Twente Express
Forwarding, storage and distribution company Twente Express is one of Britain’s small business success stories.
Since 1983, the West Midlands based enterprise has grown from being an owner driver, to now operating a mixed fleet of vehicles from vans through to double deck mega box trailers, with a staff of 30, a wholly owned UK distribution centre and depots in Enschede and Dordrecht.
“Driver performance is really important, that is why we chose EcoDrive."
With a daily express service to Belgium and the Netherlands, European and UK palletised deliveries and multi-drop and collection work, it is essential that Twente Express know where their vehicles are at all times, so that jobs can be completed efficiently and without delay.
“We do 25 to 30 drops a day, so it’s very important to know who is closest to a job“, explains Commercial Director Matthew Verrall. “Masternaut lets us see that visually, without having to call the drivers.”
Masternaut Live’s “Show nearest” feature lets customers enter a postcode, or choose from a stored location (such as a distribution centre) and in less than a second view a list of vehicles closet to that location.
Masternaut Pro – not currently used by Twente Express – would then let a head office operator send this location straight to the driver’s cab with automatic navigation.
“The drivers were sceptical at first“, Matthew admits, “But now Masternaut is in, we don’t need to phone them so much, and they can get on with the job. If there’s one thing drivers hate it’s being hassled, so, how it’s worked in practice, is that they get left in peace. That’s a definite benefit for them.”
Another feature of Masternaut Live that appealed to Twente Express, was the “Been There” function. Matthew explains, “having tracking history is really important for us, as we do a lot of home deliveries. If the customer’s not in, but later complains, we can prove, visually, and without a shadow of doubt that we attended, and the exact time we attended. All of this information is in our system, we don’t need to go to the driver, so we can resolve disputes in seconds. That’s very valuable to the efficient running of the business and to customer service.”
After exploring various options of Masternaut’s modular system with small business advisor Adam Burman, Twente Express also took Masternaut’s driver behaviour module, EcoDrive.
“Driver performance is really important, that is why we chose EcoDrive. Being able to monitor driving, set benchmarks and set some standards for drivers to work to, is definitely the way to go. We are a service industry, and so it’s the people who make the difference. There’s a benefit to our customers in increasing the standards of driving across our fleet even further.”
To the all-important question, “Why Masternaut?”, Matthew has a thoughtful answer:
“We wanted a system that we could rely on, that we could adapt to our needs, and at a reasonable cost. Looking at the providers out there was a painful process. We found there were lots of options, lots of people who, when you looked more closely, were just resellers, and lots of people offering to act as a broker. We didn’t need that. Nor have we ever found that choosing a provider solely on a price basis has been the right business decision, in terms of long term value and benefit to our own customers.
“Adam - Sales Advisor at Masternaut - was brilliant. You expect a salesperson to want to talk to you before you buy, but Adam was really helpful after the sale, too, keeping us up to date with information.”
"we use Masternaut to support us operationally and in making decisions."
The fact that Masternaut’s system offers Twente Express capabilities which they have not used, does not concern Matthew. “We bought this system to help us in one or two key areas that make a difference to our business. We know there’s things the system does that we don’t use, and that’s fine. We are the experts in our business, and we use Masternaut to support us operationally and in making decisions.”
As for the future, Twente Express continues to expand at a significant pace and is justifiably proud of its reputation as the market leader in their sector. Matthew says, “We will add more vehicles to Masternaut, because it works for us, but our own thinking was to get the first ones up and running and then expand it. That is the growth model we have always worked to.
Adam Burman, who advised Matthew throughout the research process, says, “The challenges of running a business with so many last-minute bookings, where everything is urgent, are considerable.
“There is a passion for what they do, that was obvious when I first spoke to Matthew, plus they know very well what the key to success is: not cutting prices, but ensuring security and service levels are high and having total door-to-door control, meaning they can react to the unexpected to always do their best for their customers.
“Twente Express understood when it came to vehicle tracking that finding the right provider was about defining their business goals and evaluating options on that basis, not letting a sales person tell them what they needed. Like all my customers, Twente Express knew their own business and it was my job to listen.
This is a perfect example of how to use telematics… define what you want do better in your business, and then look for the system that lets you do that as easily as possible.”