Iron Mountain makes fleet compliance easier with fleetComply
"Our relationship with WCT is just as important to us as the software solution. As well as being technically sound, they really understand transport and compliance, which means we speak the same language."
- Riki Livingstone
Senior European Fleet Buyer, Iron Mountain.
The Challenge
Iron Mountain’s transport department is responsible for the secure movement of different types of information assets, from paper records to computer media, film and some of the world’s most valuable historical artefacts, cultural treasures, business documents and medical records.
The challenge is one of complexity in a highly regulated environment.
The department’s fleet of vehicles ranges from vans to box vehicles, artic-trailers, skip trucks and highly secure, temperature controlled bespoke units. Many vehicles have specialist handling and lifting equipment installed.
Different vehicle types have different maintenance cycles, safety, waste management and compliance checks. The same is true of ancillary equipment. The whole process involves vast amounts of paperwork from different locations, different suppliers and different external bodies. Missing a critical compliance deadline carries the threat of heavy fines or even imprisonment.
The Solution
After reviewing a number of potential solutions, the company selected White Clarke Technologies fleetComply compliance management system.
Their selection criteria included:
• A truly web-based solution that would provide a single version of the truth to each depot, as well as to senior management, wherever they may be working each day
• A solution that would tie service schedules to all the legal documentation, store it digitally; available anytime, anywhere to authorised personnel
• Software-as-a-Service – a solution that requires no capital expenditure, no internal software maintenance overheads, and a pricing structure that exactly matches usage.
• In-built KPIs and highly automated alerts, to keep depot managers aware of potential bottlenecks, conflicts or outstanding actions, while ensuring suppliers meet their Service Level Agreements.
“fleetComply is the only solution that ticks all the boxes,” says Riki Livingstone, European Fleet Buyer. “We now have a single database where we store all vehicle data, and a single point of contact for information from all our suppliers. Having installed telematics across our fleet, the system provides us with highly detailed information at vehicle level such as MPG performance and full costs per mile. Using the system, we were able to show definitively that our Green Road initiative had saved almost a quarter of a million pounds in fuel costs in the first year alone. Bringing together so much data from disparate sources into a single system, fleetComply is a source of strategic management as well as being an operational compliance tool.”
The Benefits
Phil Hayes, Senior Logistics Compliance Manager describes the benefits from his perspective as being able to respond on-demand, accurately and with 100% confidence should the ministry want to check any service documentation. “The system constantly audits compliance, checking what is outstanding, what is not booked in. Every Monday morning I automatically get a complete status update on my Blackberry, without even having to log on. I spend a lot of time on the road, but I always have instant access so I don’t need to be on site to know exactly what’s going on.
In fact, anyone with authority can log into any document, anywhere in the country. All our sites, from Plymouth to Aberdeen, have access.”
The reduction in physical paperwork was an added bonus. Phil now has 15 empty filing cabinets in his office. No lost paperwork, nothing misfiled or in another department.
Iron Mountain have also outsourced the monitoring and expediting of documentation to White Clarke Technology. Service documents are sent by suppliers direct to WCT, who load the system and escalate late documentation. “Out of more than 400 vehicles, only 12 currently have outstanding documentation against SLAs. That’s just 14 documents, and we can be confident they will be with us almost immediately.”
The Final Word
Final word goes to Riki Livingstone: “Our relationship with WCT is just as important to us as the software solution. As well as being technically sound, they really understand transport and compliance, which means we speak the same language. What was already a great solution at implementation has grown in functionality. The people at WCT like to challenge their own systems, looking for ways to make it work better, looking for new business benefits. ‘Proactive’ is an overused word, but it does describe them perfectly.”