Holland & Barrett

Helping to make people lives that bit easier

Holland and Barrett is the UK’s leading retailer of vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements. Its stores are a familiar site in almost every major city and town in the UK, with new outlets opening all the time.

The company distributes stock to more than 500 stores from a central warehouse in Burton on Trent. This nerve centre houses a 40-strong vehicle fleet of 18 tonne and seven and a half tonne wagons, handled by more than 50 experienced drivers.

It’s a busy, 24-hour operation, with over 100 deliveries made each day to stores across the country. Given the scale of the challenge, the company’s transport management team was keen to discover if new vehicle tracking technology could help to drive down costs, and hone fleet efficiency.

The company installed the Navman Wireless vehicle tracking system across the fleet, together with the MDT Mobile Data Terminal – allowing low-cost two-way text messaging with all drivers.

As both the management team and the drivers attest, the results have been nothing short of dramatic.

Saving time, improving service

From day one, the new system immediately removed a number of administrative headaches.  Steve Davis, Transport Manager explained: “The stores love the fact that we can now tell them exactly where our drivers are, and how long it will be before they arrive.

“It means they can manage their own staff more easily to make sure they’ve got extra people around when the delivery comes in".  Job assignment has also become a breeze, thanks to the combination of vehicle tracking and messaging.   “When an unscheduled delivery or collection comes in, we just see who is nearest, and send a message with the job instructions to the driver’s terminal in the cab. The driver accepts the job with the push of a button and we’re in business. It’s cutting out a lot of time and expense.”

Tackling the Working Time Directive

The Working Time Directive specifies that a mobile workforce must not exceed an average of 48 hours per week. The rules require companies to operate rigorous record-keeping procedures, to demonstrate that the law is not being flouted. Navman Wireless has come into its own by allowing Holland and Barrett to automatically compile a historical record of each driver’s hours.

“It’s a hassle-free way of keeping our records up to date,” Steve explained.

“We’ve also had occasions where drivers have phoned us from the road to say they can’t take on an extra job, because they don’t have enough driving hours left. Now we can bring their records up instantly – nine times out of 10, they’ve got a few hours remaining, and the job can go ahead.”

A friend in the cab

Steve and his team are not the only ones to have embraced the new vehicle telematics technology. Drivers have also welcomed the extra support.  “Since we got the new system, a lot of drivers now ring in to tell us about traffic hold ups,” Steve revealed. “We then send out a global message to all drivers, at no cost, to warn them.”

He added: “We can also direct a driver straight to the door of an unfamiliar store if needed, just by following where he is on the map. It’s helping to make people’s lives that bit easier.”

The bottom line

With reduced mobile phone calls and less administration, Steve is confident that the new vehicle tracking technology will secure some impressive cost savings for the company.  Holland and Barrett’s legal team is also currently investigating another potential financial saving – reduced insurance premiums.

Steve explained: “There’s no doubt that our vehicles are better protected from theft. When you put it all together, you can see how valuable a system like this becomes. There are so many advantages, and we’ve not yet finished discovering them.”