How Cybercube Express Cross Language Barriers and Oceans Using Circuit for Teams
Four thousand miles from home
Around 1500 container ships arrive at Australian ports every year after traveling over 4000 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean from China. Each boat can carry up to 12,000 containers full of items waiting to be delivered, and this is where Cybercube Express comes in.
Cybercube Express has created a business that benefits from this popular trade route by offering last mile delivery of goods from China to Chinese students studying in Melbourne, Australia.
Their depot in China is a repository for packages sent by friends and family to their loved ones in Melbourne. Here, the packages are dropped off, stored, and labeled, ready to be loaded onto the next available container ship. Once the boat sets sail, it can take 15-25 days to arrive at the Australian port.
“Shipments usually take around a month, but sometimes it's more. It can depend on things like the weather and the time it takes to get through customs. Delays cost us”As soon as a shipment arrives, a dedicated large collection vehicle collects all the packages from the port and transports them to their Melbourne depot for sorting. Once at the depot, the items are sorted by postcode, routes are assigned to drivers, and the last mile of each item’s incredibly long journey can begin.
Proof of delivery across the Pacific
Handling the last mile of an international delivery has its challenges, one of which is accounting for missing items. Circuit’s Client Portal provides an interface that enables both their Chinese and Australian depots to monitor every item’s status in real time.
Before the shipment departs, Cybercube Express’ Chinese colleagues upload all the delivery details to Circuit’s Client Portal, which creates a valuable log and notifies their Australian depot of precisely what to expect.
When the shipment arrives in Australia, the Cybercube Express team scans and loads the items onto their collection vehicle. As each item is added to a route and sent out for delivery, the status of every package is automatically updated on the Client Portal so the team in China can instantly see and track progress.
“Not all the packages will arrive. Packages are often missing. Customs keeps them because they owe tax"This would be a perfect process, except there’s one curve ball. Before being allowed to leave the port, items from every shipment need to be sanctioned by The Australian Border Force. This can potentially impact the number of packages the Australian team can collect because some could be held for tax purposes or impounded due to contravening import laws. Using the Client Portal to identify what left the port in China against what arrived at the port in Australia is incredibly useful for Cybercube Express, as their supply chain is lengthy and unpredictable.
The universal language of good design
Language barriers have in the past been a hurdle for Cybercube Express to jump, but Circuit helps them avoid these issues with user-friendly design.
Their warehouse and driver teams speak Mandarin and deliver for Chinese senders to Chinese recipients in an English-speaking country.
Because Circuit's driver app is designed to be intuitive, onboarding their drivers takes no longer than a quick five-minute demonstration. The app UI is so simple to understand, irrespective of your native language, that it has eradicated any confusion they once encountered.
“Some of our drivers don’t understand English very well. This can be an issue, but it is never a problem for them when they are using the app because the UI is so easy to understand.”But the benefits don’t stop at usability. Running a fleet of delivery vehicles comes with various associated costs, such as vehicle registration certificates, insurance, fuel, maintenance, and more. Circuit’s round-trip route planning setting helps Cybercube Express create optimized routes that are the most fuel and time-efficient and always conveniently finish back at the depot.
Conquering land, sea, and sky
Having established itself as a reliable last mile partner for sea freight, Cybercube has now set its business goals sky-high. Circuit for Teams has enabled them to build a business that supports imports by boat, and their next strategic move is to offer last mile management for imports by air.
Air freight doesn’t have the lengthy lead times of sea freight and provides smaller but more regular quantities of deliveries. Expanding into this sector would allow them to scale their business hours, routes, and teams. In just one month, international airlines operating to and from Australia carried approximately 2,598 tonnes of mail, and Cybercube Express is now ideally placed to take advantage of that business opportunity.
Note: Circuit for teams is saving thousands of businesses at least 20% on delivery costs. Try it free for 7 days.
