The Midlands Co-op expects to save more than £200,000 over five years in administration and process costs having installed the latest Maple IQ system on all 35 vehicles in its regional distribution fleet. The IQ system is benefiting the retailer through increased load security and by providing performance monitoring information for its daily delivery schedules.
The fleet, ranging from 17-tonne rigids up to 38-tonne tractor units, delivers both refrigerated and ambient products. Each vehicle was equipped with Maple’s IQ system primarily to increase load security and integrity during the transport of goods from the Co-op’s two distribution centres in Leicester to its 220 retail stores across West and East Midlands.
The Midlands Co-op also wants to expand the system to that it can carry an electronic manifest with the load, thereby acting as a method of tracking valuable assets such as roll cages and other unit load containers.
Robin Farrell, distribution manager at Midlands Co-op, comments: “Maple IQ not only gives us complete security and load integrity from the warehouses to our retail outlets, which is an invaluable benefit to our business, but it is estimated to be generating administration and process savings somewhere in the region of £200,000 over a five-year period as well.”
In addition to each vehicle having Maple IQ, Maple also supplied 300 key fob transponders and USB desk top reader/programmer units, hand-held data downloader and Maple IQ software.
Midlands Co-op says Maple IQ “is not just a load security system”. Since it installed the system, there has been the added benefit of increased customer service monitoring. Using data provided by IQ, Midlands Co-op can monitor its actual delivery times to stores and compare them with the planned scheduled times.Ashfield Homes has deployed online telematics service provider Cybit’s Internet-based Fleetstar-Online solution in its fleet of 46 vehicles to help it meet service level agreements. An Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO), Ashfield is using the system to monitor its fleet operations, achieve productivity improvements, ensure that it provides lone worker support to its employees, and achieve a rapid return on its investment (ROI).
This contract follows Cybit’s recent success in the housing sector, with contracts from EMCOR Drake & Scull, Sunderland Housing, Wyre Forest Valley and Windsor Housing.
Ashfield manages Ashfield District Council’s rented housing stock of 7,500-plus properties. The deployment of Fleetstar-Online provides the company with detailed information about the routes taken between sites, details of individual vehicle arrival and departure times, and helps it to fulfil its service level requirements.
Steve Haywood, director of technical services at Ashfield Homes: “We’re providing lone worker support for drivers by installing a two-way, hands-free voice communications link that gives them immediate GSM access to their operator, and also allows access to incoming calls. This close contact helps us to respond quickly to emergency repair requests, and also helps us to provide a better service to our tenants, as we can re-route technicians to respond to service calls let tenants know exactly where engineers are, and ensure that we deliver on our performance targets.”
