the pricing aspects of the business have been indispensable, performing them within Metro’s procurement team, whilst undertaking a principle role in our digital Tariff System.

Mark’s current responsibilities encompass pricing and administration, in which he is instrumental in publishing rates and contracts and the administration of carrier charges and customer tariffs.

As a self-proclaimed ‘Jack of all trades’, Mark’s ancillary responsibilities include reporting statistics and auditing; whilst his expertise allows him to “put his hand” to a wealth of other tasks in the business.

Right now, Mark’s primary focus is looking at ways to increasing efficiency within the business by further digitalising and automating processes.

Steve Smith

The Metro team talk: Steve Smith

Aug 11, 2020 | ,

The essential ingredient for many industries, chemicals are part of nearly every product used in the home and office. There is no room for error in logistics for the chemical and petro-chemical sector, which is a key vertical for Metro, in the care of Steve Smith.

Joining Metro in 2003, Steve began his career in the Ocean Export team, before moving across to chemical accounts two years later, handling global movements of hazardous and non-hazardous goods by all modes (road / sea / air / rail) and types (FCL / Lcl / Iso tank / bulk).

Chemical logistics requires flexibility and adaptability and supply chains can be long, unpredictable and complex, with Steve managing his team to deliver the end-to-end process for imports, exports and cross-trade.

Steve’s role includes extensive travel, but it is also highly responsible, as the effective and safe handling of these most challenging products, together with care for the environment and in full accordance with rigorous regulations, is of key importance in protecting the image and reputation of Metro and our chemical clients.

Steve helps clients optimise their supply chains, ensuring service, safety and quality throughout, for high-value and high-consequence goods.

Ensuring the safety of people, the environment and material goods requires comprehensive knowledge of protective measures and dangerous goods handling, throughout all phases of transport and storage of chemical goods.

Steve is a qualified Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser(DGSA) for road, rail, and inland waterways, having passed examinations set by the Department for Transport (DfT).

Through Steve and his Metro colleagues, our clients can take a strategic approach to their chemical product supply chains, creating resilience, flexibility and a real competitive advantage. In addition they receive a measured, reliable and consistent solution within a safe supply chain.

2020 bunker changes

Reduce emissions and improve your bottom line

Aug 6, 2020 | , ,

Environmental strategies and carbon emission reduction activities have been core elements in multi-national trading reports for some years and more shippers are beginning to realise that they can adapt their supply chain to be environmentally friendly and save money in the process.

Cutting emissions is often directly related to creating efficiencies and cutting costs, activities that are more interesting than usual.

Reducing CO2 emissions starts with a thorough review of supply chain operations, volumes, routes, modes and performance.

Understanding the ‘big picture’ provides visibility of the simple fixes and quick-wins, like more consolidation, mode switching, or mixing.

Road transport accounts for the bulk of of CO2 emissions with 73%, air cargo follows with 12%, while sea freight accounts for 10% and rail at 2%. 

The extensive manufacturing, demand and transport disruption triggered by the Covid pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of extended supply chains and prompted some to espouse near-shoring, which may offer some environmental benefit, but omits the economic case for off-shoring in the first place.

Some near-shoring is inevitable, when the efficiencies and costs are too compelling to ignore, but many shippers will persist with extended supply chains and look to their suppliers for environmental policies that support their eco-ambitions.

Metro are continually review our environmental policy and work with fully audited and approved partners with effective carbon emission reduction policies. We measure all movements against acceptable levels to ensure minimum environmental damage in the movement of your goods. Metro is aiming to be a carbon neutral organisation in the very near future. 

Even the biggest shippers can’t influence an airline or shipping line’s environmental strategy, but the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have set ambitious goals and it is straightforward to favour the most engaged carriers.

Metro are developing tools, as part of our MVT supply chain management platform, that will calculate the carbon ‘cost’ to and from any global point, by any mode, or modes of transport, so that our shippers can monitor and reduce their carbon footprint.

Using the same toolkit we can analyse supply chain volumes, routing and mode characteristics and recommend options that will reduce costs as well as carbon emissions, including modal shifts, reducing distances and better utilisation of transport transportation assets. 

Aston Thames

The Metro team talk: Aston Thames

Aug 3, 2020 | ,

During the lockdown the Metro team had to adapt quickly to new ways of working and engaging with customers. Technology was the critical success factor.

IT Manager Aston Thames’ professional career began in accounting, but his passion for computing and information technology ultimately prevailed, with Aston making his career change into IT in 2000.

Joining Metro in 2016, Aston’s two decades of IT experience across multiple disciplines and technologies has been put to good use.

Aston has been a key member of the technical team that prepared and managed the migration of Metro Shipping systems to the ultra-secure cloud platform, that ensures the protection, resilience and availability of our data.

Metro’s journey to the cloud was in its infancy when Aston joined, beginning with the transfer of the business’ onsite email system and strengthening IT Security protocols with policies, controls, procedures and technologies, that Aston co-ordinates to protect all our cloud-based systems, data, and infrastructures.

As IT Manager, Aston responsibilities embrace the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity processes that have been critical in optimising Metro’s operational capability throughout the epidemic and lockdown. 

Empowering our global team to continue to do their daily tasks while operating remotely and maintaining access to our operations systems, has ensured Metro’s service effectiveness and guaranteed the efficient maintenance of our customers’ supply chains.

‘’ Aligning our systems supports our business processes and ensures that our Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity and Risk Management planning keeps us agile, scalable and resilient, to continually support our customers. I am sure that, with the team that support me, we will continue to make this possible.’’
Aston Thames

Category: General

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