Dalton Electrical
Master Electrician firm provides responsive customer service with fleet management system.
AT-A-GLANCE
- Responsive customer service through total fleet visibility
- More efficient fleet maintenance processes and management of RUC licences
- Reliable system available on smartphones and laptops for busy managers
- Better business insights and analytics for better decision making
Managing a large, mobile team
Dalton Electrical is an electrical contracting, engineering and industrial automation company with a fleet of 80 light vehicles and just under 100 employees operating across four branches servicing Auckland and surrounding North Island regions. With the workload split between longer term projects, smaller install services, and urgent, unforeseen machinery breakdowns, Dalton Electrical is helping its industrial sector customers maintain operations and minimise disruption.
Keeping customers’ machinery and operations running is critical, meaning Dalton Electrical employees often move from job to job several times a day – with the company needing to respond to urgent repairs with the closest electrician to the job. Service managers can also work remotely, so day-to-day management is complex.
“We used another system before, so we understood the benefits of real-time information and how it supported the team and customer service,” says General Manager Operations, Daniel Berry, “but it lacked very important functionality, such as electronic RUC, and there were often service disruptions so our first challenge was finding a better solution.”
Daniel and the Dalton Electrical team noted the importance of finding a solution that met not just their immediate job and execution requirements, but wanted technology that could scale and grow with their business requirements in future.
“The fleet tracking technology helps us to respond immediately meaning we can serve our customers in the best way possible.” – Daniel Berry, General Manager Operations, Dalton Electrical
“Overall, for management it’s a huge benefit to understand what’s happening on a real-time basis and in one system. This has replaced hours getting feedback, most of which will be out of date by the time you hear it.” – Daniel Berry, General Manager Operations, Dalton Electrical
Vehicle tracking with the ability to develop future functionality
Dalton Electrical installed Teletrac Navman in 2019. The business uses fleet tracking devices for all petrol and diesel vehicles, as well as equipment tracking for items such as its three scissor lifts, for location and security reasons. Its package includes electronic Road User Charges (RUC) to accurately manage RUC in real-time, and with Teletrac Navman’s mobile app the team can manage the fleet system on the go.
“The Teletrac Navman system has made a huge difference to how we serve our customers and manage our fleet, but there’s also a lot of potential to integrate it with other job management systems in the future,” says Daniel.
Supporting customer service
The biggest advantage to a fleet management system that provides a complete fleet overview is the ability to instantly see staff locations and choose which team member could be redeployed to urgent breakdown jobs.
“A lot of our work is urgent,” says Daniel. “The fleet tracking technology helps us to respond immediately meaning we can serve our customers in the best way possible.”
Dalton Electrical has set up its system with the specific speed limit restrictions for individual customer sites. The company can also check to make sure its drivers are only moving in designated traffic areas.
“Sticking to site speed limits keeps people safe and makes us a responsible contractor. With Teletrac Navman, we are alerted if limits are exceeded and can have a chat with our company driver before it’s raised by the customer. It supports health and safety, and strengthens customer service,” notes Daniel.
“The Teletrac Navman mobile app is really easy to understand, which is a huge benefit.” – Daniel Berry, General Manager Operations, Dalton Electrical
Improving fleet management with electronic RUC
Dalton Electrical uses Teletrac Navman’s comprehensive fleet management system to manage maintenance, servicing scheduling, WOFs and registrations, as well as Road User Charges licencing (RUC).
“In the past, RUC licences were managed manually, involving a huge amount of administration through emails and calls, dealing with the NZTA and even mailing RUC licences. There was a lot of time wasted.”
“Automating RUC licencing has made our job easier and allowed us to focus on what is needed most, and that is serving our customers,” says Daniel.
With a digital RUC system, Daniel and the Dalton team are able to electronically purchase RUC licences, and distribute these automatically to vehicles via individual Electronic Distance Recorders.
Technology you can rely on
“The Teletrac Navman mobile app is really easy to understand, which is a huge benefit. There’s no point in having a great tool if people don’t like using it!” says Daniel.
“Overall, for management it’s a huge benefit to understand what’s happening on a real-time basis and in one system. This has replaced hours getting feedback, most of which will be out of date by the time you hear it.”
Daniel says the value of real-time information was proved when COVID-19 lockdowns meant that the team were split between those working from home and those undertaking on-site work for customers as an essential business. It also provides a means of contact tracing, an important requirement for essential workers.
“Working from homemade us realise how much we rely on fleet management technology to run our business efficiently. Having everything in the cloud was a real winner for us and using Teletrac Navman means management is less about administration and more about improving service.”
“Teletrac Navman supports the values we have in our business of professionalism, respect, integrity, teamwork and loyalty,” says Daniel.
About Dalton Electrical
Dalton Electrical is an Auckland based electrical contracting, engineering and industrial automation company. Founded by Dave Dalton over 50 years ago the business provides a full range of electrical design, installation, repair and maintenance services for industrial and commercial customers. Its core business is servicing industrial and manufacturing customers across the Auckland region, and into the Bay of Plenty and Northland.