In 2004 Derbyshire County Council was the highest performing 'Excellent Council'
in the country, according to the Audit Commissions Comprehensive Performance
Assessments, and so with a fleet of some 800 vehicles the selection of a vehicle
management and communication system had to be managed very carefully. Following
an initial trial, extensive pilot and subsequent evaluation DCC have now signed
a ‘framework agreement’ with TMS2 which potentially covers their entire vehicle
fleet.
The first group within the council to utilise the agreement to provide vehicle
management and communication services is the Environmental Services Department
who currently use the system within their front-line road gritting and
streetlamp maintenance services. During an average winter, 1,555 miles of roads
will be gritted between 60 and 70 times, at a cost of £30,000 a time. Their
fleet of 47 gritting vehicles and 140 drivers are on call 24 hours a day, seven
days a week. To maintain 85,500 street lamps and 7,800 illuminated signs
fortnightly inspections of each lamp are undertaken during the hours of darkness
– leading to appropriate fault repairs. Routine maintenance work is carried out
on each lamp within a 2 to 4 year period, dependant upon the lamp type.
Their primary requirements when they approached us were to:
• Improve effectiveness and efficiency by enhancing the level of information
available to manage and communicate with the Council's vehicles.
• Support remote and flexible working as an element of the Council’s Change
Management Programme designed to help the Council exploit the potential benefits
of using new technology and deliver the national e-government agenda.
• Improve operational visibility and data exchange between back-office systems
and in vehicle devices to facilitate enhanced service delivery.
• Track the exact location and record all movements of their vehicles.
• Provide robust security measures for lone workers.
• Streamline the use of its vehicle assets.
• Specifically for the Gritters, they wanted to be able to record in real time
exactly where salt has/has not been spread.
Our solution comprised Telematics hardware, a direct connection to the salt
sensor on the 47 strong gritting fleet to monitor when salt is flowing , in-cab and remote
panic buttons and our i-Track system. This has initially been installed in 68
vehicles with provision to scale as future requirements dictate.
To enhance their overall business effectiveness and efficiency, Derbyshire
County Council have implemented our system to provide real-time information on
the location and activities of its vehicles. The operation of this system provides
a higher degree of support for employees in lone working situations. It also
improves their operational flexibility by facilitating real time changes to
enhance service delivery and
contributes ultimately towards a reduced use of assets.
The key benefits to Derbyshire District Council of using our solution are:
• They have an accurate view of the current location of all their vehicles,
instantly accessible via a web-browser.
• Both lone workers and vehicles are better protected.
• They can easily direct the most appropriate resources
to meet any changing needs, thereby improving vehicle & staff utilisation.
• They enjoy the reduction in fuel and maintenance costs associated with more
efficient fleet deployment.
• Its now easier for them to ensure they are complying with EC working time
directives.
• They have an automated method of monitoring specific critical service-related
activities such as recording which roads have been gritted.
They also benefit from the enhanced data and voice communications between
drivers and the office.
