Family-owned New Milton Sand & Ballast Co. (NMSB) has been supplying the communities of South Hampshire and East Dorset with building materials and services since 1936. From sand and aggregates, to ready mixed concrete, screed and skips, the business runs a 47 vehicle fleet, comprising of articulated tipper trailers, articulated walking floor trailers, cement mixers, and skip lorries.
The building industry is very customer orientated – projects have tight timelines and budgets, often lots of different contractors are working in unison, and so the timely delivery of materials is of high importance.
NMSB wanted to increase the visibility of its fleet so that it could improve customer service and provide better informed guidance on the whereabouts of deliveries and other services. With building environments also highly hazardous, ensuring its drivers and vehicles contributed positively to creating a safe environment for all stakeholders by remaining compliant and accountable, was of paramount importance to the business.
The business needed a system that could provide accurate, up-to-date information on its fleet, the performance of its drivers, and the health of each vehicle at the touch of a button.
Teletrac Navman recommended a combined software, hardware and training offering that revolved around its DIRECTOR platform, which is an advanced fleet tracking system that enables fleet managers to have access to real time data in one easy-to-use interface.
DIRECTOR provides fleet managers with a diverse range of information, from the location of individual vehicles (tracked in real time), to monitoring fuel usage and driver performance. When coupled with Teletrac Navman’s Safety Analytics performance reporting, it can also help to significantly cut fuel costs through more effective route planning, optimise vehicle use, increase business productivity, improve driver behaviour (which equates to fewer incidents), and potentially reduce insurance premiums.
Teletrac Navman’s Professional Services team also offered technical and training support to ensure the solution was fit for NMSB’s needs, it was implemented on time and in budget, and its transport team were able to use DIRECTOR effectively.
NMSB now prides itself on offering its customers the support of a truly connected fleet. Since DIRECTOR was implemented, the business has been able to:
• View the location of every vehicle in its entire fleet by the minute
• Improve delivery times
• Improve driver behaviour and reduce insurance premiums
Paul Whittingham, transport manager at NMSB, said: “We are always looking to continually improve our processes to ensure we remain cost effective, efficient, compliant and relevant to our customers – DIRECTOR and the support of the Professional Services team has enabled us to do just that.
“The multiple online and in-person training sessions we’ve received have ensured we can extract as much value as we can from the software and the data provided via Smart Telematics. Our drivers are now rated on their performance on the road and sites they visit, which has greatly improved behaviour and made them more accountable for their actions.
“We are now able to offer our customers complete transparency on vehicle locations and better manage their expectations, which has ultimately led to us building stronger relationships with them – and that can only be good for the future of the business.”
