Agronomy is the science of producing and using plants for food, fuel, fiber, and reclamation. Agrii’s depot in Cambridgeshire supplies 6,000 customers ranging from small farms to large commercial operations growing products for supermarkets. Drivers deliver the orders direct to the farm’s chemical storage facilities, the locations for which have been located accurately using the TomTom GPS vehicle-tracking units.This ensures that each store is mapped on the system.
Paragon’s Fleet Controller system delivers a real time plan versus actual performance information to the Agrii transport and customer service teams, and enables customers to receive updated ETAs using Fleet Controller’s text messaging facility.
Paragon also provides timed web-based reporting to Agrii customer services, with scheduled route timings updated every few minutes based on the live tracking information, streamlining the delivery process.
TomTom’s PRO 9150 unit provides intelligent navigation and live traffic information to help drivers avoid congestion, designed to save users both time and money. The all-in-one business tool combines navigation and GPS tracking in one single, portable, device. As Agrii’s agrochemical delivery operation using 3.5 tonne vans and 7.5 tonne trucks is seasonal, the use of this versatile solution enables the company to increase and reduce the size of the hire fleet without the cost of installing and removing hardwired equipment.
In addition, the company is able to monitor driver speeds to help meet duty of care obligations while drivers can accurately report their working time by entering their ID into the device, tapping the screen to record when they start and finish work. This data is then automatically fed back into Agrii’s payroll system.
‘By integrating Paragon and TomTom technology we are able to plan and manage deliveries of more than 350 orders a day, which given the location and type of customers we serve would be a logistical challenge if we didn’t use this solution,’ explained Tony Frain, Agrii’s logistics manager.
‘By plotting the X and Y coordinates for the chemical stores our drivers can navigate directly to the site. This streamlines the delivery because using a postcode alone would only take them to within a kilometre of the location. If we can get the driver within 10 to 20 metres of the store, it improves our performance and the level of service we offer our customers,’ he added.