Integrated Systems

HGV Routing Software

The Brief

Service Timber needed a system that to replace their wall mounted delivery planner with a modern system that offers more than just planning. We gave a computerised planning board replacement with some new features that made a real difference to the transport side of the business.

What Does The Solution Do?

Planning Board

The planning board allows the user to plan their customer deliveries up to four weeks in advance. We brought through the colour coding used on the client’s original manual board, with different text colours for different customer types for ease of reference. This planner refreshes every 30 seconds so that changes made by other users can be seen without the need to keep refreshing the screen.

Holiday Planner

Service Timber use a third-party clocking system. Fortunately, this is a modern system that allowed us to get access to the holiday planner. When a driver books a holiday through the HR department this transport system inserts the holiday/s onto the planning board so that users know not to book any loads for that day. Before this system, holidays were a very manual effort that often got overlooked.

Vehicle Servicing

HGV vehicles need regular servicing and MOTs. To cover this, we gave the transport manager the ability to manage these services and enter them onto the planner. This reminds the driver and transport department about the service and shows the vehicle for that period on the delivery planner. This will also allow the users to select a different vehicle for that driver.

Smartphone Driver App

We developed a smartphone application that allows each driver to see their drops for the load. If need be, they can change the order in which they intend to complete the drops so that the system can re-calculate the ETA for each drop and inform the office of their intended route. The app also allows them to mark their timings, take photos and make notes that are relevant to the drops. A built-in local database allows the driver to perform actions even without a data signal.

Driver Position Map

The driver app keeps the office notified of their location by storing its location every 10 seconds. The position of each driver shows on the map view; a screen within the office software that shows every driver’s current position. This screen comes in handy in various circumstances, for example, talking a driver into a new customer location that might be hard to find.

Control Board

The system calculates ETA for every drop using the Bing Maps GHV routing API. The ETA is shown against every drop on each active load on the control board. This ETA is commonly used to inform customers when their delivery will arrive if they call. This used to be a long process of calling the driver to ask them and calling the customer back. The control board also uses the routing information to show when the driver will arrive back at base. This is used to make sure the right product is at the loading bay at the right time.

Message From Our Client

Service Timber Ltd are a Timber Importer based in Yorkshire. We supply rough sawn, machined and cross-cut timber to a wide range of markets all over the UK.

We have used the development services provided by Foursquare Solutions Ltd for many years. Their first project was to analyse our stock and ordering systems. The company went on to develop a bespoke software solution that allowed us to tightly control our timber purchasing and stock holding.

Since then, Foursquare Solutions Ltd have developed systems for all facets of our business. These systems have greatly improved the operational processes within the company and have facilitated substantial growth.

We continue to engage the services of Foursquare Solutions Ltd and have shown our confidence in their services by commissioning a substantial software system for our machining operations, which will be completed this year. This involves a touch screen workstation at all production machines, which will show the work schedule and will give the operators the ability to sign-off work and produce pack labels. The system will help our production managers control their production workloads far more effectively and it will decrease their administration considerably. We also expect quicker turnaround of orders which we know will increase our margins.

Foursquare Solutions Ltd have always provided an honest and professional service and I have no hesitation in recommending their services to any potential client.

Robert Richardson

Operations Manager

Service Timber Ltd

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