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The information revolution

24th November 2005
Page 72
Page 72, 24th November 2005 — The information revolution
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Gary Hawkins reflects on the benefits of modern gadgetry, but he never loses sight of the lifeblood of any business — money.

We specialise in hauling bricks arid blocks, but recently started a 12month contract to carry steel.This is a new area of work for us.Then again, our company has redefined the concept of fresh pastures. Our yard is still a typical haulage yard, complete with fleet (mainly Scanias) but it's also much more.

The firm dates back to my grandfather and, bit by bit, through renting out space and adding extra sevices, our Kingswinford site has developed into a 'transport We run a driver agency (with onsite accommododation for our Polish recruits), an HGV training cen tre, a truck wash, chassis wash and cafe.The yard isn't just used by our drivers but by passing drivers who stop to take their breaks in a truck-friendly zone where they can buy a sarnie and a coffee, have their vehicle cleaned and get 24hour maintenance on site. All our businesses have transport at their centre, but the challenge with them all is collecting and using information— and for that you need to understand technology. And there's more technology in a modern truck than in the rocket that first put man on the moon.

Every piece of information, no matter how small, is crucial to today's road transport companies. Each truck is a profit centre that should stand alone financially.

So what are the different ways information is read and interpreted? How does that define our business strategies? Not only is it the bottom line, as I identified on the new contract, but it's the margin within the margin of fuel and tyres, and so on. It's about earning per mile and cost per mile.

Margins are what we all want to achieve, but bigger isn't always better.That's why information whatever the scale is crucial to any business. As I've always said,if you can make the margins alone work in a transport company, anything else by comparison is a snip.

[ask my truck-wash and cafe staff to text me daily with how the bacon sandwiches have been selling,When I get home after a long day, I can watch Neighbours, safe in the knowledge the kids have taped it for me. So technology enables me to see how my business has performed, and catch up with television. It also allows me to sleep on, and improve, our strategy.

Now I need to find a way to tie all this information together; to sew the cafe usage into the training, into the driver work. Soon we'll be using smartcardsE30,000 of investment — to record what visitors to the site use and what they don't, and to offer joint service promotions.Wash your truck and get a half-price bacon sandwich, for instance.

Pouring so many revenue streams and divergent products through the technology will be a challenge. But it's the only way to know, and control, how much money you're making."Turnmer is vanity, profit is sanity." •

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