11 May 2021, 10:35, Grain

Bunge and Target launched new logistics service in Brazil

Bunge, an American agribusiness and food company, and Target, a South American logistics and technology solutions provider, are partnering to form Vector, a new enterprise focused on digitizing truck freight hiring and other services in Brazil.

As noted by Bunge, the two companies successfully collaborated in the creation of the freight contracting app Vector, launched last year and used in the company's operations in Brazil.

"Named after the app, the new standalone company will now offer the platform’s logistics services to other companies. Vector can help increase drivers’ productivity by mapping logistics flows and process integration to finding synergies that reduce idle time for them while reducing logistics costs for companies," Bunge says in a statement.

Vector’s platform is the only tool of its kind that integrates with the shipper’s operating system, communicating with the loading and unloading locations, the company marks. This allows the scheduling of freight as well as the distribution of all the transport documents, ensuring loads for drivers without the need for contact between the parties. The tool also eliminates a physical step since the loading order is issued digitally at the time the freight is accepted by the app.

In the year since it launched at Bunge, the Vector app has digitized nearly the entire process of contracting truck freight for the company, which moves about 25 mln t of grain a year in Brazil. Today, the app accounts for 97% of the volume that Bunge transports by road in Brazil. The tool has registered 48,000 truck drivers and has organized 557,000 trips, with 57,500 downloads and USD 480 mln in freights payments.

In the current year, the company disposed of two subsidiaries in the Netherlands and Russia. In Ukraine, Bunge invested in the elevator automation system at its new corn processing plant.