Leading private rail freight operator Pacific National recently unveiled its new customer portal, rolling out improved features to make it easier to book and move intermodal freight on rail.
Pacific National Chief Executive Officer Brett Grehan said the company is proud to have delivered a user-friendly platform for customers seeking to move containerised freight.
“Our new portal makes it easier for our customers to optimise and manage bookings, and move what matters on a Pacific National train,” he said.
“We’re delighted our intermodal customers have welcomed the new functions, intuitive design, real-time updates and improved self-service capabilities.”
Path to deliver portal
Almost two years ago, Pacific National embarked on a journey, engaging with its customers to understand how it could deliver more for them.
“Pacific National didn’t just set out to update the booking portal – our goal has always been to position our railroad as the easiest to do business with,” Grehan said. “Our teams interviewed a range of customers, canvassing their experiences with our former booking platform FreightWeb and our services more broadly.
“We didn’t want them to sugarcoat things; we actively asked how we could improve on our offerings. It was this engagement with our customers that really set us on the right track, laying the course to deliver a better customer booking portal.
“Our technology group clocked up hundreds of hours at customers’ sites, observing fleet controllers and their interactions with Pacific National to understand how they worked and what mattered to them.”
Customer front of mind
Grehan said Pacific National understood booking portals only delivered efficiency for customers if they were customisable – otherwise they would simply be viewed as a hurdle or too cumbersome to navigate.
“We knew if we wanted to drive more freight on to rail, we had to design a portal that was customer-centric,” he said.
“Instead of dictating how our customers needed to work, our team flipped the script and designed with our customer front of mind to deliver a portal that worked for them and avoid friction and teething issues.”
Grehan said freight forwarders operate in a dynamic, fast-moving business, juggling multiple bookings, processes, and technology platforms.
“Rather than requiring businesses to conform to our rigid processes, our team has created a customisable, intuitive portal that is easy to use,” he said.
“We have also deliberately avoided rail jargon and added new features to improve customers’ productivity and help power better logistics planning.”
Improved user experience
Pacific National is confident its “design thinking” approach delivers value for customers beyond an improved booking experience.
“The landing page or dashboard tells a customer everything they need to action in their day, including booking cut-off times, which containers are available for pick-up, available capacity on preferred corridors, any change to ETA and freight availability,” Grehan said.
“Everything is customised to the specific logged-in customer, giving information that is relevant to them and making it easier than ever to manage logistics.”
For customers who move thousands of containers on Pacific National intermodal services, the booking and trip template functionality reduces multiple fields of data entry to a few clicks.
“There is a lot of manual work involved with coordinating freight,” he said. “We have tried to anticipate repetitive tasks and streamline them for our customers introducing time-saving shortcuts.
“At the other end of the spectrum, customers who book container movements less frequently will find the portal easy to navigate and benefit from the guided booking and trip flows.
“If you are able to book an airline ticket, then you can book a container with us. It’s that easy.”
Pacific National’s new portal features are also appealing for smaller freight forwarders previously reticent to engage with rail operators.
“The portal opens the door to rail for smaller freight forwarders, delivering greater transparency and giving them more control to move their cargo where they need to by train,” Grehan said.
“Pacific National’s digital portal gives all customers the tools they need to optimise their rail freight operations, delivering value across the supply chain.”
Seamless transition
Pacific National is delighted with how customers have embraced the new portal, and proud its planning paid off with the rollout going off without a hitch.
“During the first day of operation, the portal attracted more than a thousand unique visitors, which is three times busier than normal Monday traffic to the booking platform,” Grehan said.
After just one month, virtually every registered Pacific National customer had accessed the portal, making thousands of container bookings and tens of thousands of trip bookings.
“We got great feedback during the testing phase and around launch day that customers overwhelmingly loved the trip template and how simple it was to check the movements of their containers.
“Users frequently suggested the platform had been set up like an airline ticket booking system, which really signalled to us they recognised it was very easy to use.”
Pacific National dedicated thousands of hours to testing and troubleshooting scenarios to ensure the rollout was smooth for its customers.
“We know for freight forwarders navigating supply chains, deadlines and demands, switching to a new logistics platform can often come with some disruption,” Grehan said.
“However, the transition to the new platform was seamless, thanks to regular testing with customers and more than 9000 hours clocked by the team doing system testing across 5500 testing scenarios.
“The team thoroughly tested the portal with customers to ensure they had refined the design right up to launch day when they migrated to the new system.
“We got great feedback during the testing phase, overwhelmingly customers loved the trip template and the simpler way of checking the movement of the container was appreciated.”
New developments on track
While the portal has been deployed via the web, a mobile app is in the pipeline and set to be rolled out later this year, ensuring customers will be able to access their important bookings whether they are at their desk or on the go.
“Pacific National is invested in this journey with our customers,” Grehan said. “We’ve got more enhancements on the horizon and our team is continuing to engage with customers to determine what comes next.”
One of the new features under development is a self-serve carbon emissions reporting function that would allow customers to calculate the emission benefits of hauling by rail rather than road.
Digital solutions
Pacific National is confident digital applications and solutions are a key driver to deliver reliable rail freight services and improve the customer experience.
“That’s why Pacific National has been investing in new technology – we recognise these tools are critical to help position rail as a preferred mode of transport in Australia’s intermodal freight mix,” Grehan said.
“This new digital portal and app highlights Pacific National’s commitment to growing rail’s mode share and giving our customers what they need to get ahead in today’s dynamic logistics environment.
“The new portal effectively puts the customer in the driver’s seat allowing them to prioritise or expedite an order through Pacific National’s fleet of services.”
