Story Contracting needed a new solution to better manage its 300 drivers and 230 vehicles. As well as driver location and vehicle status information, the Carlisle-based operator wanted the capability to see which driver was using a particular vehicle in the event of an incident.
Fleet manager David Armstrong explains: “Previously, if we wanted information on an incident that occurred at 10pm last night, we would have to manually sift through trip history in five-second increments from 0:01am the previous day until the time of the incident – with no way to skip through.”
With MRM’s Driver ID function, that information is available “in just a few clicks”. In addition, with the system’s Spotlight mobile app, managers can access this information in near real-time from any device.
Verizon’s longstanding relationship with Ford has enabled Story to obtain a much deeper insight into vehicle condition and the behaviour of its drivers – including information on AdBlue levels, whether maintenance is required, if drivers are wearing seatbelts, and fleet diagnostic data such as Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC) which can then be dealt with proactively.
As well as a full picture of vehicle utilisation, the system delivers data on issues such as idling – previously, this was the cause of £44,000 of fuel costs in just one month. Idling time is now limited to ten minutes.
“The Verizon Connect solution is light years ahead of our previous system,” says Armstrong. “We’ve got total visibility, and tasks that previously took hours now take minutes – saving us both time and money.”
* A free Verizon ebook on MRM is available for download via https://www.verizonconnect.com/uk/resources/ebook/mrm-guide/