Innovative Products

WDC Western Downs Civil – Powered by the Fleet Office

The Fleet Office (TFO) is an Australian software provider specialising in construction and fleet technologies. They offer a range of hardware and fully integrated software solutions to help improve productivity and efficiencies in all areas of a business. This includes, but is not limited to tracking and software that helps protect, manage, maintain, induct, and monetise fleets.

Hundreds Of Assets Managed Across Diverse Locations

Western Downs Civil (WDC) is a diversified civil infrastructure company based in Queensland’s Surat Basin. They have project delivery capability across a range of industry sectors and their key drivers include safety, quality, value and lasting relationships WDC has approximately 150 tracked assets with another 280 assets managed through the TFO software systems.

Back when WDC were a much smaller organsiation they engaged TFO for a specific need. Over time WDC has grown significantly and TFO has remained in support as their fleet technology partner. WDC now uses all the TFO products to enhance their everyday operations ranging from IVMS on vehicles travelling remotely, to full fleet allocation and revenue management using the FleetHire ERP.

Jim Lee, founder and managing director of The Fleet Office said the team at WDC has also been integral to their product development process, as they consistently provide valuable feedback and ideas for future product releases.

“The fundamental difference that our products make is giving a smaller team the ability to punch well above their weight in terms of compliance, safety, cost management and efficiency. We act as their bridge between assets and management and give all levels of the team real-time visibility of the assets,” said Jim.

Accurate Project Costs Improve Profitability

 Full Turn-Key Solution To Accurately Cost Machines

On a typical day, WDC will use the TFO FleetStart app for its paperless pre-start.

Pre-starts are fundamental for compliance on a project, with the FleetStart app going beyond compliance to capture more information on issues, including high-resolution images.

The software builds in alerts per WDC’s company policy to ensure the correct personnel is notified of issues or delays. In every case, the alerts go to the maintenance supervisor, who can schedule a fitter when maintenance is required. If parts are required, the fitter can use the same app to order new parts. When there is an urgent request, an alert will be sent to the fitter allowing the work to be scheduled. If an issue cannot be diagnosed or repaired an alert is sent to the project manager, via TFO’s app, and the plant can be stood down, with no costs accrued to the project for the delay.

Josh Hardiman, Managing Director WDC said the major benefit is the TFO software being integrated across different functioning arms of the business. This means they can obtain accurate costings on their machines, understand the utilisation and actual efficiencies, and have true costs on projects as it is linked directly to Xero.

“I have been excited to be involved with The Fleet Office and worked with them through the implementation of FleetHire and the integration with Xero. This was the first major step for us to accurately accrue costs to a project. The improvement with FleetHire integrated with Xero has changed the dynamics of our business as we are better informed, and allows us to make faster and more accurate decisions.

“I’d recommend TFO to other companies that are looking for a full turn-key solution to improve efficiencies through downtime, utilisation, through managing and monitoring staff and from a contract and project perspective to accurately cost machines on projects to save money.”

Josh said as a company owner he appreciates that Jim Lee provides him and his team the opportunity to work directly with his TFO development team to contribute ideas to the overall product they are supplying.

Problem Solving To Reduce Downtime Saving Time And Money

At the WDC operational level TFO’s suite of products is used to manage the entire fleet of vehicles, trucks, plant and equipment. This includes capital expenditure planning, allocating assets to projects, creating quotes and contracts for external companies, managing the preventative and scheduled maintenance system. WDC also use TFO products to organise the compliance elements of their fleet, such as but not limited to pre-starts, plant hazard assessments and maintenance history.

Nathan Staib, WDC Plant Workshop Coordinator said the biggest single benefit is having accurate tracked hours, so all maintenance activities are triggered at the exact interval.

“To date, TFO is the only system we have found that can guarantee accurate hour meter readings. We have been able to put together concepts and ideas which the TFO team have brought to life which help us get the job done,” said Nathan.

The calendar view within the Fleet Maint app has become an essential tool to help schedule work for the maintenance team.

“On any given morning I can have 10 to 20 new work orders and the end of the day up to 50, so scheduling can be a bit of a nightmare. Jim and his team made the software work for us. This was a first for us as our experience with other software is that there is an expectation that we work for it,” said Nathan.

TFO worked with WDC to solve a problem to be able to give actual time-lines instead of merely jobs for that day. The latest calendar view has also been updated to make it easier for the users, using the feedback from the WDC team.

“The updates have saved us heaps of time and money, mainly by reducing downtime. Getting fitters onto their jobs in a timely manner and reporting to us to know exactly what they are working on down to the hour is a massive benefit,” said Nathan.

Safety on site is immensely important and WDC use the FleetStart app to do electronic pre-starts. This enables them to be notified at all levels or the organisation when there is an issue. The app shares the details including images and this allows all stakeholders in the business to assist in solving problems.

“TFO makes my life much easier as all good technology does. Our previous system was paper based and admin heavy but now our new system is fully digitised giving us more control,” said Nathan.

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