The wealth of driver and management tools that the latest fleet systems offer enable companies to drive down costs, says TomTom.
Once goods are formulated, processed and packed, the handling and logistics side of the food and beverage supply chain kicks in to optimise delivery to retail shelves and add value to the business. FoodBev Media looks at some of the solutions available and investments made by leading players.
Better insights into the activities of fleet vehicles can hold the key to significant operational and logistical efficiency gains for food and beverage manufacturers. The wealth of driver and management tools that the latest fleet management systems offer enable companies to significantly drive down costs. Thousands of pounds in fuel savings can be made annually through enhanced routing, the better and swifter allocation of vehicles to jobs and improvements in driving performance standards.
Truck navigation devices have been developed to cut journey times and appropriately route larger vehicles by alerting drivers to access restrictions and, furthermore, systems can help increase business productivity and boost service standards in a multitude of ways. At the same time, they also serve to improve the safety of drivers and other road users, strengthening a firm’s commitment to demonstrating a duty of care.
Doughnut firm Krispy Kreme has improved delivery times to its stores and retail outlets by 20% thanks to fleet management technology. Managers can now see the location of delivery vehicles in real time and generate bespoke reports to improve communications and workflow. With real-time traffic updates, drivers can also avoid congestion, while tracking units relay accurate times of arrival to office managers.
Prior to investing in its TomTom system, the company operated a manual procedure that gave limited visibility on vehicle positions, scheduled departure and arrival times. ‘Geofences’ have now been created around store addresses in the company’s fleet management software system, alerting managers when vehicles enter or leave the area around premises. Each region is aware of the status of deliveries, and if there are delays, stores are informed immediately and issues can be quickly resolved.
Coffee company Matthew Algie, meanwhile, calculated a 20% increase in the number of training, engineer and sales job visits having introduced telematics technology, which provided greater visibility of mobile workforce activity. The system enabled company resources to be focused in the most effective areas and was integrated with third-party software Metrix.
This integration has enabled the company to find appropriate engineers – grouped by experience, knowledge and location – review stock and road conditions, and then allocate a driver to a particular job. This job is then sent directly to the sat nav devices in the driver vehicles, enabling them to navigate direct to the order address.
Health and safety
In addition to the extensive, industry specific, regulatory landscape, food and drink companies must also pay close heed to their broader duty of care obligations. Managing the occupational health and safety risks facing employees on the road is vital and the consequences of not implementing a road risk reduction program can be severe.
Managing road risk was one of the key drivers in Tayto Group’s decision to invest in fleet management technology.
The UK snack manufacturer has boosted its duty of care to its mobile teams of sales, management and distribution professionals, with the deployment of tracking units with fuel management and diagnostics devices. The system enables information on how vehicles are being driven, from speeding and idling to harsh braking and steering, to be fed back to managers via TomTom’s webfleet fleet management software in a live information dashboard.
(By Shaun Weston)
