Elddis Transport improve load fill, utilisation and traceability with Mandata
Easy communications
Reduced admin and paperwork
Paperless Processes
Digitised POD and Vehicle checks
All in one place
All systems linked including Palletforce
“Mandata’s products have helped us to reduce numerous duplications of administration within our transport office. They’ve also reduced the risk for error, and they’ve generally improved the communication with both our drivers and our customers.”
Richard Toner, Commercial Director
Elddis Transport, a family-owned haulage business based in Consett, County Durham says its Mandata transport management system has streamlined the business and supported its continued growth.
The company, which has been trading for over 50 years, is one of the largest independent hauliers operating in the northern region. Employing 330 staff, 220 drivers, and running a fleet of 165 heavy goods vehicles, they operate from headquarters in the northeast of England, Heywood in Greater Manchester and Gamston, Yorkshire.
Principally serving the fast-moving consumer goods sector, Elddis Transport provide a varied service, transporting single pallets through to full loads and high cube full loads. The company is a member of the Palletforce pallet network and runs a small radial network supporting the consolidation of smaller compatible goods through its northern sites.
How technology has helped Elddis
Since joining Elddis Transport over 20 years ago, Richard Toner, Commercial Director at Elddis has led the company’s transition from paper-based processes to a fully integrated system. This has included the move from manual job planning to live planning within the Enterprise transport management system, the introduction of more products, including tracking-based solutions and the integration of PDA technology, to improve consignment transparency and streamline processes.
Time-saving processes
Two-way integration between the Mandata Enterprise TMS and Elddis’s customer systems, using EDIs (Electronic Data Interchange) has allowed fast and automatic transfer of information, such as orders and progress updates. Richard explains:
“Mandata’s products have helped us to reduce numerous duplications of administration within our transport office. They’ve also reduced the risk for error, and they’ve generally improved the communication with both our drivers and our customers.
“EDI’s save our customer services and traffic planning team time, in terms of the allocation of loads, load planning and slot booking with our customers. This streamlined process does improve time for the planners to focus on their task at hand.”
Richard Toner, Commercial Director
Fast and efficient job planning, has improved load fill, vehicle utilisation and traceability
The Mandata transport management system also allows Elddis to manage all their work, including Palletforce pallet network jobs, together in the one place, enabling them to get more from their fleet.
Wayne White, Business Operations Manager at Elddis explains Mandata is helping them make the most of resources: “Having all of the work in one place in the Mandata TMS, allows us to manage all of our work across the whole business. This improves load fill, vehicle utilisation and traceability across all jobs.”
Better communications between cab and office
It’s a long time since Elddis needed to telephone drivers to confirm if they’re running on time. Now, live information is updated in the TMS, and fed directly into a customer portal, keeping the traffic desk and customers proactively informed.
Richard Toner explains: “The integration of Mandata’s tracking, with the transport management system, really does improve time within our customer services department, having historically had quite long-winded processes of calling drivers to understand if they’re running on time to report that back to the customer. They’re now able to see that live within a dedicated customer services traffic pad*, which will incorporate both ETAs to the customer.”
Mobile technology widely embraced by driver workforce
Elddis were one of the earliest adopters of Mandata’s PDA technology, used to keep drivers informed of work, to capture proof of delivery and conduct vehicle inspections.
Wayne White explains how mobile technology has helped the business: “The Mandata Manifests app has been widely embraced by our driving workforce. The main reason is because it gives the drivers earlier and better visibility of their work for the day. It allows them to see reference numbers and reduces the amount of phone calls to and from the office.
“Drivers update the job status, progress and any discrepancies on the job immediately, and this flows back into our TMS and into the customer portal, giving customers immediate visibility.”
“The Manifests app makes our driver’s lives easier as they have earlier and better visibility of their work for the day.”
Wayne White, Operations Manager
Quicker rectification of defects
Also, as drivers can immediately report defects using the Mandata Vehicle Checks app, the Elddis fleet maintenance team have immediate visibility of issues which leads to quicker rectification.
All the integrated parts of Mandata, is helping to keep the team at Elddis, as well as customers and suppliers, informed with real-time visibility and constantly aware of critical aspects of their operation, ensuring they deliver the highest levels of service to customers.
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*What is a traffic pad? A traffic pad is an interface used to plan work in the Enterprise TMS. The traffic pad is split into 3 areas; Jobs to plan, Jobs being planned and live resources allocation (drivers, subcontractors, vehicles and trailers)
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