Dyno Rod

Fleet management at your fingertips

Using the Navman Wireless fleet management system, a small Lancashire based company has significantly lowered its communication costs while cutting back on time spent on paperwork.

Three years ago Max Craven, Managing Director of Craven Services, was wrestling with a serious communication problem.

Keeping in contact with his team of twelve engineers, who spent most of their time on the road responding to urgent emergency calls, was delivering a real financial headache. The company had experimented with radio based services, but  due to the geography of the local region of north Lancashire, Craven could not rely on walkie-talkie radio style solutions.

So instead Craven, which is a franchisee of the drain clearing company Dyno-Rod, had been communicating with his fleet mainly via mobile phone calls and texts, and those costs were spiralling out of control.

After investigating a series of solutions Craven decided that the best way forward was to enlist the aid of Navman’s fleet management solution and in particular a combination of its OnlineAVL software and Mobile Data Terminal communications tool.

One of the key devices in the Navman Wireless portfolio, the Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) is a small unit that can be easily incorporated within a vehicle. Its key feature is that it enables the owner of a fleet of vehicles to send messages to the drivers. These messages are created on a PC using Navman’s OnlineAVL software. The GPS tracking in tandem with the OnlineAVL software also enables the fleet owner to see at a glance where their drivers physically are.

The benefits of live vehicle tracking

Max Craven was quick to note the benefits of the system. “Firstly,I can use the tracking system to see which of the engineers is closest to a job, thereby saving on petrol.”

“And more importantly, the system enables me to communicate accurately and quickly with my fleet of vehicles, at a cost that’s so much less than any rival system.”

Using the OnlineAVL software, Max Craven can communicate the job details to the drivers’ MDT devices listing location along with the type of the problem and the contact details of the customer. If at any time Craven needs to send messages to all of his staff simultaneously this is easily and quickly achieved using the software.

Increased productivity

“The system has also made us more productive,” says Max Craven. “As each instruction is noted on the PC, I already have a record of which drivers are where and the particular job they are doing.” Max Craven also rates the reliability of the system which runs using the GPRS system of Navman’s trusted partner – mobile phone network Vodafone.

The system also archives the driver’s responses, which has significantly reduced their paper work-load, enabling them to move swiftly on to the next job.

Benefits for staff and customers

The Navman Wireless vehicle tracking system has not only proved popular with the Craven Services management team. According to Max Craven its benefits have also been noted by his staff.

The key benefit for staff is in relation to overtime issues. The Working Time Directive requires proof that a member of staff has requested overtime and was not forced to work additional hours.

Using the MDT, Craven’s staff can send their employer a message asking for extra hours and their request is automatically logged on to Craven’s system via Navman’s OnlineAVL solution.

The system’s satellite navigation element has also proved useful too in directing drivers to locations in areas they are not especially familiar with.

Future benefits

While acknowledging that the “Navman fleet management solution has changed the way we work.” Max Craven is now also looking to the future and the potential of upcoming Navman Wireless systems. “We are experimenting with a system that enables the driver to generate an invoice after they have finished the work and send it back to our PC using the fleet management solution. Once again it would increase productivity by saving time on paperwork.”