The UK's largest food producer aims to improve key aspects such as customer service, driver safety and to reduce operational costs

The UK's largest food producer aims to improve key aspects such as customer service, driver safety and to reduce operational costs

On completion of an existing transport management contract, Premier Foods undertook an extensive re-evaluation of the marketplace and chose Isotrak to deliver a 7% fuel saving, accident reduction and an improvement in delivery in full on time (DIFT).

Premier Foods has chosen the solution that they believe is best suited to help them achieve their goals. The deal will see Isotrak’s Active Transport Management System (ATMS), including the CANbus Driving Style module, implemented into 700 of Premier Foods Hovis rigids and tractor fleet with an expected completion date of February 2011.

The ATMS is designed to provide enhanced, automated visibility of vehicle movement and location and integrates with existing customer planning systems, alerting managers if issues occur, according to Isotrak. This will enable Premier Foods to set new standards of pro-activity in managing its operational performance and maximising the accuracy of planned deliveries.

Streamlining transportation control

Isotrak’s Driver Style module, using a contactless CANBus device, is an product that retrieves accurate engine management and driving style data from vehicles, including most heavy good vehicles that do not have the fleet management systems (FMS) interface enabled. It is a non-intrusive device, which overcomes the need to connect directly to the engine management system (EMS), allowing operators to keep in line with their vehicle manufacturers’ recommendations. This eliminates liability concerns, warranty issues or possible wrong connections.

In addition, the ATMS will enable the Hovis vehicles to execute and dynamically manage the drivers’ working day and produce management reports from collated data in a usable format, which was not previously accessible to the company.

Alison Wynne Davies, project sponsor and Premier Foods head of supply chain and logistics in the South, said: "Following a review of the market for vehicle tracking and telematics solutions, Hovis decided to migrate from its previous supplier following a very strong operational and commercial proposal.

“The system enhancements provided by Isotrak will enable us to provide more timely delivery performance information to our customers as well as helping to reduce fuel usage and CO2 emissions through a new CanBUS in-vehicle solution. The professionalism and project management processes adopted by Isotrak will help us to adopt a seamless implementation of the new solution within a fairly tight timescale."