6 BULKDISTRIBUTOR Asset Management
July/August 2020
Abbey, Microlise look at
lessons from lockdown
The roads in many countries became
noticeably quieter during the pandemic
as swathes of the population stayed home
and many businesses closed their doors.
But what, if anything, has been the impact on
HGV operators who delivered critical supplies
during this time and what can we learn?
As far as the UK is concerned, Abbey Logistics
and Microlise began analysing Abbey’s journey
metrics for its fleet of 550 drivers, 400 trucks and
550 bulk liquid and powder trailers with initial
results covering the period 30 days prior to and
30 days post, the UK lockdown.
Abbey Logistics is the UK’s largest road tanker
logistics company for bulk food powders and
liquids and has a growing reputation and fleet in
the plastics, construction, minerals, animal feed
and non-hazardous chemicals sectors.
The group also provides warehousing and
materials handling services on the Wirral in the
UK, and multimodal transport solutions
throughout the UK and Europe.
CEO Steve Granite gave the background the
data project with Mircolise, a UK-based firm
specialising in telematics and journey
management.
“We have all been trading in incredibly
challenging circumstances, but as a result of
quieter roads, we have seen an improvement to
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Across almost every key metric Abbey says it registered positive results
customer service and savings in repair and
maintenance and an increase in miles per gallon
(MPG) as well as a near 6 percent increase in the
average speed of our fleet,” said Granite. “This
means the fleet is doing more with less and our
assets are much more productive and require less
repair and maintenance thanks to more consistent
driving.
“To get a better understanding of these
benefits, how they could be sustained and what it
could mean to Abbey and other operators as
traffic and congestion increases, we began a
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project with Microlise to analyse the data to share
with the sector, which will hopefully help all
hauliers as we come out of the crisis and
potentially also help influence decisions around
traffic management and congestion in the
future.”
Quicker and safer
Among the key results (see graph), it was found
that average speed improved group-wide by 5.66
percent, from 36.6 mph to 38.8 mph. MPG
increased by 2.6 percent, while CO2 emissions
saw a percentage improvement across the group
of 3.97 percent from a base point in February
2020.
In terms of driving behaviour and performance,
instances of acceleration greater than 95 percent
decreased from 5.61 percent to 4.53 percent.
Engine idling also decreased from 2.51 percent to
2.04 percent, while ‘greenband’ driving (where
the vehicle is being driven within the most
efficient and economical RPM range for that
vehicle type) increased from 90.39 percent to
91.52 percent.
Use of cruise control (which can be seen as
indicator of stable driving conditions) increased
from 45.72 percent to 53.15 percent.
In addition to its work with Abbey, the Microlise
Data Science & Operational Research team
analysed recent HGV and light commercial vehicle
(LCV) movement to identify changes in movement
patterns.
Two metrics stood out – namely a 6-7 percent
increase in MPG and a 37 percent reduction in
unsafe driving behaviours, including overspeeding
and harsh braking. For a fleet owner of
any size, the capital cost savings to be realised
across these two areas alone would be significant.
When this wider data set is included average
MPG improved by 6 percent. Microlise said it
observed an increase starting on 16 March which
peaked in the week starting 6 April then stayed
relatively stable at +6/+7 percent above the
baseline, with this increase driven especially across
operators travelling shorter distances and making
more stops.
There was also a 37 percent decrease in the
number of over-speeding events per km, with a
decline starting from 23 March, which reached its
lowest level in the week of 13 April (-37 percent).
The data showed that it then went up to -31
percent compared to the baseline, perhaps as
roads once again become busier.
The number of harsh braking events per km
dropped by 37 percent. This showed a similar
pattern to over-speeding data, with a decline from
the week of 9 March, reaching its lowest level
during the week of 6 April. It also then started
rising again to -29 percent.
From 23 March there was a decrease in mileage.
It dropped to its lowest level during the week of 6
April with a fall of 27 percent, but then moved up
to about -16 percent.
Lessons
So what can learned from the data analysis to
apply from now on? And, importantly, are there
any practical steps that the logistics sector and
government can take that help maintain these
positive environmental and commercial benefits?
According to Steve Granite, the sector should
act on these indicators. “Across almost every key
metric of vehicle performance, traffic movement,
driver safety and performance, fleet utilisation,
repair and maintenance and customer service, we
have registered positive results.
“Increasing average speed and miles per gallon
contributes to significant cost savings for fleet
operators of any size. When you combine this
with improvements across driving behaviour and
environmental impact, the results are compelling.
“We have a perfect opportunity to rethink our
operations model and do things differently,”
Granite added. “Longer delivery windows and
more night-time deliveries, provide for a more
cost-effective and reliable customer service. We
can also support our professional drivers to
perform at their best, reducing stress levels and
keeping them safer while minimising road traffic
incidents and any resulting asset damage.
“If we are prepared to shake-up our post-Covid
19 version of normal, we will all reap the rewards.
We partnered with Microlise, to take as much of
the guesswork out of our business analysis as
possible. We now have concrete intelligence that
we can and should act on.
“It is clear that data will continue to play a key
role in supporting our sector as it returns to a new
normal and it makes commercial and
environmental sense to act on this to support
hauliers and come out of this crisis with stronger
and more effective operating models,” he
concluded.
www.abbeylogisticsgroup.com
www.microlise.com
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