Minorplanet keeps track of movements of Quattro Group equipment and vehicles
(03/07/2009)

Nationwide plant hire company Quattro Group has chosen vehicle telematics specialists Minorplanet to keep track of its growing fleet of vehicles and heavy plant equipment.

Quattro, which is the country’s second largest rail plant company and one of the main municipal plant hire providers, says the installation of Minorplanet’s vehicle management information (VMI) systems is helping achieve high levels of efficiency throughout the group.

Minorplanet’s VMIgreenlight tracking technology has been installed in 250 vans, cranes, road/rail excavators, road sweepers, diggers and other vehicles and civil engineering machines to date. Another 350 installations are taking place over the next few months.

Jason Gallagher, in charge of fleet logistics at East London-based Quattro Group, said: “Minorplanet is helping drive efficiency through the group to a level we did not think possible. We have six depots, and every item of our equipment can be moved to different depots and locations in the UK three or four times every week, responding to customer demand.

“Keeping track of these movements was a logistical nightmare for us before Minorplanet became involved. Movements of equipment, and locations, were logged manually and the issue of human error was ever present. Sometimes, plant was left in out-of-the-way locations and had to be traced manually in order to be recovered.”

But now Quattro Group, which lists Network Rail, Babcock Rail, Carillion and Balfour Beatty amongst its clients, knows exactly where its equipment and vehicles are anywhere in the country - in real time.

“It means we are able to maximise the use of our expensive capital plant and minimise the time it remains idle,” said Jason. “This strengthen our reputation for quality, efficiency, reliability and customer satisfaction and makes us stand apart from our competitors in the eyes of the highways and rail contractors who employ us. Put simply, we can guarantee delivery of our plant to customer locations in the time frame they demand. This helps us meet our goal of being the ideal 'one stop shop' for the construction and utilities industries.”

At the heart of the telematics system being installed in the Quattro Group fleet is Minorplanet’s VMIgreenlight, the web based and centrally hosted communications hub. This gives Jason and his team the ability to track, monitor and access real-time and historic information about their vehicles and plant.

In addition to having the instant ability to identify vehicle location, the system identifies the location of individual drivers and operators, allowing Quattro Group to match driver with vehicle to ensure prompt delivery of vehicles and plant to clients.