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A D a i m l e r C h r ys l e r c o mp a ny
& Spedition Häger GmbH&Co.KG
Case Study No. 16
12/02
Experiences from practice
"It's safe to assume that we are
saving 3-5% in maintenance costs."
Bernd Häger,
Owner
1
Company
Spedition Häger is a mid-sized
family freight forwarding
company that can look back
on a more than a 70-year
history. Häger provides an
extensive range of services
using more than 40 vehicles.
Häger provides haulage services, contract logistics services
as well as removals and furniture transport. Customers
can choose from individual
service components to endto-end logistics solutions.
Two direct railway links enable the freight forwarding
company to plan for the future
and include rail in its transport solutions. More than 100
employees work each day
to implement the company's
strap-line "Your problem is
our challenge."
2
Background
Häger looked at telematics in
the late 1990s.
"Originally, we were only
interested in a vehicle
location system," says the
company's owner Bernd
Häger.
"Vehicle location tracking
was very important for us
because we have many timecritical deliveries. Additionally,
vehicle location tracking was
a differentiator to help
us win business with some
customers."
The search for a suitable telematics system was not easy,
"because, for the last five
years, there have been providers who have entered the
market with various solutions,
but it was never a consistent,
complete solution." At a transport exhibition, Bernd Häger
came across FleetBoard for
the first time. "That's how we
made contact."
3
Solution
The FleetBoard presentation
convinced Bernd Häger. In
November 2000, he had five
of his vehicles equipped with
FleetBoard Driver & Vehicle
Management including the
FleetBoard Mapping Service.
"At the time, vehicle location
tracking was our initial goal,"
says Bernd Häger.
"Currently, vehicle location
tracking is playing second
Line of business:
National short and long-distance haulage
Company headquarters:
59909 Bestwig / Germany
Fleet size:
44 vehicles
FleetBoard
services used:
FleetBoard Driver & Vehicle Management,
FleetBoard Logistics Management
Contact:
Bernd Häger, owner
Telephone: (+49)2904/9 74 00
fiddle in our company.
Today, we are increasingly
using vehicle management
data to reduce maintenance
and fuel costs."
The focus is on the FleetBoard
Service Reports that enables
us to plan workshop visits,
regardless of the current
whereabouts of the vehicles.
FleetBoard shows the maintenance prognosis for all the
vehicles in a fleet, broken
down according to the type
of maintenance, remaining
vehicle usage time, and the
anticipated next maintenance
date. In addition, FleetBoard
Service makes it possible to
'virtually' monitor the techni-
cal condition of the vehicles.
This enables users to always
know if vehicles are safe to
operate and whether they
can remain deployed until the
next scheduled maintenance.
"Before, we had a regular
schedule for bringing the vehicles in," explains Bernd Häger.
"Once the vehicle was in the
workshop, we would see that
servicing could have waited."
"Today, we-or rather our
workshop-checks the
system and plans accordingly based on the
FleetBoard Service data."
Häger checks the system to
compile an overview of the
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FleetBoard - Fleet Management with IQ
fuel consumption every month.
"We then put the overview on
the bulletin board. In the
event of major deviations from
what is expected in driving
style, we have individual
discussions with the drivers
concerned."
"The analyses from the
FleetBoard Performance
Analysis Reports then
become part of our monthly
accounting, but we do not
yet have a bonus system on
the basis of the FleetBoard
data."
"The originally targeted
vehicle tracking function is
now used by transport office
staff to check the mapping
function in the morning to see
if all the vehicles left on time.
Before, we would have to call
all the drivers first thing in the
morning, but now that has
become unnecessary." Today,
14 of Häger’s 44 vehicles are
also equipped with FleetBoard
Logistics DispoPilot, a terminal for driver communication
and delivery status updates.
"We are still barely using
FleetBoard Logistics Service,
but once all the vehicles have
been equipped, we would like
to utilise it throughout the
fleet."
4
Advantages
Bernd Häger sees the most
significant advantage in the
savings in maintenance costs.
"It’s safe to assume that we
are saving 3-5% in maintenance costs."
"If I schedule a vehicle for its
inspection, then we always
seem to have another vehicle
"This system enhances and upgrades
the driver’s workstation."
break down the same day.
This is minimized if I don’t
bring a vehicle in until it is
actually due. Before it was
different. Today, we have
shorter standing times."
Advantage 1:
3-5% lower maintenance costs
Advantage 2:
0.5 mile per gallon reduction
in fuel consumption
Of course, we didn't just say
'Are you on the road?' and
then hang up, but we had a
brief conversation. Today,
this means that our phone
costs are substantially lower."
Bernd Häger considers the
fact that they always know the
exact location of the vehicles
as a good service for customers. A service that sometimes
is the deciding factor on
whether they get follow-up
jobs:
Advantage 3:
Significantly lower telephone
costs
Advantage 4:
An additional marketing tool to
"For large bids, FleetBoard
provides us with an additional marketing tool. Sometimes it’s the determining factor in getting the job at all."
5
Outlook
For Bernd Häger, it is quite
clear that he will continue to
use FleetBoard.
"We want to integrate
FleetBoard more and more
in our operating processes."
"At some point, we would
like to be able to relay the
job orders to the vehicles
but could only do this when
our fleet is fully equipped
with Logistics Management
to supplement Driver &
Vehicle Management."
win business
"As far as fuel costs are
concerned, we are now
saving about 0.5 mile per
gallon. When we talk to our
drivers now, they are much
more amenable to constructive criticism, because
we can check each individual case to see the reason
behind poor driver grades."
"Acceptance of FleetBoard
by the drivers has been excellent because we openly
explained to the drivers from
the very beginning what
we wanted to achieve," says
Häger. For example, Häger
does not conceal the fact
that the transport office staff
check FleetBoard Mapping
every morning to make sure
that all the vehicles are on
the road: "Before, we called
every single vehicle.
Summary
Bernd Häger summarises as follows: "Our original goal was to
simply reduce costs and optimize processes. Today, it is an important factor for me that this system enhances and upgrades the
previous driver’s workstation with the new DispoPilot. The truck
has now become a high-tech vehicle."
Lower standing times thanks to FleetBoard.
For further information call: (+49)711 / 17-9 19 99 or (+44)1827 311912
www.fleetboard.com or www.fleetboard.co.uk
DaimlerChrysler Services FleetBoard GmbH, 70546 Stuttgart 01/0305 Printed in Federal Republic of Germany/Imprimé en République fédérale d’Allemagne