40 years in business and still going strong, Truckwright are a General Haulage firm with three depots, based in Corby, Milton Keynes and Northampton. The haulage firm operates 26 vehicles, a combination of arctics, rigids’ and vans that provide nationwide delivery. The dynamic company are also a member of the United Pallet Network. With the firm’s extensive reach and ever-expanding fleet, the company’s Transport Manager, Danny Winters explored new ways of running his operations. We sat with Danny to discuss his role and why he implemented a technology solution to manage the firms administration efforts.
HaulTech: As a Transport Manager at Truckwright, what does your role encompass?
Danny: Exactly the same as every Transport Manager, I do everything. I help to organise what the fleet is doing, oversee the drivers and make sure we are running a profitable operation. With three depots, the workload has historically been difficult. I have had to manually pass work along and communicate with the depots as they have never had visibility of each other before, although we’ve changed that now.
HaulTech: How have the depots worked in previous years?
Danny: The traditional way of working with paper diaries and spreadsheets, the duplication was massive and consumed a tonne of time. That alongside having to text drivers their work, and scanning in POD’s. It could be a nightmare. It’s 2024 now, no one should be working that way when there are easier and faster ways of doing these things.
HaulTech: With the realisation that there must be technology out there to support you, what action did you take to improve your operations?
Danny: We learned about Transport Management Software and discovered that there are a lot of companies out there that offer systems to help run operations. After looking online, and talking to different people at different companies, we decided to go with the HaulTech Transport Management System.
HaulTech: How does Transport Software support your operations?
Danny: It connects everything for us. Now each depot has full visibility of each other’s work and it allows me to focus on my role instead of having to ferry between depots and making numerous phone calls. It takes us under a minute to add a job to the system and assign a driver, which in turn the driver automatically gets updated on their phone, it saves so much time and everyone in the company is seeing the benefits of it.
The system also allows me to create reports so I can see which vehicles and type of work is more profitable. I can now get a real in-depth view of what works for us. To collate the information before would’ve taken me weeks, now it takes seconds and allows me to make informed business decisions.
HaulTech: How did you find adapting to the system?
Danny: It’s really simple, it’s just as simple as using your phone to text, check emails or use Facebook. Everyone has adapted to it quickly. Of course, there is always a couple of people opposed to change and that’s okay, when you are used to working a certain way, it’s difficult to accept change. But there comes a time when you realise the system takes away a lot of stress and saves a lot of time and when people leap, they’re happier for it.
HaulTech: Would you recommend a Transport System to other firms?
Danny: Absolutely. I wish we had introduced one to our business sooner.
Want to learn more about Transport management software? Then contact us today by clicking here, calling 01782 662244 or saying hello@haultech.co.uk.
