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ECOTRAK SAVES SPECIALIST HAULAGE COMPANY OVER £500 PER VEHICLE PER MONTH
South coast based haulage company, Boarhunt, has increased its average MPG from 7.5 to 8.5 since the introduction of EcoTrak into their fleet management strategy. The business who operate 53 vehicles nationwide save in excess of £500 per vehicle per month across their fleet.
Founded in 1964, Boarhunt has grown into one of the leading vehicle based businesses on the South Coast operating from 5 sites and employing over 200 people. The company has three primary operating arms: vehicle recovery, garage services and specialist haulage, all operating from the company’s headquarters in Fareham, Hampshire. Boarhunt are dedicated to delivering the highest standard of service to their customers and solutions from CMS SupaTrak are helping them to deliver this.
The company began working with CMS SupaTrak in 2008 in a bid to achieve some important goals. In today’s economic climate, fuel costs are at an all time high and represent, on average, 40% of a haulage company’s operating costs, according to the RHA. This is true for Boarhunt, who spend in excess of £2 million per year on diesel for their specialist haulage fleet. For this reason, one of their objectives was to implement a solution that would enable them to reduce their fuel costs. In addition to this, Boarhunt wanted the ability to see the location of each of their specialist haulage vehicles in real time, enhance their route optimisation and provide a high level of service to their customers.
Driven by Boarhunt’s requirements, CMS SupaTrak customised their award winning EcoTrak fuel and vehicle management solution to meet the company’s defined needs. EcoTrak is proven to reduce fuel costs by up to 10% and this saving is achieved by allowing fleet managers to monitor and manage their fuel usage in real time and draw on comprehensive league tables and reports, showing individual driver behaviours, such as speed, MPG and cruise time using CANbus technology. These reports were developed for Boarhunt to present them with data, specific to their requirements. Using this information, Boarhunt found themselves in a position to affect change throughout their fleet of 53 vehicles and drive cost savings.
One of the key focuses for Boarhunt was to “increase the MPG achieved by drivers in order to reduce fuel costs across the fleet”, says Ian Mulholland, Managing Director. This data is captured in the dynamic Driver League Table reports and Driver Analysis reports, which can be accessed at any time via the internet. The Driver League Table report rank all 53 drivers’ performance in order of MPG achieved. The Driver Analysis reports provide a detailed insight into drivers’ individual behaviours and can be used for the drivers to self appraise their performance. Using the data in these reports, Boarhunt publish the results and issue them to their drivers which, according to David Pushman, Haulage Director, “creates a healthy sense of competition amongst the drivers”. They allow the drivers to undertake a self appraisal of their own driving style and see areas that could be improved. Some businesses take this a step further and award bonuses to drivers who achieve a high MPG to incentivise this driving behaviour change. By increasing a vehicles MPG from 7.5 to 8.5 Boarhunt have realised fuel savings of up to £500 per vehicle per month.
Another area Boarhunt targeted using EcoTrak was engine idling time. Drivers may start the engine prior to setting off and then leave it idling for some time or when parked up, leave the engine running, often to heat the cab. This practice can cost the business a significant amount of unnecessary expense. In fact, Freight Best Practice suggests that “on tick-over, a typical heavy duty truck engine consumes fuel at the rate of around 2 litres per hour…over 5kg of CO² emissions per hour.” The EcoTrak reports highlight the percentage of time each vehicle has spent idling and this can also be broken down by individual journey. By having access to this information, Boarhunt have been able to educate their drivers and encourage them to reduce the time spent idling.
Mr Mulholland explains that “EcoTrak reports also deliver information on the percentage of time that the vehicle has spent in its optimum driving range, travelling at best possible level of efficiency.” Again, this can be monitored by driver and by individual journey. Boarhunt use this information to identify which drivers are not regularly travelling within their optimum driving range and can then re-train them to exercise better driving behaviours.
Reports can be set up to run routinely, or can be run on demand. They are simple and quick to set up and can be customised to meet the needs of the individual business.
Alerts can be set up to monitor all these and other parameters. For example, EcoTrak can deliver Boarhunt idling alerts that bring attention to instances of idling that last for a specified period of time. Drivers that repeatedly leave their engines idling unnecessarily can then be identified and remedial action taken. Similarly, alerts can be set up for speeding, over revving, harsh braking and many other measurable parameters. Putting the vehicle under unnecessary load and driving it inefficiently can lead to increased maintenance costs, which Boarhunt were keen to avoid.
In addition to delivering an effective fuel management solution, EcoTrak also provides full vehicle tracking capabilities. Boarhunt have a dedicated control room where operators track the fleet’s location and use this resource for route optimisation; enabling them to “backload” journeys, helping to direct drivers into locations if they are lost and for achieving total fleet visibility at all times. This also helps Boarhunt to enhance the service that they can offer their customers: by having location information to hand they can estimate time of arrival more accurately and report any possible delays that may effect delivery time to their customers.
Another of EcoTrak’s features is its ability to record actual CO² emissions and consequently enable its users to affect changes throughout the fleet in order to reduce their environmental effect. Earlier this year, Boarhunt won the NYK Group Europe Limited Environmental Haulier of the year award for their investment in managing their environmental impact, including their implementation of EcoTrak.
For more information on EcoTrak and to find out how much you could save call us on 0844 477 4870.
