Industrial Metal Service

Taking stock of fleet savings

Navman Wireless's combined tracking and satellite navigation solution proves a popular and profitable move for an industrial metals distributor.

Industrial Metal Services in Shoeburyness, near Southend, is the largest stockholder and distributor of steel, stainless steel, aluminium, brass, copper and plastic components in the south of England.

The company employs 225 staff and runs a fleet of nearly 70 vehicles delivering to engineering and fabrication companies throughout the South East – with fast turnarounds and accurate ETAs a key success factor for customers.

Having used Navman vehicle tracking for 18 months, IMS upgraded 45 vehicles to the M-Nav 650, the industry’s first integrated satellite navigation and tracking solution.

Garrick Eyre of IMS explains: “Delivery times are paramount and tracking software has proved invaluable, helping us build a strong reputation for customer service. By adding in-cab satellite navigation we can improve productivity, offer clients faster response times, and give drivers a popular employee benefit.”

Accept and go

Management initially had reservations about satellite navigation technology. “The system we tried before Navman directed lorries to the middle of the North Sea when they were in our yard!” explains Garrick. “But the M-Nav has proved
100% reliable.”

Combining tracking, job dispatch messaging and satellite navigation, the M-Nav allows real-time messaging and routing from the three IMS depots in Shoeburyness, Northleigh and Canvey Island to the customer’s doorstep.

The company’s orders tend to be high volume, small size, meaning drivers typically make between 15 and 30 prescheduled drops a day. Instead of spending around half an hour daily route planning, drivers now key in the postcodes for the
day and click save.

The system automatically launches relevant navigation instructions for each job in sequence. If an urgent order comes in, it can be allocated to the nearest driver whose M-Nav will launch the relevant on-screen map and instructions when the job is accepted.

“Most of our customers’ location details are pre-keyed which means we just click on their logo on the map to send navigation instructions through to the driver. He just clicks on the screen to accept the job – and then goes. It’s a major time-saving for staff on the road and in the office.” IMS can also bulk message its fleet, when offering overtime or giving traffic alerts, for no extra cost.
Colour-coded messaging provides visual clues for office staff as to job status. On-screen messages turn from red (message created) through blue (message sent) to black (message received and accepted by the driver).

Drivers have a number of standard reply templates they can choose from to save time and effort. Visual screen alerts meanwhile tell office staff when engines have been switched on and geofences crossed. “When customers phone we can tell them how many miles away the driver is, on which road and even at what speed his
consignment is travelling at.

Customers can receive automatic emails or text messages when geofences are crossed to let them know the driver is due to arrive.

Cutting costs

Vehicle information and messages are sent via the internet for afixed-price tariff, helping IMS slash its mobile phone bill.

“Previously we paid for expensive calls between depots and drivers and double calls whenever we had to patch a driver through to talk directly to the customer. Now we’re paying £1.50/day per vehicle for vehicle tracking and navigation –
significantly less than the previous mobile phone bill,” says Garrick.

“We’re confident the technology will have paid for itself within a year. No longer playing the middleman between 70 drivers and many more customers has also saved us time in the office.”

The technology helps management cut fuel costs by allowing them to allocate planned and ad-hoc jobs more efficiently to the nearest available vehicle. In the first month diesel costs fell by 20%.

Monitoring driver behaviour

In addition, vehicle tracking has helped management monitor staff productivity. Activity reports highlight ‘idle’ time, when drivers have stopped. As well as helping IMS ensure drivers are taking sufficient breaks to meet Working Time Directive regulations, this also identifies when they’ve stopped unnecessarily. This helps the company cut its overtime bills, and identifies environmentally unfriendly behaviour, such as engines left on when stationery.

The move to integrate satellite navigation alongside the tracking has proved popular with IMS drivers. Says Garrick: “We’re giving something back to staff by making their working lives easier, while monitoring staff behaviour to enhance
productivity.”

24 hour vehicle tracking

The system, which provides round the clock coverage for IMS’s 24/7 operation, recently proved its worth when a lorry was stolen at night. The technology monitored the vehicle’s movements, alerting the company and police to its final abandoned destination – a car park. Management could log on via the Internet from home PCs to view the tracking information in real time.