Feb/Mar 2008

Marketed as the eco-friendly celebrity chauffeur, Carmic has chosen mobile technology from DA Systems to underpin its environment-friendly operation

What could be more appropriate at the start of a year when 'greenness' is such a hot topic than to be reporting on a car hire company that sets out its stall to be green?

Carmic Green calls itself the eco-friendly chauffeur company, and has already won business from various media celebrities for its green credentials (see panel). Not only does it use green vehicles; it also looks for green support technologies throughout its business.

Which is partly why it has chosen the ACI (Advanced Courier Interface) from DA Systems to help manage and schedule its vehicle operations, along with DA's NX Mobile Data and NX Fleet Tracking solutions to deliver instant communications and location information between the office and its drivers' PDAs.

 

A key benefit of the DA Systems solutions is the 'green effect' of the technology, says managing director Mal Wharton. He cites the way it removes the need for paper by e-mailing point of delivery, invoices, reporting and statistics, and providing reports to show total emissions per journey.

'Without DA Systems' applications we would not be able to run our business,' he says simply. 'We can now grow rapidly and handle more customer volume and still deliver class-leading customer service.'

ACI is a powerful, real-time scheduling and fleet management tool, and allows Carmic's controllers to schedule, track, log and report on all activities, collections and deliveries.

ACI also offers mapping and routing and despatch and control functionality, combined with comprehensive reporting and management information analysis. Its Web Bookings technology even enables customers to book their own jobs directly with Carmic via the Internet.

Used with ACI, NX Mobile Data is a highly advanced real-time 'sign-on-screen' ePOD (electronic Proof of Delivery) solution, and is said to give Carmic's drivers everything they need to make a collection or delivery at the click of a button.

The system links drivers electronically to the controllers at Carmic's offices. Each driver in the car fleet carries a PDA running NX Mobile Data, and working with the extensive mapping of NX Fleet Tracking, provides the controllers with real-time tracking of vehicles using GPS over GPRS.

The result of employing all these systems is that Carmic staff have instant real-time access to information on the status of every collection or delivery. The company says this means that the team can manage delays and issues as they arise, and provide a high level of customer service.