Shell Chemicals and Bertschi introduce new electronic carrier booking to improve logistics and raise customer service Shell Chemicals is one of the first companies to introduce a new Elemica electronic carrier booking service to improve the speed, accuracy and efficiency of communications with their road transport and logistical service providers. Shell has contracted a number of specialised logistics service providers for the transportation of its chemical products to customers around the world. Accurate, timely transmission of transport information between Shell and these logistics services providers is key to delivering high levels of service to customers, and crucial for the safety, reliability and cost effectiveness of the supply chain operation To improve this information flow, Shell Chemicals Europe BV has connected with Bertschi AG, a road transport logistics service provider, via Elemica, on the basis of industry standardized ChemXML messages. The connection with Bertschi means that thousands of transport instructions generated every month are now sent automatically, removing the need for faxing and reducing the potential for errors. Bertschi Transport Planning manager, Stefan Bryner, says: "Receiving transport notifications via Elemica has reduced our paperwork and made the whole process more transparent." "The potential for errors has been reduced and issues are easier to resolve. Because the information goes straight into our system, any orders, or changes to orders, received but not acted upon are easily identifiable. Previously transport instructions would have been received by fax and we would have to reconcile them against a statement at the end of every day." "By the end of the year we plan to connect via Elemica to all our major European and US road transport logistics service providers", Rik Onrust, Shell Chemicals Planning & development manager Land Logistics and Supply Chain explains. "With point to point connections, as we had them in the past, this would have been a tremendous effort, but with the Elemica "Connect One Connect All" capability this will be a relatively simple task which will help us improve the level of service we provide to customers." For further information, please contact: Shell Media Relations Michele Barrett Shell Chemicals Tel +44 207 934 4175 Bertschi Brigitta Berner Tel +41 62 767 67 05 Notes to editors Bertschi is the market leader in the intermodal transport of chemicals in Europe. Operating in more than 20 countries - including Eastern Europe - Bertschi moves today already more than 70 percent of all shipments by rail or short sea. Elemica is a registered trademark and references to Elemica are references to the Elemica group of companies. Elemica is a global electronic network developed by 22 of leading chemical companies. It offers solutions focused on improving supply chain inefficiencies through browser-based and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) connectivity. www.Elemica.com ChemXML is an electronic massage standard maintained and published by the Chemicals industry Data Exchange organisation (CIDX). For more information see www.cidx.org Shell companies have their own separate identities but we may sometimes use "Shell", "Group, "we" or "us" when we refer to Shell companies in general or where no useful purpose is served by identifying any particular Shell company. Shell Chemicals collectively refers to the companies of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group engaged in the chemicals business. Shell chemicals companies manufacture and deliver petrochemical building blocks and polyolefins to industrial customers. These products are widely used in plastics, coatings and detergents. For further information please visit www.shell.com/chemicals/news. Disclaimer statement The following presentation/press release/speech contains forward-looking statements,that are subject to risk factors associated with the oil, gas, power, chemicals and renewables business. It is believed that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable, but may be affected by a variety of variables which could cause actual results or trends to differ materially, including, but not limited to: price fluctuations, actual demand, currency fluctuations, drilling and production results, reserve estimates, loss of market, industry competition, environmental risks, physical risks, the risk of doing business in developing countries, legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including potential litigation and regulatory effects arising from recategorisation of reserves, economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions, political risks, project delay or advancement, approvals and cost estimates. Please refer to the Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2004 for a description of certain important factors, risks and uncertainties that may affect the Companies' businesses. Neither of the Companies undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events or otherwise. |