Craven Transport is an agricultural bulk haulier based in Lincolnshire. When they first heard about Truckcom, they were interested to find out more because their current transport software was nearing the end of its useful life – and they were at the end of their tracking contract.
However, they were cautious about making the change because they needed to ensure that any new system covered everything they were already doing better than – or at least as well as – their previous system.
“When we first saw Truckcom, we felt it could be a good solution for us but it needed several tweaks” says Pete McMunn at Craven. “As a bulk operator we have legal obligations to report on things like Trailer Sanitisation, which wasn’t in Truckcom when we first saw it”.
“Also we felt the tracking could be improved by showing the direction the vehicles were moving in. As well as these changes, we needed the system to allow easy scanning and entry of weighbridge tickets, and we wanted the invoices to be presented in as similar way as possible to our old system”.
Craven were pleased that Truckcom were prepared to work on adaptations at no charge as part of their sales process to ensure Craven would be able to operate the system exactly as they required. “Without obligation, Truckcom started working on the changes, in collaboration with us” says Pete. “We were able to review the changes and make further suggestions, over a period of a couple of months, just to make sure everything was set up the way we needed it”.
During the same period, the company started to use a few of the mobile units in their fleet. “We were impressed by how easily the drivers got the hang of the system” says Nigel Simpson, who supervised the early stages of the rollout for Craven. “We opted for the Vehicle Checks and Defects Module and we were able to get this set up very quickly, and we could see the time-saving advantages of it straight away”.
The rollout was completed in February 2011 and Craven are now using Truckcom across their fleet.
One of our biggest customers, Goldstar Transport, has taken Truckcom to new frontiers – literally. Not content with their large and growing UK operation, they have just started operations in Sri Lanka.
Goldstar have been with us from very early on in Truckcom’s history. We started deploying devices to their vehicles in early 2006, which seems a long, long time ago now. They’ve been an excellent customer for us over the years and they use every single feature of Truckcom.
So when they were planning their first international venture, it was a given that they would use Truckcom to manage it. Preparation of the Truckcom side of the operation has been reasonably straightforward. Goldstar’s IT staff set up a server here in the UK on the Sri Lanka timezone; we did some work to make sure the system would work in different timezones and checked that the Sri Lanka maps appeared correctly in the Tracking screen; and Derek Cawston, Goldstar’s General Manager, tested a device during a visit in January to check it would all work as expected. It all worked fine.
After a little struggle with Sri Lanka customs to get the vehicles into the country, Goldstar Sri Lanka operations are now starting up. We’re delighted that Goldstar are continuing their expansion in such an innovative way, and we’re looking forward to working closely with them on the Sri Lanka project.
(that’s “New Beginnings!” in Sinhala)
Here’s the second video – this one covers Electronic Proof of Delivery (POD). It introduces a typical Truckcom mobile device and shows how drivers can receive their job instructions via their mobiles, and how electronic on-screen signatures can be used for proof of delivery. We hope that people visiting the website who want to see for themselves immediately how Truckcom works will find this video useful.
Childs Commercials is a family run haulage company operating out of Tilbury in Essex.
The company was struggling to get their existing software supplier to deliver on their promises when they heard about Truckcom from another operator.
“Our incumbent supplier had promised us lots of things and hadn’t delivered on any of them” says Liz Childs. “We asked Truckcom to give us a demonstration of their system and we were immediately impressed – compared with the system we were using, Truckcom is streets ahead”.
One of the many things the previous supplier had promised and failed to deliver was a mobile fleet management application – so Childs already had a box full of Smartphones that were not yet in use. “This allowed Truckcom to move very quickly” says Liz. “Within a few days of our first meeting, they had installed Truckcom on all our mobiles and all of our office computers, completely free of charge and with no obligation”.
This gave Childs the chance to move quickly themselves. Garry Childs takes up the story: “We decided that if we wanted to move over to Truckcom, we might as well go straight ahead with it. We took the decision to complete the changeover to Truckcom before the end of the month”.
It turned out to be a good decision. The mobile devices were issued to all the drivers in the first few days, and the changeover of all of Childs’ office activities, from job entry through to invoicing, Scanning and Proof of Delivery was duly completed without any difficulty, within the three week window the company had planned.
Comparing Truckcom with their previous system, Craig Childs, who works in the Childs Commercials Traffic Office, says “Truckcom makes our tasks a lot easier. Jobs from our biggest customer are entered into Truckcom automatically which saves a huge amount of time. And the drivers then see their jobs immediately on their mobile devices. And Truckcom even emails Proof of Delivery straight back to our customers”.
“We’re very pleased we made the change” says Liz.
Our first demo video gives you a brief introduction to vehicle tracking in Truckcom. It introduces a typical Truckcom mobile device and shows how office users can see where their vehicles are using maps, aerial photography and historical positions. We’re going to be putting a lot more videos like this one on our website over the next few weeks. Give it a look, let us know what you think!
Here’s a cool new feature that’s pretty much unique to Truckcom and really demonstrates the power and flexibility of smartphones. Subcontractor Vehicle Tracking allows haulage and logistics operators to communicate more effectively and easily than ever before. Even for occasional, spot job allocation, the same benefits that are available when operating your own vehicle with Truckcom are available when you subcontract the job to another Truckcom operator.
