How ICE Cobotics makes cleaning smarter - and meanwhile moves robots and cleaning machines all across Europe and to the United Kingdom.
ICE Cobotics helps cleaning professionals work smarter and more efficiently with cleaning robots, data and service. The machines travel to customers in all EU countries and the United Kingdom. And however autonomous the robot is on site: the journey to the customer still simply has to be organised.
A cleaning robot can cover ground on its own, collect data and take repetitive work off your hands.
But put it in a warehouse in the Netherlands and ask it to be at a customer in France, Germany or the United Kingdom tomorrow, and the autonomy stops fairly quickly.
That is where a completely different process begins: transport.
Smart robots, old-fashioned waiting for a quote
ICE Cobotics is all about technology that makes work simpler. Which is exactly why it stood out all the more when the transport process did not.
Previously, transport was arranged through other transport companies. In doing so, the team ran into a few very practical frustrations: long waits for quotes, agreements that were not always kept, prices that were hard to compare and the absence of proper Track & Trace.
No dramatic logistics crisis. But precisely the kind of small friction that piles up again every day.
From Interclean to the first shipment
Strikingly, the collaboration with Cargors did not begin with a complicated tender or a long implementation.
ICE Cobotics and Tim Bosman ran into each other during Interclean.
A personal conversation on a trade show floor eventually became a practical test: can organising international transport become just as simple and clear as the technology ICE itself works with?
How Cargors helped
Robots across the EU - and to the UK
Through Cargors, ICE Cobotics mainly ships cleaning machines and robots to all EU countries and the United Kingdom.
And it is not only the trip from A to B that matters. An international shipment also consists of status updates, documents and the simple question every customer ends up asking: when does my machine arrive?
Since the collaboration, shipments sit clearly in one place, shipping documents are immediately available per shipment and ICE receives updates from carriers faster.
That allows the team not only to act faster themselves, but also to inform customers in good time.
The results
Technology should mostly disappear
Good technology ultimately often does not feel like technology.
You do not want to think about where a document is, who to call for a status or how to get three rates side by side. You just want to be able to see it and move on.
That is also what ICE Cobotics itself notices most about the day-to-day collaboration: it works easily.
“What surprised us most is how easy Cargors is in day-to-day use.”
According to ICE, the gain does not sit in one single feature. Time, rates, choice of carriers, international coverage and overview all play a part. It is precisely the combination that makes the transport process more efficient.
The customer sees a robot. Not the logistics behind it.
For the end customer, transport is ultimately a side issue.
They are not buying Track & Trace, a transport document or a carrier comparison. They want a cleaning machine that arrives at the agreed place and then does what it was made for.
The less visible the logistical puzzle behind that delivery, the better.
For ICE Cobotics that means: being able to act fast, compare prices, have documents immediately available and organise international deliveries clearly.
Maybe that is the finest automation of all
ICE Cobotics uses robotics to organise repetitive cleaning work more intelligently.
Transport is of course a completely different trade. But the starting point looks surprisingly similar.
Remove unnecessary steps. Give people an overview. Make sure information is available when it is needed.
And then let people mainly get on with the work where they genuinely add value.
Before long the robot will do its round at the customer entirely on its own.
Only that trip to London? For now, that still has to go by truck.
