Silentnight Go Greener with a 10% MPG Improvement thanks to BigChange

Posted on 22 December 2015 by Martin Port

Silentnight Group, the iconic British bed manufacturer has reported improved fleet safety and a 10% improvement in vehicle Miles Per Gallon following the implementation of BigChange’s JobWatch system that helps Silentnight Plan, Manage, Schedule and Track their transport operations. The company has rolled out the system to its entire fleet of tractors and trailers and is using the technology to coordinate delivery of their products throughout the UK.

Group Logistics Director Neil Birch chose BigChange after carefully evaluating the market: “Having used vehicle telematics for a number of years, we were looking for something more sophisticated and integrated than just a tracking system. We immediately liked the rich functionality of JobWatch, especially the Driver Safety and Productivity mobile app that we are currently rolling out. The BigChange team gave us real confidence and we now see them as being a key part of our business processes moving forward.”

The JobWatch system was implemented as part of Silentnight’s new technology programme that seeks to empower drivers, improve safety and fuel efficiency and ensure the brand delivers a consistently fantastic experience for retail and home delivery customers.

Silentnight’s integrated JobWatch system combines CANbus connected vehicle telematics, a mobile app for drivers and a cloud based back office used by the transport planning team. At the start of each day, drivers now carry out paperless walk-around checks, logging and photographing defects that are securely logged and alerted.

The app also provides a daily driver scorecard, underpinned by data on MPG, speeding, harsh acceleration and braking, idling and cornering. Rewarding safety and fuel efficiency efforts at Silentnight is not just ‘flavour of the month’; driver behaviour is now built into the company’s KPI reporting. Meanwhile, integrated truck-nav with live traffic is ensuring that drivers can be quickly re-routed using roads appropriate for the size and height of their vehicle.

Real-time visibility is critical for Silentnight, with their logistics operation making daily deliveries into the Regional Distribution Centres of the UK’s largest retailers, explains Neil Birch:

“Everything must be perfect and nothing can be left to chance. Retailers have very strict booking slots so it’s critical that we have an up to minute view of progress against the plan 24 hours a day. With JobWatch, our team can anticipate any potential problems before they happen and take proactive steps to ensure that we stay on track.”

“The JobWatch app is also enabling our drivers and back-office team to communicate and solve problems in real-time. For example if there’s a problem with accessing a customer’s property or in the unlikely event of a product fault, the driver can take photos and liaise with customer service in real-time to resolve and ensure a positive customer outcome.”

BigChange founder and telematics pioneer Martin Port has had a working relationship with the Silentnight Group for over 10 years;
“Silentnight has always been a fantastic company to work with and I look forward to working with Neil and the team as they continue to roll out their technology strategy,” said Martin Port.

Stalkers drivers’ basic pay up 18%

Posted on 30 September 2015 by Martin Port

Our customer Stalkers Transport has shared the success of its JourneyWatch vehicle tracking system with drivers, boosting their basic pay by 18%. The company has achieved significant fuel savings, with an overall MPG improvement of 8.2%.

This has been driven by friendly competition between drivers using the daily de-brief on our JourneyWatch mobile app.

Stalkers’ success story was featured in a very recent edition of Commercial Motor and below is an extract of the story. We wish Karen Stalker and her team continued success.

Stalkers drivers’ basic pay up 18%

DRIVERS at Stalkers Transport have seen their basic pay soar by 18% this year after working with the company to cut fuel costs! The increase follows last year’s installation of BigChange Apps’ telematics system across Stalkers Transport’s 62-vehicle fleet. The system monitors drivers’ fuel economy and driving behaviour.

The company chose the telematics system because it allows drivers as well as managers to monitor their scores creating a league table.

Stalkers’ MD Karen Stalker said, “The system has created friendly competition between drivers which has seen a significant impact on fuel usage and driving standards.”

“We had the kits installed in all of our trucks and each one is driver-specific. It scores their overall driving behaviour so at the end of the day when they log off they can see where they are ranked against their colleagues,” she said. Stalker said the firm made it clear to the drivers that any savings would be passed onto them in the form of pay rises and monthly £100 bonuses. “We were aware that we weren’t paying the best rates of pay to our drivers in the leaner years. But for us to be able to change that, the drivers had to help us to help them.” Stalker said fuel savings have been significant. “MPG has improved by 8.2%.”

“It has massively reduced idling time and generally improved driving standards. This has also resulted in much lower numbers of accidents and incidents.” She added, “We have been able to give the savings back to the drivers first in terms of a significant wage rise, which equated to 18% onto their basic rate, and secondly as a fuel bonus if they get a perfect 10 score for the whole month.”

Adapted from Commercial Motor – 20th August, 2015.

Lynx Maintenance Celebrates with BigChange

Posted on 11 August 2015 by Martin Port

Lynx are a specialist family-owned building, repair and maintenance company based in Uxbridge. They offer a fast response and first-class customer service to their ever-growing list of prestigious landlord and management clients, and maintain over 3,000 properties across the south of England.Lynx are a specialist family-owned building, repair and maintenance company based in Uxbridge. They offer a fast response and first-class customer service to their ever-growing list of prestigious landlord and management clients, and maintain over 3,000 properties across the south of England.

