Based in Melbourne, Australia, Noske Logistics is a bulk haulage company, which began operations in July 2005. Since then, the company has experienced rapid growth after focusing on compliance, safety, customer service and innovation. Noske now operates more than 200 heavy trucks and associated assets.

Customer diversification follows from focusing on niche markets. Industry diversification has come from a focus on environmentally sustainable market segments with high barriers to entry. With an ethos of driving innovation for an environmentally sustainable future, and with a strong safety and compliance record, Noske Logistics is fixed on setting the benchmark for the haulage sector.

Identifying the risk

Running a fleet of over 200 heavy trucks and related assets carries a certain degree of risk, where accident management, compliance adherence and meeting the requirements for chain of responsibility legislation are concerned. This includes both internal obligations and broader responsibilities within the supply chain.  As an accredited operator in the voluntary Australian National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS) for Mass, Maintenance and Fatigue modules, Noske must demonstrate a high level of organisation and management relevant to a series of corresponding standards, ranging from scheduling and fitness for duty to fatigue awareness.

This translates into a need to conduct regular driver medicals, schedule frequent external fatigue management training sessions and ensure that the workshops commit to a regular preventative maintenance schedule and axle weight verifications. This is in addition to daily maintenance pre-trip checks, weekly inspections and repairs.

Continued accreditation enables appropriately trained Noske drivers to operate for longer hours and for vehicles to carry heavier loads. Then the need to uphold its impeccable internal safety record and to avoid fines and penalties means that compliance is the only option for the company. Yet, with a rapidly growing fleet, along with growing pressure to reduce overheads, Noske identified the need to replace manual administration and reliance upon disjointed systems and spreadsheets, with a more robust method. Also, as employees left the business – their methods of data management tended to leave with them.

Finding the right tool for the job

After examining the market and inviting a number of providers of asset management software to demonstrate their products, Noske selected the web-based asset management application, FleetWave, from Chevin Fleet Solutions. Linda Cole-Mein, compliance manager, Noske Logistics comments, “Running a fleet the size and scale of Noske Logistics’ brings with it a range of legislative obligations. Managing those obligations and remaining compliant is essential not only for the efficiency of the fleet but also the prosperity of the entire business. Therefore, implementing the most effective methods of managing and maintaining compliance is at the top of our agenda. By selecting FleetWave I’m confident that we’ll continue to meet and exceed our compliance and general efficiency objectives.

“We considered a number of competitor products but ultimately felt that FleetWave offered a superior level of process automation and ease of use and was backed up with over ten years’ of successful use with major blue chip companies around the world.”

The contract between Noske and Chevin ensured a dedicated project manager and support and development team was assigned to Noske. Phase two roll out of the system was achieved on time and within budget. Ashley Sowerby, managing director of Chevin Fleet Solutions adds, “Noske Logistics is a progressive organisation, dedicated to delivering the highest of standards to its clients, whilst prioritising safety and compliance adherence.

“The FleetWave application, which has been tailored to exactly match the business processes and day to day demands of Noske Logistics, is built for purpose and designed to enable the fleet management department to hit the ground running with no disturbance to business as usual.”

Reaping the rewards

Noske has been using Chevin’s FleetWave asset management software for 10 months and has already noticed the benefits. From a risk management and compliance perspective, the system enables Noske to hold all applicable data needed to assist with the management of all elements of driver compliance, fleet management and maintenance management. As FleetWave is web based, all authorised employees have access to the same, real time data – creating clearer visibility and communication. The application’s “traffic light” system is also proving a popular feature with Noske Logistics’ fleet department, providing an holistic view over tasks categorised as ‘planned’, ‘near due’ and ‘overdue’.

Anecdotally, operations staff are better able to manage vehicle service schedules.  As for the reporting process, FleetWave is playing a major role in helping the Noske fleet to remain compliant and quickly and easily demonstrate compliance through automated reporting.

Linda Cole-Mein explains what the implementation has meant for her, “Without FleetWave supporting our business functions, we would definitely be struggling to maintain our impeccable compliance record. I have no doubt that FleetWave is significantly reducing the risk of failing to comply with the various legislations relevant to our industry. With FleetWave it is impossible to inadvertently miss compliance or legislation requirements and we have experienced zero downtime since our go live.

“The ability to export data and obtain statistics for relevant compliance reports which previously, in some key areas such as odometer readings, were estimates, has cut the time required by over 90%.”

Beyond compliance, FleetWave is adding value in other operational procedures such as:

• Visibility of R&M spend, and enforcement of compliance procedures related to spend control.
• Reduced administration, through provision of training to key suppliers to facilitate third party work requests.
• Streamlined internal processes for R&M spend sign-off and invoice         reconciliation.
• Real time reporting of fleet costs, with facility to analyse data – simply not possible with previous spreadsheet based processes.
• Management of insurance claims and related repairs.

Future-proofing operational success

To ensure continued operational success, Noske will be analysing FleetWave’s impact to calculate the return on investment. Noske and Chevin will also be working together to establish whether there is scope to expand the software’s functionality to drive further improvements.

Ric Morrey, general manager of Noske Logistics’ fleet department, concludes, “Using FleetWave has undoubtedly enhanced our ability to manage compliance obligations and streamline fleet management processes. FleetWave is already playing a pivotal role in our company’s operational success.”

