OK, so the peppers Mark Ayres moves aren’t pickled – they’re fresh, transported to the UK direct from the sun-drenched southern European nurseries of Stubbins Marketing Limited, the parent company of Continental Express for whom Mark works as Operations Manager. But when it comes to knowing precisely where his peppers are – and how well the trucks and drivers transporting them are doing – he’s in a league of his own.

That’s because Continental Express has invested in the trucks and technology Mark needs to enable him manage the challenge of moving ambient, fresh and frozen products in the most efficient manner possible.

As Stubbins Marketing’s dedicated transport and distribution arm, Continental Express has been bringing in peppers and an array of other salad foods for the past 20 years. Based at Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, the firm today operates an all-Scania heavy truck fleet of 35 supplied by Scania (Great Britain) Limited and maintained by its South Mimms depot.

Twenty-two Continental Express trucks run internationally, mainly to and from Southern Spain and Holland, while the remaining 13 are on dedicated national deliveries taking product from the company’s 110,000 square feet of warehousing space to supermarkets and the food service sector around the UK.

“It’s an intensive, complex operation that demands the utmost in terms of reliability and performance,” says Mark Ayres.

“That’s why we go for Scania. Our trucks today each cover 300,000 kilometres a year on average – and in the UK we’re now heading towards triple-shifting, which places further demands upon them. There’s no let up in the food supply chain, so we have to operate premium vehicles backed by service we can depend upon.”

Investment in technology
“But, as Mark Ayres explains, having the best equipment and support is one thing; using it to best effect is another.

“That’s why we have also invested in fleet management technology, which in our case means Scania OnBoard,” he says.

“Before doing so, we carefully researched the market, but were unable to find any other system which offers the complete range of information Scania OnBoard provides – effectively we can see everything that’s on the dashboard and more.”

Recently refocused and completely redefined in order to demystify the jargon-infested world of vehicle telematics, (which, incidentally, our dictionary unhelpfully defines as ‘data communications between systems and devices’), Scania OnBoard is all about providing simple solutions to complex transport issues.

“And that’s exactly what it does,” confirms Mark Ayres. “At any point in time, 24/7, I can log on for an instant update on our entire transport operation. At a glance, I can see exactly where our trucks are, where they are heading and what progress they are making. Out on the road, our drivers all have satellite navigation to guide them on their way.

“Over and above vehicle track and trace and satellite navigation, Scania OnBoard offers us a further three key services; Driver Log, Messaging and OPS. Each service works in conjunction with the others to build up a full picture of our operation – which we can access at any time through the Scania web portal.”

The three services cited by Mark Ayres form the core of the Scania OnBoard product. Driver Log provides a wide range of information related to driver activity; Messaging allows the traffic office to communicate with the driver, and vice versa, by way of an in-cab touch-screen display unit; OPS – which stands for Order Process Support – provides a sophisticated but straight-forward way of scheduling loads and monitoring the status of jobs at any given moment in time.

“Best of all, everything can be set up just the way you want it,” says Mark Ayres. “And that means you’re not locked in to services you don’t need or features you don’t want.

“The way we use Scania OnBoard day-to-day is as follows:

“Firstly, the driver logs on and enters his trailer number, which he does via his in-cab touch-screen. The system is multi-lingual, which means it’s no problem for our foreign drivers to use. As part of the process, the system asks the driver to confirm he has performed his daily checks – which gives us the compliance records we require. He then enters any relevant additional information, such as whether he’s used any oil, and reports any faults or defects he has noted."

Part 2 >>