Telemetry feature: Teletrac Navman

Date: 18.11.2021

From farming to trucking and hireage, Teletrac Navman can help keep fleet up to scratch and workers safe and productive

Robin Thomas, owner of Hiab Transport

Fleet management, communication, customer service, and vehicle tracking are just some of the jobs that need to be organised when running a company involving transport. From farming to trucking and hireage, there are a lot of logistics involved to keep workers safe and productive, customers happy, and your fleet up to scratch.

West Auckland-based HIAB Transport has a team of employees from New Zealand and around the globe operating a specialist fleet of 25 trucks and trailers servicing the building and construction market.

From farming to trucking and hireage, Teletrac Navman can help keep workers safe and productive, customers happy, and fleet up to scratch

Owner Robin Thomas turned to Teletrac Navman to deliver better customer service and provide clear communication across the business. The company had to manage where the vehicles are located if the fleet’s road user charges are up to date and if drivers have received the correct dispatch information and understood it.

The diversity of the driving team means that dispatch communications need to be clear and succinct to ensure optimal efficiency and that jobs are completed productively. "Before we installed Teletrac Navman’s RUC Manager, some of the trailers had often travelled more kilometres than we had paid RUC for, which led to a few administrative headaches," Robin says.

"Now we don’t have any issues at all with maintaining compliance; everything is monitored online and is easily checked." Bringing visibility to the fleet in real-time enabled HIAB Transport to better serve its customer base, as trucks could be rerouted and jobs reallocated as capacity allowed.

Auckland’s Tradehire is another company that turned to technology to provide up-to-the-minute visibility into its fleet. In 2019, it installed Teletrac Navman’s GPS-enabled fleet management solution alongside the electronic RUC system into its six light trucks that primarily transport scaffolding equipment to and from sites.

The solution gave Tradehire assurance and insight into speeding and driver behaviour to ensure that the business is meeting its health and safety requirements. "If there’s a big job and the on-site crew need extra help, I can see where all staff and vehicles are located and assign those nearest to the job site to go and lend a hand," says operations manager Rod McLean.

Rosewarne Cable Loggers adopted Teletrac Navman’s software in 2018 to help manage its 23 vehicles. With no real-time updates of vehicle locations or maintenance information of their assets due to the manual nature of the business, the company was reliant on their staff to get in touch when they had phone coverage.

This meant vehicle status updates, organising tools and assets to be picked up or delivered to forestry sites, and location information was sporadic. The Teletrac Navman software enables the company to plan maintenance for their vehicle fleet.

Rosewarne Cable Loggers now get automatic activity and status reports, saving a lot of time previously spent chasing vehicle status updates from drivers. Cambridge-based Professional Farm Services is on call 24/7, providing sales and services. 

Professional Farm Services looks after dairy and dry stock farmers, lifestyle block owners, dairy factories and their farms as well as local district council town water supply facilities.

Providing highly responsive customer service is the key to staying in business in the farm industry, says director Dave McMillan, who installed Teletrac Navman’s GPS fleet tracking system across the company’s entire fleet.

There are now Teletrac Navman Qubes in the vehicles and M-Navs in all the cabs. Dave also uses the Teletrac Navman app on his phone "I get the calls when an urgent job needs to be done. I can go into my phone and pull up the location of the guys straight away, then send the closest person to the job. It’s fast and efficient." says Dave.

For more information, visit teletracnavman.co.nz.

Find new and used trucks for sale in NZ 

Keep up to date in the industry by signing up to Deals on Wheels' free newsletter or liking us on Facebook.