The Challenge
With a fleet of twelve vehicles, this trailer moving company had to find a way to utilize each one of its vehicles to cover a lot of ground while pleasing all its customers. The company looked into five different telematics systems before finding Bolero Wireless. Other telematics systems failed to provide real-time updates that the trailer mover needed to track its drivers.
The operations manager of the company says what led the company to telematics in the first place was getting a better sense of where the trucks were at all times. “By doing this we could give our customers answers on how long it might take us to deliver that specific order, and if it took too long, then we would send another driver who was less backed up,” she says.
The Solution
The company did a fair share of its homework when it came to looking for the right telematics system. They investigated five different systems and chose one, which still did not provide the type of information the company was looking for.
“Our last system was not very effective. It lacked in the amount of updates and the accuracy of pinpointing our trucks.”
After eight months, the company found the right fit for its fleet and that was Bolero’s technology putting Drivers at Ease
Despite finding a system that met all the needs, Marenger encountered a minor speed bump. A common issue with implementing a telematics system is reluctance on the driver’s side. “We have a few old-school drivers who felt we were trying to spy on them, but it was all about explaining what the system was actually tracking,”
Unlike many fleets who are trying to monitor driver behavior, the company uses the nearfield communication driver ID to help keep track of which drivers are using a certain vehicle. “We have drivers change trucks daily and sometimes multiple times per day,” she said. “These key fobs save us time in making phone calls to different drivers like we had to in the past when trying to give a customer a delivery time.”
The Components
The Bolero Wireless automated virtual counter and meter reader hardware was developed to be installed in minutes by anyone with limited electrical knowledge. The Bolero Wireless virtual counter is a three wire installation that uses the dishwashers main power supply. The installer only needs to connect the black to black the white to white and a signal wire from the timer. The Bolero Wireless Virtual counter is on the GSM network in minutes and reporting back to the cloud updating the client data base.
Once installed the AMR device reports their current count 4 times per day. This was believed to be the best balance between data reporting costs and real time information.
In this solution, all 150 dish washing machines have been installed with the Bolero Wireless Virtual counter and is made up of the following components
- Bolero Wireless GPRS/GPS Wireless Modem configured as a Vitrual Counter;
- Unit sends GPRS message every 4 hours and reports in the HQ the current value of Virtual counter;
- A cellular GPRS message is sent to the cellular Network and lands in the Bolero back-end;
- The Event is logged real-time in the Bolero database and Bolero Live! Web Portal.
The Results
It has been less than a year that the company has been using Bolero, but the success of the system can be seen beyond ROI.
“There has been a dramatic improvement in the level of customer service. We’ve been able to give them accurate delivery times and that is keeping them happy.”
Although customer service and delivery monitoring were the main factors in deciding to implement the Bolero system, the company was also looking to monitor fuel mileage and have vehicle maintenance reminders. “We used to miss our oil changes and now with Bolero we have reminders to make sure all our vehicles are being well-maintained. My experience with Bolero's system over the past year has been extremely positive. I would recommend this technology to any fleet, whether it’s two or 200 trucks. In addition to their technology, Bolero's customer service has also been a very positive experience.”