Recipe for success
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MAN is eager to prove its value, and Nightfreight is keen to cut truck operating costs: their chiefs detail the ingredients that make their partnership work
Words: Justin Stanton IT’S THE CV SHOW 2011 and Commercial Motor staff are dashing from stand to stand, gathering news of new products and services designed to make operators’ lives easier and their businesses more eficient.
Among the exhibitors making the most noise was MAN, so we made our way to the manufacturer’s stand to speak to its chief executive Des Evans on the second day of the show.
MAN’s stand was dominated by its customers’ trucks, and one such was a 7.5-tonne TGL with Bevan21 box, resplendent in Nightfreight’s livery. It was no coincidence then that we found Evans deep in conversation with Nightfreight chief executive Ian Smith, reviewing the live, real-time performance of the parcel operator’s drivers via the Ecostyle leet management system (which is itted to more than 500 trucks in its leet).
Evans, as any major MAN customer knows, is a passionate advocate for change and improvement, and is now in his 20th year at the German manufacturer. Smith, on the other hand, is relatively new to Nightfreight (having joined as chief operating oficer in Q1 2010), but is a 25-year industry veteran with stints at Exel, Unipart and NYK on his CV. He can boast of being schooled by the legendary Robbie Burns – and he can hold his own against Evans.
Fortune favours the brave, so CM gate crashes the conversation just as Evans is detailing some of the other UK businesses that use Ecostyle, and notes that with fuel prices set to go only one way, honing the talents of the person behind the wheel is the absolute priority for all operators.
“Changing the [way] drivers [drive] is the only way to make major improvements [in cutting fuel bills],” he says. “But it’s not just fuel, it’s all the other stuff, the accident damage...” Smith leaps in: “It’s more than that. When I started out, you sat down with a driver at the end of his shift, looked at his mileage, compared how much was left in the tank with how much he started with, and worked out his mpg – and that was about as much information as you had.
“Contrast that with now, and our drivers walk back into the depot and are asking ‘how have I done?’ They want to know. We publish a league table, not a name and shame, but an example of how to improve the business. They are all driven to improve the numbers.
“There’s been a cultural change,” he says, referring to the introduction of detailed analysis of drivers’ performance. “You go through the emotional curve, from ‘it’s a spy in the cab’ to ‘am I really up for this?’ to ‘I know it’s not’ and ‘it’s highlighting how I can improve’ .” “It becomes the culture,” Evans interjects.
“Exactly, it becomes a different way of working,” says Smith. “You’d never go back now to the way it was. Our drivers really feel like they’re playing their part.”
Culture change
Typically, Nightfreight’s depots are small: just 15 collection and delivery trucks and drivers, “where everybody knows everybody else” .
Even on such a small scale, the change in culture takes a while to bed in and for consistent beneits to be realised, but ultimately realised they are: Smith reveals that Nightfreight has enjoyed a 3% reduction in fuel consumption across its leet and a 13% reduction in costs arising from accident damage since installing the Ecostyle system.
Smith reveals that he’s considering the introduction of a driver of the year competition, but not limiting recognition to the best overall driver, rather he wants to acknowledge outstanding per formance against several key criteria: mpg, harsh braking, harsh acceleration, green-band driving, etc.
Evans highlights another MAN customer that runs a similar programme. It awards its top drivers each December at the HQ of the Williams F1 team (MAN supplies trucks to the team); the irst year it did so, Rubens Barrichello had just signed for Williams. The team’s MD gave a presentation on how it used telematics to improve Barrichello’s performance, speciically ensuring he could make one tank of fuel last 60 or so laps of the average Grand Prix circuit.
Pat on the back
Evans says the impact on that operator’s best drivers was two-fold: it’s one hell of a pat on the back for a top truck driver to be compared to a Grand Prix winner, and it also reinforces the point that you’re never so good that you can’t ind improvements.
“Those [operator’s] drivers walked out of Williams 20ft tall. I’m not kidding. The transformation of that leet has been unbelievable: 70% of their drivers are in the A category, and their accident damage has been cut by 50%,” Evans reveals.
Smith starts to reveal the impact of Ecostyle on his leet in greater detail: “We’ve seen a far greater improvement on our artic leet into As and Bs, which is logical – it’s point-to-point driving. But we’re getting results too on our collection and delivery leet.
“We spend much more on fuel for our 7.5-tonners than we do for our artics. At the smaller depots, it’s easier to get the [improved] results, because you can get your arms round each driver.
“It is about the one-to-one interaction with the drivers. When I started out, there was no time for one-to-ones, now by the time he’s parked the truck up, washed it, locked it, and back in the trafic ofice, everything’s there ready for them – you just turn the computer screen around so they can see it. And we can give detailed feedback, because we know exactly where they’ve been.
“Take the Nottingham depot. They cover 15 postcodes there, and the drivers know Nottingham like the backs of their hands. We can tell them that when they hit the A46: hit the cruise control button. The next day that driver goes out, and whether it’s pride or whether it’s because he can’t hide from it, he’ll use cruise control more.” The conversation sways back towards recognition and competition between depots and drivers, and Smith hits on a scheme: “I like the idea of putting something on the cab: this truck is driven by a C-grade driver, etc.”
He concludes: “As the economy gets tighter, everybody has to do their bit. There’s no silver bullet: you’ve got to do lots of little things, and you’ve got to have your drivers with you.” ■