Peace of Mind for Fleet and Crew at Baird Harvesting
For forestry company Baird Harvesting, fleet tracking and maintenance was a tedious admin task that was time-consuming and expensive. Five years ago, the company invested in Argus Tracking’s GPS software to streamline its fleet operations. Not only does the software help them keep track of their fleet - but also their crew.
Baird Harvesting’s office administrator Leslee Baird says before using Argus Tracking, the Taupo-based forestry company had no easy way of tracking their fleet, relying solely on their drivers to let her know when something needed renewing – not exactly a fail-safe method. It often resulted in infringements and large repair costs, vehicles that weren’t safe to be on the road, and overdue tickets for road-user charges.
She goes on to explain how they were dealing with a high proportion of over speeds – and without a robust tracking system, were unable to identify who the at-risk drivers were.
“Life Made Easy” with Argus
Argus Tracking “has made life so much easier” for Baird Harvesting – a great solution for keeping track of, and getting their fleet in order. They use the software’s compliance feature to manage and monitor all vehicle compliance and regular maintenance – reducing infringement costs, and keeping their people safe and their fleet road-ready. Now, thanks to the software’s NZTA sync, this is all automated and downtime has been dramatically reduced.
“We’re now able to stay up-to-date with fleet compliance and maintenance aspects like WOFs, registrations and road-user charges because we get sent reminders when everything is due for renewal,” says Leslee.
She explains how they’ve been able to use the driver behaviour and reporting features to monitor what’s happening with their people and vehicles out on the road. They use these features to match up fuel card expenses, monitor general mileage and any personal use of work vehicles, and for speed reporting to identify early any at-risk drivers. They’ve been able to dramatically improve their overspeeds by using the software.
“Monitoring driver behaviour helps us to ensure our employees are safe and compliant while on the road, as well as manage our operational fleet costs,” she says.
Keeping Track of the Boys
The most unexpected benefit of Argus Tracking for Leslee is being able to keep track of employees’ safety while they’re out in the field.
“For us, the safety of our boys is extremely important, and by using Argus Tracking to monitor our fleet maintenance and compliance, we’ve also realised it’s a great tool to keep track of our crew. Because our fleet is a big part of what we do, we’re able to see when our boys are in and out of work, and if they’ve made it home safely from out in the forest after a day’s work.”
Argus Tracking a Must-Have
To any other fleet managers considering investing in a piece of fleet management software, Leslee says to do it – and do it with Argus Tracking. Gone are the days of overdue road-user charges, infringement costs and speeding tickets – and what’s more, they now know their crew are safe when out on the road and on a job site.
“As far as keeping an eye on business running costs, getting Argus Tracking is the best thing we could have done. It delivers on everything it says it will – and more, based on our experience.”
