Optimising Truck Performance with Toyota I_Site - Testimonial from Catering Engros
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Boasting an annual turnover of 1.4 billion Danish Krona, Catering Engros depends on efficient forklift truck performance. As a food service company, Catering Engros delivers over 70,000 packages a day to hotels, restaurants and public institutions, and in less than a year of running Toyota I_Site, Catering Engros has seen a 33% reduction in truck damage costs.
"We employ approximately 400 people and we have 100 distribution vehicles travelling throughout Denmark every day," explains chief financial officer Niels Peter Habekost.
"Our central warehouse for frozen products to the entire country is here in Middelfart, and we also handle chilled and dry products for Funen and Jutland from here.
"We use BT forklift trucks to receive and store goods. We use specialised trucks for order picking, which is a large part of our work. Our forklifts are used in ambient, chilled and cold stores, and we operate 24/7 so it is vital that our forklift trucks are reliable and quick and easy to recharge."
Catering Engros has about 200 trucks in total across its five sites. Logistics manager Martin Vesterlund takes up the story: "We use BT Levio LPE240 powered pallet trucks here in Middelfart. We also have BT Optio OSE order pickers and BT Reflex reach trucks, all supplied by Toyota Material Handling.
"We use the LPE240 pallet truck both in the ambient and the cold stores. We tested other models but found them to be less robust and stable. We also found that the LPE240 has the best driving characteristics. The truck models we use have cold store oil but are otherwise unmodified.
"We operate three shifts a day and we have enough batteries to swap them during shifts, so we don't have to wait for them to charge. We use the LPE240 powered pallet truck for both order picking and loading our vehicles."
"We have a very good relationship with Toyota," continues Niels Peter Habekost. "They have lived up to our expectations. The trucks are reliable and robust. That's why we have now also chosen to implement Toyota I_Site. This gives us a lot of useful information on the way we use our trucks, including damage reports."
Martin Drud Nielsen, Catering Engros' IT coordinator explains, "We have been running Toyota I_Site since January 1st, 2010. Our motivation was to improve cost control and reporting. Our entire forklift fleet is equipped with the Toyota I_Site on-board wireless system and our 250 operators are all participating.
"We use Toyota I_Site to measure our costs, to achieve better management of our truck fleet and for weekly reporting to our employees. It was particularly the extent of damage to our forklifts that we wanted to eliminate. Throughout 2010 we have saved around 300,000 Danish Krona just on damage to our trucks. This corresponds to a reduction of 33% compared to the same period in 2009."
"Toyota recommended the system to us and, as we were so satisfied with them as a supplier, we decided we should implement it. Our expectations were that we could achieve savings in damage costs to our trucks and these expectations have definitely been met."
"We invested in Toyota I_Site because our biggest cost is our employees. With Toyota I_Site we can optimise employee performance as well as truck performance. Toyota I_Site has given us the information we need to monitor driving behaviour and intervene as needed, and in response our truck drivers have improved the way they drive."
