Going down the fleet monitoring route requires an operation to commit to the system completely, covering all of the bases, and integrating any telematics system into the entire business. PowerTorque talks to Andy Mickan, National Workshop Manager at Hi-Trans Express about using all of the data created by the truck and trailer assets to improve productivity in the business.
Hi-Trans Express is another example of the kind of convergence happening in the Australian trucking industry, where a sophisticated monitoring set-up can be used across the business to improve all of the functions within the business.
The Hi-Trans business has been around for more than 50 years and operates Australia-wide with its line-haul fleet of Kenworth and Mercedes Benz prime movers. The fleet regularly runs between its company depots in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Broken Hill, Townsville and Melbourne. It also uses agents in Perth, Darwin and Hobart, servicing customers throughout the country.
A high kilometre, just in time, type operation like this requires a varied fleet which does not miss a beat, to compete in a competitive marketplace. The company has an extensive system monitoring all of the rolling stock, trucks, trailers and dollies to ensure they are up to the job every day.
“It’s a fairly foolproof system,” says Andy. “The way we carry out our maintenance comes from the recording of all of the data from the system. There is 100 per cent monitoring of all of the vehicles, all of the time. On the fleet maintenance system we can see anything.
“We can see into the truck’s computer remotely, see all of the parameters we need. I can see where it is, set speeds, look at the engine ECU data, then pull down history reports, look at fuel economy, the whole lot.”
The system Hi-Trans Express use is from MT Data telematics and it is used throughout the business, both as part of the maintenance process, but also for operations to organise fleet movement as well as for invoicing customers. The fully integrated system also includes the Seeing Machines driver monitoring equipment, to give the operation a comprehensive view across the business.
“I get reports every day and go into the system to see where we are travelling with kilometres,” says Andy. “All of our kilometres are manifested on trucks and trailers. So we know, if a truck is going from Adelaide to Sydney, we know it’s going to do 1448km and that gets manifested every day. All of that data on every truck, trailer or dolly gets put into our fleet management system every day.
“I am able to preplan all of the servicing of the vehicles a number of weeks before they are due, because I know what work they will be doing. Then I let the depots know when any unit is needed for servicing and they get sent to the appropriate service location.
“All of my preventative maintenance and everything else is in this system. I don’t really have to think of a thing, it’s simply a matter of getting the information in and updating it. It’s straightforward easy system to use and when we get our audits, I can pull all of the information out and make hard copies, if needed.”
