Jan/Feb 2005

Far less administration, fewer calls to the office, and improved journey planning and vehicle allocation - these are among the benefits quoted by Scarlet Couriers since equipping its vehicles with the Wireless Delivered mobile solution from Talecom.

The Thames Valley-based company has fitted Talecom's XDA PDA-based solution in 55 company-owned vehicles so far. According to owner Jon Barber: "Previously all our PODsÊwere collated manually, but since we made the decision to purchase this product from Talecom we haven't looked back."

Information is received in real time via the O2 GPRS mobile network, and the POD is automatically shown on screen at the office. "So we don't need to check with the driver that a package has been delivered."

He says the system's satellite tracking feature has proved particularly useful. "Now we can see exactly where our vehicles are and check their status. This allows us to utilise our vehicles more effectively and reduce empty mileage."

 

Wireless Delivered's real-time job control and signature capture system aims to provide instant, cost-effective transfer of data and delivery information between any back office system and field employee via a PDA device.

Scarlet was already a customer of CMS, which supplies booking and traffic management systems, and is a Talecom partner.