July/Aug 2004

A Yorkshire company has introduced on-board fleet management computers from Siemens VDO to help verify time allocated to jobs by its maintenance teams and identify vehicle locations for unannounced on-the-spot safety inspections.

Total Gutters Maintenance specialises in maintenance of water drainage systems, including roof guttering, and has 300 customers nationwide. The company has installed Siemens VDO FM200 on-board computers on nine trucks and is downloading the data they collect remotely via GSM mobile phone links.

"Our service teams are out working on their own for long periods of time," says technical operations assistant Stuart Featherstone. "It is therefore important for us to have a mechanism in place that is capable of remotely monitoring and verifying the times booked to jobs."

Each vehicle has hydraulically-operated aerial access equipment installed. The FM200s are configured to record when the boom arms are in use, and managers use this information to confirm time spent working on site.

 

Featherstone says the vehicle tracking function of the FM200s helps the company comply with health and safety directives requiring regular safety audits. "Obviously, these audits need to be made without any prior notice being given to our service teams. We use the FM200 to locate the vehicle, which allows our inspectors to arrive on site unannounced. "