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Noske Logistics is a bulk haulage company, which began operations in July 2005. Since then, the company has experienced rapid growth after focusing on compliance, safety, customer service and innovation. Noske now operates more than 200 heavy trucks and associated assets.

Customer diversification follows from focusing on niche markets. Industry diversification has come from a focus on environmentally sustainable market segments with high barriers to entry. With an ethos of driving innovation for an environmentally sustainable future, and with a strong safety and compliance record, Noske Logistics is fixed on setting the benchmark for the haulage sector.

Identifying the risk

Running a fleet of over 200 heavy trucks and related assets carries a certain degree of risk, where accident management, compliance adherence and meeting the requirements for chain of responsibility legislation are concerned. This includes both internal obligations and broader responsibilities within the supply chain.  As an accredited operator in the voluntary Australian National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS) for Mass, Maintenance and Fatigue modules, Noske must demonstrate a high level of organisation and management relevant to a series of corresponding standards, ranging from scheduling and fitness for duty to fatigue awareness.

This translates into a need to conduct regular driver medicals, schedule frequent external fatigue management training sessions and ensure that the workshops commit to a regular preventative maintenance schedule and axle weight verifications. This is in addition to daily maintenance pre-trip checks, weekly inspections and repairs.

Continued accreditation enables appropriately trained Noske drivers to operate for longer hours and for vehicles to carry heavier loads. Then the need to uphold its impeccable internal safety record and to avoid fines and penalties means that compliance is the only option for the company. Yet, with a rapidly growing fleet, along with growing pressure to reduce overheads, Noske identified the need to replace manual administration and reliance upon disjointed systems and spreadsheets, with a more robust method. Also, as employees left the business – their methods of data management tended to leave with them.

Finding the right tool for the job

After examining the market and inviting a number of providers of asset management software to demonstrate their products, Noske selected the web-based asset management application, FleetWave, from Chevin Fleet Solutions. Linda Cole-Mein, compliance manager, Noske Logistics commented: 'Running a fleet the size and scale of Noske Logistics’ brings with it a range of legislative obligations. Managing those obligations and remaining compliant is essential not only for the efficiency of the fleet but also the prosperity of the entire business. Therefore, implementing the most effective methods of managing and maintaining compliance is at the top of our agenda. By selecting FleetWave I’m confident that we’ll continue to meet and exceed our compliance and general efficiency objectives.

'We considered a number of competitor products but ultimately felt that FleetWave offered a superior level of process automation and ease of use and was backed up with over ten years’ of successful use with major blue chip companies around the world.'

The contract between Noske and Chevin ensured a dedicated project manager and support and development team was assigned to Noske. Phase two roll out of the system was achieved on time and within budget. Ashley Sowerby, managing director of Chevin Fleet Solutions added, 'Noske Logistics is a progressive organisation, dedicated to delivering the highest of standards to its clients, whilst prioritising safety and compliance adherence.

'The FleetWave application, which has been tailored to exactly match the business processes and day to day demands of Noske Logistics, is built for purpose and designed to enable the fleet management department to hit the ground running with no disturbance to business as usual.'

Reaping the rewards

Noske has been using Chevin’s FleetWave asset management software for 10 months and has already noticed the benefits. From a risk management and compliance perspective, the system enables Noske to hold all applicable data needed to assist with the management of all elements of driver compliance, fleet management and maintenance management. As FleetWave is web based, all authorised employees have access to the same, real time data – creating clearer visibility and communication. The application’s “traffic light” system is also proving a popular feature with Noske Logistics’ fleet department, providing an holistic view over tasks categorised as "planned", "near due" and "overdue".

Anecdotally, operations staff are better able to manage vehicle service schedules.  As for the reporting process, FleetWave is playing a major role in helping the Noske fleet to remain compliant and quickly and easily demonstrate compliance through automated reporting.

Linda Cole-Mein explained what the implementation has meant for her: 'Without FleetWave supporting our business functions, we would definitely be struggling to maintain our impeccable compliance record. I have no doubt that FleetWave is significantly reducing the risk of failing to comply with the various legislations relevant to our industry. With FleetWave it is impossible to inadvertently miss compliance or legislation requirements and we have experienced zero downtime since our go live.

'The ability to export data and obtain statistics for relevant compliance reports which previously, in some key areas such as odometer readings, were estimates, has cut the time required by over 90%.'

Beyond compliance, FleetWave is adding value in other operational procedures such as:

• Visibility of R&M spend, and enforcement of compliance procedures related to spend control.
• Reduced administration, through provision of training to key suppliers to facilitate third party work requests. 
• Streamlined internal processes for R&M spend sign-off and invoice         reconciliation.
• Real-time reporting of fleet costs, with facility to analyse data – simply not possible with previous spreadsheet based processes.
• Management of insurance claims and related repairs.

Future-proofing operational success

To ensure continued operational success, Noske will be analysing FleetWave’s impact to calculate the return on investment. Noske and Chevin will also be working together to establish whether there is scope to expand the software’s functionality to drive further improvements.

Ric Morrey, general manager of Noske Logistics’ fleet department, concluded: 'Using FleetWave has undoubtedly enhanced our ability to manage compliance obligations and streamline fleet management processes. FleetWave is already playing a pivotal role in our company’s operational success.'