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FREIGHT BEST PRACTICE
Page 16
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COMPANY NAMES: ARLA Foods Group NUMBER OF VEHICLES: 631 AREA OF EXPERTISE: Dairy products WEEK FOUR
Sponsored by: 4 FreightBestPractice
It's not every day the government gives some of your taxes back, but the Freight Best Practice initiative offers free advice to operators to boost their eff iciency. In the fourth of eight case studies we see how an ERF telematics system helped the ARIA group retrain some of its drivers and cut its fuel bill
Who:
ARLA Foods Group, Europe's largest manufacturer of milk, cheese, yogurt, cream and other dairy products. AREA is featured as an example of best practice in the new Freight Best Practice guide to Information Technology for Efficient Road Freight Operations.
Fleet:
631 vehicles; 730 trailers Business:
In the UK ARLA has a workforce of 6,300 and processes 2.3 billion litres of milk per year at 13 plants. The UK fleets comprises 631 vehicles and 730 trailers; it uses about 68,000 litres of diesel per working day.
Objective:
ARLA set out to improve its fuel consumption and to avoid excessive engine idling by identifying wastage caused by driver error or a lack of planning.
Over the past few years the company has Invested heavily in ERF's STACC telematics system to support Its driver training programme and improve the fleet's overall operational performance.
This system is designed to allow depot managers to see where vehicles are In real time; it also enables them to communicate with drivers via text messages.
Weekly reports provide managers with average fuel consumption figures with percentages of idling time, green band driving and standing time broken down into individual vehicles and totalled for the whole fleet.
Results:
r he telematics system has identified key areas of inefficiency, allowing ARLA to address them.
In one instance the weekly report showed a large number of harsh braking incidents. It became apparent that the driver was not using the exhaust brake; training cut the driver's fuel usage by no less than 23%.
The telematics system can provide depot managers with a better understanding of waiting times at Regional Distribution Centres (RDCs) and allow them to see when drivers go off route and take excessive breaks.
It has also identified instances of excessive idling, allowing ARLA to target its training accordingly and avoid fuel wastage.
For more information on the new Freight Best Practice guide see wwwireightbestpractice.org.uk or call the Freight Best Practice Hotline on 0845 877 0877.