May/June 2005

Lantern Recovery Specialists, one of Britain's biggest vehicle breakdown recovery groups, is the first in its field to introduce a new system that combines automated job despatch with communications, tracking and satellite navigation.

The VTRAK job management and despatch element of the system has been provided by Laser Byte, a well-established supplier of software for the recovery market. The innovation lies in the way this has been linked with a new system from Masternaut, the fast-growing telematics specialist.

Call-out requests or other jobs received through the VTRAK system pop up on screen in the control centre automatically, and once the controller has accepted one, details are now transmitted immediately to the nearest suitable recovery vehicle. At the same time, the navigation system is activated, guiding the driver to the recovery location.

Directions to the location are delivered to the driver via an in-cab PDA, which is mounted in a dashboard cradle and also doubles as a mobile phone. Lantern says this navigation feature as particularly useful, as drivers tend to spend a lot of time trying to find their way around. The PDAs also offer electronic signature capture and credit card payment facilities.

 

For Masternaut, the contract represents an important step into the specialised world of vehicle recovery, while for Lantern it introduces a range of new capabilities. In the words of Cathie Chapman, Lantern's human resources manager: "It is the only system that could do everything we needed - tracking, communications, navigation, signature capture and even a driver hours' system for managing new Working Time regulations."

She adds that the satnav navigation system is helping the company by saving "time, stress and fuel".

Lantern operates over 100 of its own vehicles, and has call on a nationwide network of 6,000 vehicles. It has a control centre at Potters Bar, north of London, and depots at South Mimms, Luton, Tottenham and Heston.

The company is said to be seeing big improvements in service and "cost savings that are well in excess of our expectations".