Founder & Managing Director of Lynx Maintenance, Chris Moseley, relates, “Our entire focus is on making service improvements. We recognised that the technology we used was not going to support the level of growth we are experiencing; we had a back office job-management system that was 10 years old, producing so much paper, and a separate vehicle tracking system that we used reactively.”

Lynx decided that they needed a Big Change. They wanted one system that could manage all aspects of their business, and they wanted a fully-developed, proven product that wouldn’t cost them a fortune.

Chris Moseley went on to say, “We were recommended to contact BigChange, who had developed a system that did everything we wanted straight out of the box. BigChange spent time with us ensuring that the implementation process and training of our Head Office and Engineering teams went smoothly.”

The BigChange JobWatch system has everything – built-in service management, customer relationship management, job scheduling, resource time management, health and safety, equipment and stock management, mobile apps, financial features (from quotation to invoicing, with integration to accounting software such as Sage) and vehicle tracking. JobWatch features intuitive reporting, including reporting on customer service and quality, business productivity, driver behaviour and risk management.

Chris recalls how “Implementing the system completely did away with paper in the office and in the field. We invoice instantly when a job is completed, and have seen our productivity and service levels hit new heights. This is just the beginning, as we believe that this technology will enable our company to grow without the cost and risk that goes with expansion. We look forward to celebrating 20 years in business next year, and the BigChange JobWatch system has given us exactly the tools we need to progress and grow our family business.”

Martin Port, CEO of BigChange commented, “We are delighted to have completed another successful implementation of JobWatch with Lynx Maintenance. JobWatch has revolutionised Lynx practices and processes, eliminated all paperwork and time consuming manual tasks.”

Contact Martin Port, CEO of BigChange Apps: Email [email protected] or call +44-(0)7973-671779

featured in March’s PR Newswire: https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/lynxs-maintenance-celebrates-with-bigchange-498103241.html

CEO’s Blog – CASE STUDY C S Ellis

Posted on 4 December 2014 by Martin Port

Finding the right technology to support a market leader.

C S Ellis (Group) ltd is a 4th generation family business, founded in 1933 with hard working, traditional family ethics at its core. The business is still entirely family owned and run. CS Ellis are also members of the Palletline network. They operate distribution centres in the midlands along with a large fleet of heavy goods vehicles moving products on behalf of all types of businesses.

James Munton, IT / Health & Safety Manager at CS Ellis, commented

“We now have improved communication between our drivers and our customers. Another big benefit for us has been the ability for our customers to log on, view and monitor their own jobs. There have been many savings including the obvious areas like fuel savings and minimising wear and tear on the vehicles.”

Said James Munton. He also mentioned that they have been able to standardise communications with their mobile workforce since JobWatch came along.

“Its opened up a lot of areas that we’d never looked into before such as the routing and scheduling, making us much more efficient as a business. The customer service has been outstanding and not only does our office get great service but our drivers can call or message BigChange on the go to request a RoadCrew Customer Service call and get support directly. This alone would make me buy the system.”

Said Munton.

https://www.martinport.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Case-study-CS-Ellisupdated.pdf

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

Fryer supplier lets engineers off the leash with JobWatch

Posted on 11 December 2013 by Martin Port

Catering equipment supplier Hopkins has moved its entire mobile workforce to BigChange’s cutting-edge telematics system after trials showed it could save engineers and admin staff significant time and hassle.

The Leeds-based outfit has now completed a full roll-out of software vendor BigChange’s JobWatch system following a dry run involving two of its service crews.

Hopkins’ entire fleet of 17 service vehicles have been fitted with a mobile computer which not only provides satellite navigation and vehicle tracking, but communicates with the back office and allows engineers to access up-to-the-minute job schedules and job-specific electronic worksheets.

The deployment is already leading to greater operational efficiencies and eliminating paperwork across the organisation. It also comes at a time when Hopkins has added extra service capacity to support the expansion of Harry Ramsden’s, one of its main customers in the fish and chip shop market.

Managing director, Chris Hopkins, said back office staff were saving up to two hours a day on admin duties since the software was installed, while engineers could now pick up important messages without having to talk while driving or breaking from their work.

The technology is also being used to help the company plot the best route for getting to customers and avoid delays by navigating around traffic hotspots.

Hopkins said:

“It improves our operational processes. We can see where our engineers are in real time and what they are working on, meaning we can allocate the best-placed, suitably-qualified technician. Our people are put to more productive use, spend less time on administration and more on delivering value.”

He said the firm’s customer service had been transformed by the system.

“We can allocate jobs immediately, even on route, and tell customers exactly when our engineer will arrive. Our engineers arrive fully armed with the right information, documentation and work management applications to guide and record progress on each job.”

The company’s engineers have particular reason to be happy that the system has been introduced in time for the festive holiday system. It means that this year, for the first time, they will be able to base themselves at home when on call over Christmas rather than having to visit the office to schedule emergency jobs.