Sprintshift

Vehicle tracking puts haulage firm in strong growth position

Since its formation in 2003, Manchester-based haulage firm Sprintshift has grown into a strong market competitor with a fleet of more than 25 vehicles, ranging from 3.5 tonnes to 17 tonnes.

The family business’s aim was to carry on growing and provide their customers with an expert transport solution within the UK and Europe. But to expand in a time of economic uncertainty, the company first needed to strengthen its foundations – and that meant making savings through improved working methods.

To achieve their main goals of reducing overtime claims and increasing backloads, investing in a vehicle tracking device was the obvious answer. The Navman Wireless system not only met these demands, but gave Sprintshift the added benefit of ensuring drivers operated within the working time directive.

Sprintshift Transport Manager Justin Hayes said: “We looked at three systems in total before we chose Navman Wireless. Two of the companies were local to Manchester and offered systems that were similar but not as sophisticated.

“It was our mobile provider that introduced us to the Navman Wireless system and extolled its virtues. Once we had looked at it our investment decision was clear-cut.”

Before employing the use of a tracking system, Sprintshift relied completely on a timesheet-based administration system for processing driver hours and overtime. Justin explained that the Navman Wireless system has enabled the company to reduce timesheet errors and false entries, time wastage between routes and increase fleet optimisation – which have all led to a reduction in overtime.

“Drivers finish at different times and they might not get back in the office until 6.30pm, when all the office-based staff have gone,” he said.

“Consequently, they can claim to have finished at 7.30pm and gain an extra hour. Now however, with drivers having been assigned specific vehicles, I can check these times against the vehicles movements.

“We can also monitor their vehicles’ movements for the entire working day and can see if they have parked up for longer than they should. If drivers haven’t got valid reasons for stopping for protracted periods of time, we then cut costs by deducting this from their wages.

“Furthermore, we can route the vehicles on a separate mapping system and then check on Navman Wireless’s tracking software to ensure they take the route we suggest.

If we get a driver taking an excessively long route, we can then contact him and re-adjust it as necessary. “We witnessed a dramatic drop in time wasted.”

Vehicle tracking establishing backloads

A backload is when a customer wants to use a haulage firm’s return journey to its operations base as a delivery route. With a backload, the customer gets a discounted delivery and Sprintshift gets to make money on what would otherwise be an empty return journey back to its headquarters in Dunkinfield.

Justin explained how easy it was to establish a backload with the tracking system: “Someone phones you up from, say, London asking you for transport to go back up to Manchester.

We are then able to look at the tracking software, type in the address and find the closest van to the customer.” The company also uses the tracking system to make sure drivers don’t break the working time directive.

“We can actually track a driver’s hours,” Justin said. “If a driver was on route and he was unsure of how long he had left to drive, you can open a report of drivers’ hours and see how long he had been on the road, how long he had been stopped and using that information calculate how much time he had available left to drive.”

Sprintshift has been so impressed with Navman Wireless, it is looking to upgrade the system to include messaging units in all of its vehicles.

Justin added: “We have just got the tracking system at the moment. We are looking at integrating it with the company’s messaging units and we are looking to upgrade that within the next 12-18 months. This will mean further savings in time and communication – just a tap on a computer keyboard rather than endless phone calls trying to get through to drivers.

“Navman Wireless has helped us strengthen our position in the market and helped us ready the company for future growth.”