Mandata TMS eases growing workload for Archbold Logistics
Archbold Logistics has just completed a significant investment programme to revamp its fleet and has moved away from on-board tracking to an integrated Mandata tracking and telematics solution in a bid to manage increased workloads and prepare for future growth.
The Yorkshire based company has enjoyed a successful year to date and has predicted that its workload is set to increase over the next 12 months due to key new business wins and natural progression with existing clients.
Recent investments include the acquisition of 40 new trucks which have all been kitted out with Mandata’s fixed Vehicle Tracking and Driver Behaviour software.
Designed to feed automatically back into the company’s existing Mandata TMS, the integrated tracking software will be of great benefit to Archbold. It will provide a full and live picture of its operations, aid planning and continuous improvements in customer service.
Managing Director at Archbold Logistics, Alan Maher said, “We’ve moved away from a standalone tracking system in order to give us greater visibility and control over our operations. By combining our Mandata TMS with Mandata’s tracking everything is under one roof making the business easier to manage.”
The real-time progress updates will provide advanced warning to our Traffic team if a delivery is going to arrive late which will give them more time to react to the situation and help them to provide a more proactive level of customer service to our clients.
Lisa Howells, Operation Improvements Manager at Archbold Logistics said:
“We will no longer need to liaise manually for updates as vehicle locations will be automatically fed back into the Mandata TMS. We’ll know what’s going on at any point in time which will allow us to make better informed decisions.”
“As a business we continually strive to improve upon where we are today and this new system will enable us to work smarter, not harder.”
Mandata’s Driver Behaviour software will enable management to identify anomalies between the performance of drivers and trucks thereby giving us the tools to make ongoing improvements.
Like many operators within the haulage sector, the recession in 2008 meant that Archbold had to economise and subsequently put on hold their investment programme in order to weather the storm.
“When the recession hit, we decided to hold off on our vehicle replacement programme whilst things in the industry were uncertain,” Alan continued.
“Like most organisations we were very cautious with our business decisions during this time. As confidence within the industry began to grow again, we revisited our investment plans and decided that now was the time to put them into action. We’ve basically had to take a few steps back in order to make a giant leap forward.”
2018 will mark Archbold Logistics’ centenary year. Despite many changes within the industry as a whole the Company remains a family-owned business employing 140 staff and operating 100 vehicles and 160 trailers from 4 depots around the UK.
From humble beginnings in steam-engine powered logistics, the Company now specialises in Automotive, Packaging, FMCG and European haulage, together with Pallet distribution for the Palletforce network.
“We’re in a strong position where we can really focus on our core sectors and we regard it as a privilege to now be able to be selective in the jobs that we accept and the locations that we work from,” Alan concluded.
“The tracking software will really help us to keep everything contained as well as adding discipline to our work methods and the quality data behind to back it up.”