AddSecure, in partnership with TRM24 interviewed Lomatrans during a live webinar on April 22, 2021, regarding mobility and digitization. Specialized in the last mile distribution in the south of France, the family-owned company was one of the first AddSecure Smart Transport customers to adopt a mobility solution.
A long-time user of AddSecure Smart Transport’s fleet management solution installed in its 80 vehicles, Lomatrans replaced the fixed screen in the cabin with the Co-Driver application on the drivers' smartphones three years ago. The transport company wanted to offer their drivers more mobility for their non-driving activities. Lomatrans’s objective was to reduce the hardware costs for its fleet and aimed at an overall optimization of the activities and the driver’s performance.
“In addition to the requests from certain customers to deploy their own goods tracking solution based on Android-based mobile systems, we have found, with AddSecure's Co-Driver application, an opportunity to bring together the traditional functions of on-board computer and telephony," explained Vincent Laforet, Transport Manager, Transports Lomatrans.
A single tool allows the company to combine vehicle and route monitoring, social management, customer service and eco-driving.
The dispatchers and transport managers use real-time monitoring data of the routes to balance the loads and sometimes to modify routes during the day in case of long waiting times.
"We have gone from a relatively complex system to a simple solution with notifications that allows us to communicate with the drivers via the smartphone, to alert them and sometimes modify their routes in case of traffic jams. In addition, we save precious time by remotely downloading the drivers' activity times, which we used to collect manually. The application is simple but very complete for drivers, who can easily get updated about their drive- and resting times per day, week or month”, said Vincent Laforet.
MDM for easy fleet management
At the same time as deploying the Co-Driver application, Lomatrans installed a Mobile Device Management (MDM) software to remotely control the fleet of drivers' smartphones, manage user rights and update the applications automatically.
“We chose to implement an MDM to be able to control the use of the smartphone and avoid marginal uses, manage data consumption as well as the deployment of applications and updates”, explained Vincent Laforet.
Significant operational and economic gains
With Co-Driver, the Lomatrans operations department follows the fleet on a map in real-time and can inform customers about the progress of the tour or the estimated delivery time.
Using the advanced functions of the Co-Driver Eco-driving system, the transport manager has set up a system to reward drivers through an internal challenge and bonuses for good behavior. It allows the company to improve safety and save fuel.
“Co-Driver offers many benefits like presenting the location of vehicles on the map and the immediate status update of the tours or waiting times on site, or by the automatic and rapid transfer of social data or administrative documents between the vehicle and the office. Driver eco-score and geofencing functions for monitoring highway use also help to reduce fuel costs. Many drivers have managed to improve their driving performance, in some cases reducing the fuel consumption by up to 4 liters per 100 kilometers”, said Vincent Laforet.
“Mobility is now essential for transport companies to inform customers in real time. Our challenge was to provide drivers with a simple tool to help them in their daily work”, added Oliver Datry, Country Manager, AddSecure Smart Transport France.