Gilders cut telephone costs with help from VeriLocation
Gilders Transport Limited is family business which has been running for almost 60 years. Based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, it specialises in livestock transport and UK and Continental refrigerated work. Gilders has 45 vehicles, mainly articulated units, and 30 of these are fitted with VeriLocation’s VL-Fleet GPS Tracking solution.
Gilders decided they needed to reduce their telephone bills both to and from mobile phones, so turned to VeriLocation for help. The first VL-Fleet units were installed in March 2007, and a reduction in telephone costs was achieved by:
- Use of the Cab Message Terminal (or MDT) - a small device with a screen situated in the vehicle’s cab to enable text-based messages to be sent between the driver and transport office. There is no charge for sending messages, just an upfront cost for the terminal in the cab.
- Online tracking – each vehicle can be viewed in real time by logging onto www.verilocation.com so there is no need to contact the driver to find their location.
Cab Message Terminal
Paul Carroll, Fleet Engineer at Gilders Transport explains: “The MDT has definitely enabled us to reduce the number of phone calls and text messages that we send to drivers. This is especially useful for the livestock side of the business. For example, on market day, several vehicles are used to take livestock to the market, but until stock has been bought, we do not know where the onward destination will be. Drivers can send us details of the number of beasts, destination addresses and contact numbers. From there we can plan the vehicle space and routes.”
An audit trail is kept of all the messages transmitted to and from the Cab Message Terminal. This is particularly important for the transportation of livestock as Paul Carroll explains: “Movement orders are required for animals and we keep a record of the number of animals carried, the name of the client and the destination of each trip. All this information is sent back to the transport office using the MDT. We can track back through the records if any evidence is required.”
Paul continues: “The MDT is very helpful for organising contract maintenance. I can easily remind drivers that their truck is in for service and that they need to fill in the defects book. I can also tell when the messages have been read, so I know that they have been received.
“We have 22 pre-set messages which we use on a regular basis. These were set up with the help of Duncan Philp, the Technical Director at Overview Mapping. A commonly used one is: ‘Remember to hand in your tachograph on time!’ ”
Online Tracking
The VL-Fleet online tracking system enables each vehicle to be tracked in real time. Vehicles are tracked simultaneously and the results shown on a map which can be overlaid on aerial photographs. The user can drill down to find different levels of information, for example; speed and direction of travel, GPS mileage travelled, etc.
Paul adds: “VL-Fleet is an extremely useful tool and it has become indispensable. We use it all the time to check the locations of vehicles so we can keep our customers informed about estimated arrival times. This means we don’t need to call the drivers and we have accurate information.
“At any one time we have may have six trucks on the Continent. The drivers’ phones are usually locked so they can’t make international calls, but we can find out exactly where they are by logging onto the system. We can send the driver information, such as times of ferry crossings, by using the MDT so it’s really cost-effective.
“We often use VL-Fleet for checking journeys against tachograph records as we had no way of doing this before,” continues Paul. “I also find the ‘Nearest to’ and ‘Location finder’ features very useful, especially when I need to direct drivers to a unfamiliar location.”
Paul concludes: “I’m very pleased with the service we receive from VeriLocation and I have a hotline to our account manager, Chan, if I need it!”