McAuliffe Civil Engineering

Vehicle tracking solution keeps McAuliffe's drivers on the road

McAuliffe Civil Engineering Contractors is receiving up-to-the minute information about its drivers and should see its turnover soar by an anticipated £180,000 a year thanks to Navman vehicle tracking from Liquid Management Solutions.

Telematics technology from fuel and fleet management specialists Liquid Management Solutions has brought dramatic efficiency improvements to a civil engineering contractor with clients across the West Midlands.

McAuliffe’s, based in Wolverhampton, provides a vital service for its own demolition and reclamation sites as well as for construction industry clients - removing and recycling waste products created during the demolition process, and delivering them to other building sites where they can be re-used. The company also shifts top soil, created when sites are excavated, as well as delivering raw materials to construction businesses.

McAuliffe's fleet of 12 tipper vehicles fulfil a busy schedule of journeys that criss cross the West Midlands, collecting from and delivering to construction sites. For the directors of the company, information on the precise locations of their fleet was virtually impossible to come by until the installation of Navman vehicle tracking.

Boosting efficiency with fleet management

McAuliffe’s Finance Director, Anna-Maria McAuliffe, recalls how, in the days before Navman technology, management would have to phone drivers and ask them where they were. “We only had their word for it,” she says. “There was a culture among some drivers of taking lengthy breaks, avoiding extra journeys and taking long, costly detours to go home at lunchtimes.”

In addition to damaging staff morale for the more conscientious employees, the liberties some drivers were taking was costing McAuliffe’s in lost productivity and extra fuel. In one fell swoop  Liquid Management Solutions resolved these issues. With estimated fuel savings of more than £100 a month, vehicle tracking has enabled the monitoring of driver activity, ensuring they stick to their designated routes.

Burgeoning productivity and quicker turnarounds

McAuliffe’s was initially persuaded to install the Navman tracking unit, the Qube, in just one of its vehicles as a pilot study into potential productivity gains. The Qube enables up-to-the-minute tracking, pinpointing the exact location of vehicles fitted with the device. If a vehicle has spent too long stationary, an alert is triggered notifying head office.

Initially hesitant about the technology, McAuliffe’s Operations Director Steve McAuliffe felt too much of his own time would be spent monitoring vehicle movements. “Once the pilot was carried out my fears were immediately allayed,” says Steve. “It takes up no extra time on my part and the changes in how the drivers work has been incredible. Whereas before they might have arrived early at the last job of the day, and then taken time out until it was time to return to the office, with Navman technology in place, they now phone the office as soon as the job is finished. Drivers can then be allocated another job before finishing for the day.”

The company has now installed the Navman technology in all 12 of its tipper vehicles and productivity has increased by an average of one load per driver per day. McAuliffe’s has also seen significant reductions in time spent with clients, waiting for vehicles to be loaded.

“We've always been entitled to charge customers for the time drivers have to spend waiting if they are not able to load vehicles
promptly when they arrive at the client's site, but in practice this was difficult to enforce with no evidence,” Anna-Maria says. Now, thanks to the telematics solution and the reporting data the system imparts, there can be no dispute about timings and less organised customers are simply billed for ‘waiting time’.

Improving company culture: a friend in the cab

In respect of one of McAuliffe’s contracts, which involves the supplying of sand to a brick manufacturer, loads have increased from 15 to 17 per day – exclusively as a result of the vehicle tracking system. “Introducing telematics has really changed the whole culture of McAuliffe's,” adds Anna-Maria. “Although we were worried about upsetting drivers, it has actually boosted staff morale. The drivers are now really motivated when they come to work and it's excellent to see.”

Vehicle tracking delivering financial rewards

Chris Rose, Sales Executive at Liquid Management Solutions, has calculated just how much of a financial benefit the Navman technology will prove to be to McAuliffe’s. “Anna Maria and Steve can expect to see an increase in turnover of around £180,000 a year thanks to increases in the number of trips made by their vehicles, and by slashing unprofitable waiting time at customers' premises,” he predicts.

“That's the brilliant thing about vehicle tracking,” agrees Anna-Maria. “We are leasing the equipment from Liquid Management Solutions, which means we can have updated technology when it's available, but the system will certainly pay for itself many times over. Thanks to our new eye in the sky, we've got a productive workforce that we're immensely proud of.”