A1 Bridge Flue
Top Chimney Manufacturer Uses Telematics to Manage Mobile Workforce
Background
Britain’s largest supplier of industrial flue and exhaust systems has recently installed Aeromark’s vehicle tracking equipment to help manage its mobile workforce.
A1 Bridge Flue Systems based at New Ollerton in Nottinghamshire manufactures and installs stainless steel chimney and exhaust systems for a wide range of commercial applications throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. Recent projects include installations at Cardiff Millennium Stadium, The British Library and the Halifax Building Society.
Challenges
A1’s mobile workforce includes engineers, delivery drivers, a site team to handle installations and service support, and sales staff. Keeping track of where everyone is enables the company to react quickly to customers’ requests and reduces wasted mileage and unnecessary delays. Managers are able to monitor the precise location and speed of every vehicle and to automatically record their arrival and departure times.
Solution & Benefits
Apart from the obvious benefits of vehicle tracking there are some less obvious ones too, as A1’s David Bilbie explained:
“We had a letter from the police ticket office a little while ago asking us to supply the name of the person driving one of our vans that had been caught speeding by a camera. When we checked our computer records on the Aeromark system we found that the van was nowhere near the location they’d given us and we were able to prove it from our written records: the case was dropped. We had a similar experience with a parking ticket and again we were able to prove it wasn’t our van.”
Future
A1 chose the Aeromark vehicle tracking system because it was simple to use, and being web-based did not need a dedicated computer system to run it.
“Telematics needs to be reliable, robust and simple to use if it’s going to work properly in the field. We ran a trial with a number of vehicles before deciding to equip the whole fleet with the Aeromark kit. We’re running with a fairly basic level of software at the moment but we’re thinking of upgrading to the next stage soon. Being able to easily upgrade was another reason for choosing the Aeromark system.”
Aeromark manufactures, supplies, and supports a range of vehicle tracking systems that can be configured to suit any mobile workforce application.
