How we’ve made Dorset Council’s fleet more efficient – and saved them £60,000 per year.

Improved asset reporting helps Dorset Council cut costs.

We’ve been working with Dorset Council since 2012, when they first approached us to help the Dorset Highways Fleet Services division cut costs and become more efficient.

The division is the council’s in-house fleet management service, responsible for a diverse fleet of 440 vehicles and 800 items of plant. It operates out of two workshops, one located in the east of the county and one in the west. It also supports a large private sector customer base, providing a broad range of vehicle maintenance and fleet management services.

We introduced our FleetWave software into the operation in 2012 to help improve fleet costs and workshop performance levels. At the time, they had noted that it could help them to cut back on non-essential expenditure by streamlining processes and reducing administration.

Improved Reporting

The council had needed to increase visibility of its assets and enhance its understanding of how these assets were being used, in order to identify areas for improvement.

Previously, all of Dorset’s fleet information had been managed within an in-house vehicle maintenance system. However, this system was not capable of dealing with the growing levels of information required and it lacked the functionality to produce sufficiently high-quality fleet and workshop performance reports.

The council began a search for a new management system powerful enough to hold existing and additional data, and capable of creating advanced asset reports.

We were able to import Dorset’s pre-existing data directly to our FleetWave software, enabling the secure input and import of a high volume of additional data.

Using FleetWave, the council could quickly and easily access and sort through data and create very deep-level, bespoke reports on costs and performances: transparency of management information, monitoring levels and asset use quickly improved as a result.

FleetWave’s powerful reporting functionality also helped Dorset understand specific details relating to asset performance. By identifying how each asset was performing, the council was able to identify areas for improvement.

Reduced Administration

Another aspect we were able to help Dorset with was in reducing administration – actions that had previously been carried out manually were now automated within our fleet management system, resulting in a reduction of man hours. Elsewhere, touchscreens were installed in workshops to remove the requirement for job cards.

Catching up with us after FleetWave had been in place for around four years, Sean Adams, Corporate Fleet Manager, Dorset Council, said: “We have found it to be a very flexible and intuitive platform, which has enabled us to change our processes and procedures to not only meet our customer’s needs, but ongoing financial challenges the public sector faces.

Over the years, he continued, Dorset has worked closely with us to help develop new ways of working, such as:

• Productivity monitoring
• Streamlined administration
• Improved workshop planning
• Improved time recording
• Automated vehicle parts to job allocation

When our collaboration began, the original business case projected savings of £60,000 per year due to reduced administration hours and workshop supervision – a saving that Dorset feels is easily being achieved.

Sean added: “Improving visibility of our assets and being able to hold all data in one place was a key requirement. FleetWave provided us with a fully transparent desktop system, giving our internal customers access to their vehicle records, planned inspections/maintenance, historic and current repairs, and costs.

“Before FleetWave, all of Dorset’s fleet information had been managed within an in-house vehicle maintenance system and manual filing system. However, this system was not capable of dealing with the growing levels of information required. The need for change and would not have been able to deliver significant cost reductions and improved delivery achieved over the last four to five years.

“Operating a diverse public sector fleet in the current economic climate continues to be challenging. Using technology and constantly challenging existing processes and procedures is essential to try and stay ahead of the game.

“FleetWave has been an enabler and a catalyst for change and we look forward to seeing what further changes we can develop together.”