A smart solution
March 7th 2007

Davis Derby’s Smart Driver Management System has been commissioned at landscaping products manufacturer Marshalls' West Lane Works near Halifax, where 150 electronic Smart Card drivers’ licences were configured to operate a replacement fleet of 36 Linde forklift trucks across 80 acres and 12 departments.

Davis Derby replaced a previous supplier's system with its comprehensive, user-friendly TruckLOG fleet management information system (FMIS).

The system comprises 36 on-truck driver access control modules and associated electronic licences (which enable the truck), shock sensing with audio-visual indication, and a complete fleet management reporting system fed information via 2 networked radio transceivers. All supervisors and the health and safety officials on site were issued with master, lockout and reset cards to control all trucks.

Marshalls was looking for 100% reliability from a replacement FLT management system upon expiration of its former five year MHE service contract.

Marshalls operates 12 manufacturing, service and distribution centers, and at West Lane Works national manufacturing site alone, there are 400 trained operators of MHE, handling a variety of precast concrete products and plastic kerbing; 95% of which is carried on timber pallets.

All operators, for the first time, will be issued with electronic permits-to-drive (‘Smart Cards’). The TruckLOG FMIS system has an almost unlimited capacity of 99,999 driver ID’s. Under its previous contract, Marshalls had a limit of issuing 200 licences for the entire site, which operates 24:7 across 3 day shifts, and by no means met its needs. The system became redundant very quickly and the problem was never remedied during the 5 year contract.

"Now, Davis Derby has actually delivered what we need, and the reports available are very valid for our operation. They have given us the capacity we need, as well as a better means to make drivers accountable for all vehicles, and helping us to control the whereabouts of trucks across the vast site," said Mick Cragg, Marshalls Yard Manager responsible for yard, stock control, loading, and overall control of West Lane Works FLT fleet.

For more information, visit David Derby at stand 19J151/hall 19 at IMHX where Davis Derby will be running two subject seminars every morning throughout the show - 'Reducing the Cost of FLT Ownership' and 'MHE Fleet Safety' or  click here.

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