A global manufacture of auto parts that spans 20 countries with over 70 locations was looking to deploy a ‘no nonsense’ vehicle management system that did not burden both management and operators. Controlling costs in the auto sector comes down to pennies and is a big part of being competitive in contract bids. The company had already demonstrated a best in class safety program of training and pre-shift safety checks, however, never content they decide to research vehicle management systems. The company’s initial approach was that they wanted management visibility into the fleet without adding layers of work responsibility for anyone. Understanding the importance and requirement to meet benchmarked productivity the system they would choose would need to improve processes as well as safety.

With a fleet of approximately 850 lift trucks in over 70 locations, the average individual fleet size was about 12 lift trucks per location. The company was looking for a standard roll out that could be used in Ohio as well as Texas as important as it is to be used in the United States and in Canada. Working with the National Accounts group of an OEM lift truck supplier we introduced the concept of SkidFleet and the ability to provide options of importance rather than accept options and data platforms that require additional money for usage. The auto manufacturer was concerned about who accesses the lift trucks, due diligence on safeties, notification of potential accidents, and the ability to weigh out going product. During their research they were able to find several suppliers but not with all requirements being met. Some of the offerings also hinged on accessing the data on external servers and clouds for a monthly usage fee. Only IVDT was able to ‘option specific’ to give them just what they required.

Combining the weigh scale options of the SkidWeigh Plus series and the safety suite of the Defender Impact and Safety system, SkidFleet vehicle management was deployed. The system starts with only certified operators being able to access vehicle starts, controlling who is able to operate what truck securing assets. The SkidFleet also provides pre-shift safety checks on all shifts the system is put to work, both 8 hour swing and 12 hour continental. The system when powered on also provides accident and impact detection that provides notifications on a multitude of data channels. The uniqueness of the SkidFleet offering is that it also provides highly productive weigh scale options that include, weighing, accumulative totaling, parts count, tare acknowledgement, and overloading. With no interruptions what so ever the SkidFleet vehicle manager connects supervisors and managers with vehicles in real time. Once such data output is email notifications to a team of up to 20 individuals. All selected events such as impacts and failed safeties can be received on a smart phone with a time stamp and identification data. This means no surprises and vehicle visibility in real time. Also is the LAN webpage that allows selected users to open up a fleet window at anytime and perform search queries to drill down on required reportable information. As a back up SkidFleet also gives the option of downloadable USB reporting and FTP archival back up so that events are always being recorded even during network downtime and or maintenance.