InsuHeat

Turning up the heat on fleet security

Insulation business InsuHeat is protecting its company vehicles with a little help from Navman.

Fleet management technology from Navman Wireless Business Solutions is streamlining an insulation company’s operation and is at the core of its security arrangements to safeguard productivity. InsuHeat Limited, based at Willenhall in the heart of the West Midlands, offers services ranging from cavity wall and loft insulation to cavity cleaning, roof slate ventilation and draught proofing.

The company’s 20-strong workforce serves residential homeowners and social housing throughout the region.

Every vehicle in its fleet houses high-tech cavity blowing machines, which are purchased from new, and cost in excess of £13,000 each. These pieces of equipment are key to InsuHeat’s operation and its service to customers.

“All of our vehicles are locked up within our secure unit at night, and over weekends, but we had two break-ins when we launched the company more than three years ago,” said Mark Burrows, InsuHeat Limited’s managing director.

“If one of our vans is stolen, we could pick up a new one the next day. It would take eight weeks to take delivery of a new cavity blowing machine however – valuable output time we could ill-afford to lose.”

Business protection: saving money and ensuring peace of mind

InsuHeat needed to find a solution to its security concerns and turned to Navman Wireless, having previously invested in a competitor’s telematics technology that failed to meet management expectations.

“Our previous system didn’t offer us live vehicle-tracking and information could only be accessed via its operating software from one site – our office,” Mark continues. “Using it proved a complicated and problematic process.

“By contrast, the multifaceted Navman system we’ve installed allows us to monitor and message our fleet from any PC at any location.”

Navman uses a Windows-based OnlineAVL software system to send job details, directions or messages to staff using GPS satellite technology, the Vodafone GPRS network and the World Wide Web.

A geofence – a geographic boundary created by the vehicle tracking software – has been set up around InsuHeat’s Willenhall head office and is triggered every time a company vehicle enters or exits the premises. A message alert is then sent immediately to the managing director’s mobile.

“Our insurance premiums have fallen and when I go home at night, I’ve now got peace of mind knowing that the company’s vans are stationary and where they should be,” said Mark.

Cutting the cost of communications

In addition to bolstering the company’s security, the messaging system has put an end to the need for continual, expensive and time consuming, phone calls between the office and the workforce on the road.

“Before we installed Navman’s fleet management technology, the demands of our operation meant that one of our phone lines was constantly busy. This line has now been freed up and I can expect to see considerable cost savings when we next sit down to analyse our business expenses.”

Navman technology delivers business efficiency

In a bid to maintain quality standards for InsuHeat’s customers, and to monitor the efficiency of the cavity blowing machines, Navman has fitted ConEx units to the equipment. These register key details such as when a machine is being operated, for how long, and immediately feed this information back to the office.

“An average job to install cavity wall insulation will take an hour and a half, and it will normally take no more than a minute to fill one wall. If a machine blows for a shorter period of time, I can pick up the phone and find out why this is the case and make
sure the machinery is working as it should be,” Mark added.

“It could be that a house or its cavities are smaller than average, but the system allows us to accurately monitor the activity and ensure we deliver service excellence. All of our staff are qualified, experienced employees and they have been quick to appreciate the benefits that the Navman system offers them during their working day. They also recognise the added value to the company as a whole, which is passed on to customers.”

The system’s high level of functionality has been designed to be as intuitive as possible for its users and, as such, is being operated by InsuHeat’s employers and employees with a minimum of effort. “In the case of our previous system, we were still scratching our heads after two years of using it. By contrast, we were up to speed with Navman’s fleet management and vehicle tracking after just a few weeks.

“It has already paid for itself by improving efficiency, boosting productivity and cutting costs; in hindsight I wonder how we ever managed without it.”