Construction company drives operational efficiency through intelligent fleet tracking
Founded in 1999, Denton & Nickels is a construction and building maintenance company based in Doncaster, with offices in Sheffield and Grimsby.
With more than 70 staff members, the organisation provides a wide range of construction services across the region, including building, gas, electrical, mechanical installation and facilities maintenance to public and private sectors. Current clients include local authorities, schools, commercial and industrial sites. The company aims to expand its business further across the UK and continue to develop its private customer base.
Denton & Nickels implemented the Telogis Fleet software platform to give senior management heightened visibility into its fleet operations, improve efficiency of services, and monitor driving behaviours. It ultimately aimed to optimise customer service with a more automated and streamlined level of service.
Overview
The last 3-5 years saw Denton & Nickels growing at pace, operating a daily fleet of more than 40 vehicles. However, the company lacked IT software to provide insights into the performance, efficiency and behaviours of their drivers and vehicles, and stalled the company’s ability to continue to grow.
Brian O’Sullivan, marketing manager at Denton & Nickels commented, “We’ve been exceeding growth targets year on year. As a result, our senior management team wanted to review company policies and procedures. Factors like carbon footprint, efficiency of vehicle use and delivery times needed to be aligned to new targets that would be reflective of and support further growth. We had no existing platform in place to provide us with the visibility needed to measure these metrics and benchmark against as we scaled. We urgently needed to rectify this with the help of a reliable and experienced solutions provider.”
Following extensive market research, the company deployed Telogis Fleet, a leading cloud-based fleet management solution, and part of the broader Telogis Mobile Enterprise Management (MEM) software platform.
Built on scalable software and capable of integrating with an entire business, Telogis Fleet offers a data-driven, near real-time view of fleet operations. It also provides tailored reporting, such as alerts for maintenance upgrades and productivity records of service, including start times, job completion and driving time.
O’Sullivan said, “After conducting in-depth due diligence on the partners available, we made the decision that Telogis would best suit our needs. It offered consultancy and the capability of software we were looking for. Its tools give an incredibly detailed level of insight and control on operations, asset utilisation, mileage and driver behaviours.”
Securing business benefits through more efficient IT
After smooth onboarding, run in phases over a number of quarters, Telogis Fleet has delivered many business benefits organisation-wide, positively impacting each working day for both senior management and end users.
Driver operations
Telogis Fleet has had a major impact on managing driver operations with users able to monitor when any vehicle exceeds thresholds set, including speeding, harsh braking and idling.
Brian O’Sullivan commented, “Our drivers are brand ambassadors so we need to ensure that when our vehicles are on the road, they are safe and responsible. With Telogis Fleet we’ve been able to introduce ‘driver scorecards’ which present information specific to driver behaviour via an easy to read dashboard. Following this, we’ve started a ‘Driver of the Month’ scheme. This is determined via the scorecard system, and we incentivise staff with gift vouchers, and by announcing winners to the company through our newsletter.”
Promoting a greener fleet
Denton & Nickels also wanted to improve its carbon footprint. The team were aware that excessive idling, and clocking up unnecessary miles should be reduced to help protect the local environment. Cutting spend on fuel would also impact profitability. However, to minimise these outputs, Denton & Nickels first had to be able to effectively monitor them.
Brian O’Sullivan commented, “A green fleet is a priority for us. We work with many public sector organisations so it is a shared ethos. Through Telogis Fleet we have been able to closely monitor emissions and how much fuel is spent per vehicle, showing us where reductions can be made. For instance, we’ve introduced a ‘Driver Buddy’ scheme in which two workers traveling to the same job from different locations can be pooled, using one vehicle instead of two.”
Reporting, trend analysis and routing
With fleet data now aggregated using the Telogis platform, Denton & Nickels has the ability to run reports to uncover insightful trends, support investigations and extrapolate reliable forecasts.
The company can also optimise routes for field workers, determining the shortest, most economical route between two points. This insight can help optimise vehicle use and improve productivity. It also ensures that the nearest worker with the required skills and equipment for a job can be dispatched quickly, providing a more efficient service for the customer.
According to Brian O’Sullivan, “Telogis Fleet has enhanced how our planning teams can organise and dispatch field workers. This is especially useful in situations where there is an emergency call out, in which we can precisely say which worker is the best placed to be posted. This has a knock on effect on productivity, as well as promoting client satisfaction and loyalty.”
Maintaining momentum and supporting growth
Denton & Nickels’ back-office planning teams are now able to enhance customer service and delivery time through the automated insights delivered by Telogis Fleet. The sales and marketing teams have also been able to demonstrate the advantages achieved through the Telogis platform in business pitches and when producing tenders for prospects, helping secure new revenue streams.
Denton & Nickels continues to grow as an organisation, and now, bolstered with a more robust and intelligent IT infrastructure it is better equipped than ever to help meet targets and drive ROI now and in the future.
“Working with Telogis has been seamless, and the company has offered a fantastic level of consultancy throughout the deployment of its connected intelligence platform. We needed an agile and intuitive technology solution to flex with us as we expanded and to improve the level of transparency and insights from our fleet. Telogis has delivered on these objectives, and more, and we look forward to using its software to help support our growth in the years ahead.” – Brian O’Sullivan, marketing manager at Denton & Nickels
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