23/10/08
Vehicle Tracking supplier helps keep TNT Post as number one alternative to Royal Mail

Since the deregulation of the postal market in 2006, TNT Post’s five regional divisions – Scotland, the North, South West and Wales, London and South East and the Midlands – have handled business mail throughout the UK. Whilst cost-savings, dedicated account management and guaranteed delivery dates are central to its offering, it is constantly exploring new opportunities to further improve its operational efficiencies, and, ultimately its service.

It is this business model and ethos that lead to TNT Post in the North to a partnership with Harbinger and Yes Vehicle Tracking, for the provision of vehicle tracking and driver PDAs to support the efficient postal service that it provides to over 1200 customers in the North.

Andy Goddard, Managing Director, says, “TNT Post in the North has been trading since March 2006 and now handles over two hundred million items a year for over 1,200 customers; as such, it is imperative that we are accountable for each mail item and to each customer.

“In the past three months, we have invested over half a million pounds in an 18 new vans and we needed advanced tracking and monitoring technology to take this fleet to the next level. We approached a number of companies regarding vehicle tracking, and Yes Vehicle Tracking was the only company that could build a bespoke PDA package, known as Harbinger, as well as vehicle tracking. The only alternative was ‘a one size fits all’ product, which wasn’t appropriate for our specific needs.”

     

Yes Vehicle Tracking has supplied and installed a tracking device for each of the 18 delivery and collection vehicles, allowing staff at TNT Post’s Northern division to communicate with customers about the whereabouts of the load. Data is sent from the tracking device via GPRS to Yes Vehicle Tracking’s servers, where it is viewed using Fleet Management software which was developed in-house by an extensive team of designers and developers.

Heather Rafferty TNT Post North Operations Manager commented on the benefits of the system, “It is good that we are now able to communicate more closely with our drivers and track the collection and delivery of all the mail we handle. We can also inform customers of any changes to the usual service, depending on traffic restrictions for example.”

The system will allow drivers to log on and view their day to day jobs on a handheld mobile PDA. It will also include prompts for drivers to check that they have the required boxes for collection and to initiate a vehicle safety check before setting out. Quantities of trays of letters will then be logged and customers can sign on collection or delivery via an electronic docket.

All the data is then sent in real time via GPS to the GUI interface; staff at the TNT Post office in the North can then easily communicate to driver and customers about collections and drop-offs.

In addition, Yes Vehicle Tracking will provide a large plasma screen for at-a-glance access to information showing the progress of deliveries and collections.

Chris Flynn Managing Director of Yes Vehicle Tracking and Harbinger commented “We are very proud of our relationship with TNT Post as we add yet another blue chip name to our portfolio.”

Andy Goddard finally added, “Customer service is our top priority. We are very customer focused and like to have a proactive approach to managing the business. Working with Yes Vehicle Tracking and Harbinger allows us to take customer service up to the next level and will ultimately make us even more efficient and more capable of delivering a high level of service to our customers.”