British Airways Regional Cargo (Barc) is using sophisticated web-based vehicle tracking to improve customer service, vehicle and driver management and capacity.
Barc has fitted in-vehicle units to record the ground movement of air cargo in real time and provide transport managers with access to vital information through the web.
The service uses satellite technology and high-speed mobile communications to establish and transmit the exact location of each vehicle.
Vehicle movements are logged and can be accessed by any web-enabled PC or device while integration with Microsoft MapPoint online street mapping provides real-world context and navigational intelligence.
Customer-specific locations can be added to the Masternaut system, such as security points or collection depots, to monitor vehicle locations at pre-determined positions.
‘It enables us to accurately record where vehicles are and for how long,’ said Barc operations manager Russ Williams. ‘We can see every vehicle without leaving the office, know when they arrive, leave a site and where they go in between.
‘In addition to client reports we also use the information collected to produce driver based statistics. Previously this could take one week each month to collate information from paper logs.
‘Now all we have to do is enter ad hoc information like driver holidays or sickness and Masternaut does the rest.’
As part of its contract with British Airways, Barc has an engagement policy, which is the estimated time a vehicle should be on site. As the system accurately records vehicle-based events, Barc is able to produce detailed client reports.
Barc provides general cargo handling for all British Airways flights to and from the UK regions and Ireland as well as for other major airline customers.
Transport operations are managed from a central distribution centre close to Heathrow airport and the delivery vehicles are operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The firm completes 500 movements a month on average.
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