Customers: How would you like to be able to track spot subcontractor vehicles doing jobs on your behalf? Well, if you and the subcontractor have joined the growing community of Truckcom users, tracking is only part of what you can do – you can pass job instructions to your subcontractor electronically; track their vehicle directly on your screens; let your customer see where the subcontractor’s vehicle is via the web; and receive electronic Proof of Delivery directly from the subcontractor’s vehicle onto your screens and directly to your customers via the web.
Subcontractors: How would you like to differentiate yourself from other operators by providing this useful facility to your customers? How would you like to stop the phones ringing, and service the requests for progress reports and proof of delivery effortlessly via Truckcom’s live-linked on-screen communications?
Contact us now if you want to find out more about how you can join this growing community of collaborating Truckcom users.
We are pleased to announce the launch of Truckcom on Android
This means your drivers can now use Truckcom Mobile on any of the large and growing range of Google Android handsets. All the major UK network operators are now providing Android handsets Free of Charge on competitive contract rates, and they are also available through a wide range of retail and internet outlets.
Truckcom Mobile, which has been available on Windows devices for many years now, provides all the same features and benefits in its new Android flavour:
Zero Installation Fleet Tracking – see where your drivers and vehicles are all day, every day. If you have a hire vehicle on your fleet for a day, you can still track it; and no removal/refitting costs for new vehicles
On-screen signatures – or “Electronic POD” as we’ve called it on our website. Easy to do with a smartphone, and it then takes care of a major headache in a lot of logistics businesses – the paper trail of delivery notes.
On-screen vehicle checks. If your driver needs a device for voice calls, tracking, electronic POD etc. anyway, why not get them to record legally required vehicle checks on them as well. Pretty much all our customers do this – so it must be quite a good idea….
… and of course SatNav. Easy to do, and cheap compared with a standalone device – so well worth considering. You might want some of these options but not others, and of course that’s fine. There are a couple of SatNav options, but if you choose the built in Google Mobile Navigation then there is no charge whatsoever for this option – including our clever One Touch Navigation feature.
Want to know more? Have a look at the www.truckcom.co.uk for more details of who’s using Truckcom, and what it does; and have a look at this link to get a sense of how much is going on in the Android handset market right now. Or contact us for more details.
The following are extracts from case studies of Truckcom customers and how they decided on us as the best solution for their business:
How can Truckcom improve your customer service?
Goldstar Transport have been using Truckcom for four years and it has been a major help to them in providing excellent customer service: Derek Cawston, General Manager: “Looking at how we operate now, the key thing is that we have good information from Truckcom, easily to hand. Our customers love the job tracking website”.
How can Truckcom reduce your costs?
Draper Distribution value their relationship with Truckcom: “Truckcom do not just sell you the software and leave you to it. We have a very close and valuable business relationship that ensures we are always supported and always looking for new ways Truckcom can improve our business” says Peter Draper, MD
How can Truckcom keep your operation legal?
Raven Express were introduced to Truckcom in the summer of 2009. It was an easy decision for Justin Stevenson, MD: “Reducing costs, increasing control and maintaining a very high level of efficient service, Truckcom is a no brainer”
A lot of fleet tracking companies sell their products on the basis that they’ll save money. Of course, vehicle tracking does save you money – but is this the main justification for it? In many people’s eyes, it is part of the justification but not the primary one.
Really, when you boil it down to the essentials, vehicle tracking is about control. Controlling your vehicles, controlling your drivers, controlling your work. You can’t control something that you can’t see, so fleet tracking is a good starting point to give you the visibility you need. But once you’ve got that, the money savings don’t happen on their own – you need to use it effectively to get the most out of it.
And using tracking effectively is the trick. You don’t want people to have to stare at a map with dots on it each day looking for things which are going wrong – you want your tracking system to warn you when things are going wrong. Systems like Truckcom do this, and people rely on the Tracker Warnings part of our system all the time to alert them to issues.
But once you’re in control, it’s not just about saving money. Control improves your top line as well – you can get more business in if your customers and prospects see you as being in control of an efficient and effective operation. If they think you can get the job done with the minimum of fuss, and you can give them evidence that you really can do this, they’ll give you the work. Look at it the other way – if they think you have no control, you can’t see where your vehicles are, you have no methods for managing your work systematically, they’re going to be very hesitant about giving you the work.
If you run a fleet of Trucks, this might be an important moment for a reason you weren’t expecting.
Many of Truckcom’s customers use smartphones to run our system which are provided at no initial cost as part of a contract with their mobile provider. It’s a great way to start tapping in to the benefits of using a system like Truckcom without spending anything up-front on either hardware or software.
The great thing about the point of renewal in your contract with your mobile network is the power it gives you as a customer. If they aren’t prepared to offer you free devices (or at least very heavily subsidised ones) to keep your business, you are free to go to another network – and they know it.
We are always pleased to advise on which devices are compatible with Truckcom – and the good news is that smartphones of various types and flavours are all the rage – they’re getting far more common, and far easier to get hold of.
Craven Transport is an agricultural bulk haulier based in Lincolnshire. When they first heard about Truckcom, they were interested to find out more because their current transport software was nearing the end of its useful life – and they were at the end of their tracking contract.
