We have a total of seven vehicles that are out on the road most days (with more looking to be added!). We like to keep an eye on the vehicles and know where they are. Not to check on the drivers or find out where their favourite burger van is but to ensure that all the journeys that our vehicles do are worthwhile. It is also useful to find out the exact locations of operators and service engineers in case we get an emergency call from one of our customers! We are very aware of all the emissions that are pumped in the air by our vehicles and are constantly looking to reduce the amount.
How do you look to reduce the amount of journeys your vehicles do? – You may ask, well firstly we have vehicle management and tracking system- known as NavMan installed. NavMan is clever- it is a software programme that uses Google Maps to show us where in the world our vehicles are in real time. Sometimes its scary: you can see which parking space a van is in, in a car park. Our operations manager, Mike, who plans the routes for the operators is constantly looking to see if there are different journeys that they could be doing or if there are shorter routes. Not surprisingly, he has now got a really in-depth knowledge to all the road networks in Sussex, Kent and Surrey. As I am the Service Administrator I am always looking to see where the engineers are when fault calls come in, to see if they can complete the job same day or have to plan it into the next. For jobs that are too far out to complete and would lead to a wasteful journey we have some secret weapons: some Kenco trained service engineers that we sub-contract out to.
The second way that we reduce the amount of journeys that we complete is by using VendMan. As per my previous blog, VendMan contains all the knowledge and information of WestWays. It shows all the information that the operators collect on their travels visiting our operated machines. Mike uses this information to determine how many times we should visit machines and by finding out which products are being used. He is able to maximise the popular products in the vending machines and to ensure that all routes are worthwhile.
Written by: Katie from WestWays Vending