M2X has developed a transport management system to improve efficiency of transport across the primary industries.
The company won the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise most innovative hi-tech agritech solution at this month’s New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards.
The technology behind M2X has been nearly eight years in the making. The company started out with a team of just four people, and now employs more than 40, and has customers in New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
Director Krista McKay said the company’s founders were all from rural backgrounds and were passionate about making rural New Zealand a better and more efficient place.
That, coupled with technology and logistics experience, came together to make a difference using smart technology.
Making transport more efficient had multiple benefits, including fewer waste kilometres and emissions and less time for livestock on trucks.
From the outset, they had received "huge" support from the industry, including trucking companies, she said.
M2X was clear from the beginning that it wanted to make improvements for the entire industry, not just one part of it.
"If you all work together to make transport more efficient, it benefits everybody. The whole philosophy was ‘let’s make it a win-win for all players in the ecosystem’," she said.
The technology was very sophisticated but simple for people to use. Covid-19 had made people aware of the importance of supply chains and efficiencies, and the timing had been right, Ms McKay said.
First, M2X had to prove the benefit in the home market before taking it overseas. It had recently moved into the US and Australia and that had been a "real game-changer".
The US, in particular, was a "massive market", and the company was focused on building its team there, Ms McKay said.
She was delighted with the recognition at the hi-tech awards, as it was great for the team, which had put in an "unbelievable" amount of work over the years to create the product.
It was also acknowledgement to early customers such as Silver Fern Farms, Open Country and Ballance, which helped M2X create a product that worked for their industry.
For Silver Fern Farms, M2X was able to bring transport bookings for more than 150 livestock transport companies together in once place.
General manager supply chain Dan Boulton said there had been exciting improvements in the efficiency of its livestock transport, through digitising and optimising the company’s transport bookings with M2X technology.
The technology has been used in the South Island, where any wrinkles were ironed out, and it was to be rolled out in the North Island from October.
Once nationwide, that would mean the company was on track for a million fewer kilometres for the same amount of work.
That was achieved through better use of trucks, which meant there could be fewer trucks on rural roads, and fewer carbon emissions per livestock animal movement, Mr Boulton said.
The waste in livestock transport was a problem the industry had known about for a long time, he said.
But it was not until the technology became available that it could be addressed.
M2X had benefits for everyone in the supply chain, not just Silver Fern Farms. It was about "NZ Inc", he said.
The technology pulled together bookings 48 hours in advance to make sure that trucks were filled. More animals were being moved, but over fewer kilometres.
Animals were spending about 14% less time on trucks and there was an emissions saving of about 11% per animal from livestock transported.
It was an opportunity for the entire the industry, and he was proud Silver Fern Farms was one of the initial companies to make use of it, Mr Boulton said.
He was also proud to see the acknowledgement of M2X.
"It just shows how technology can really help be innovative and take waste out and increase value," he said.
Open Country group transport manager Ginny Christians said the system had cut the company’s transport planning time in half.
