1 & Rudolph Logistik Group - Daimler FleetBoard GmbH

A DaimlerChrysler company
& Rudolph Logistik Group
"Every driver has been able to easily improve his
fuel consumption by at least 0.5 Mile Per Gallon."
Jens Hildenbrand,
Fleet Manager
1 Company
The spectrum of services offered
by the Rudolph Logistik
Group ranges from classic
freight forwarding to software
development and data communications.
This includes the
strategic planning and operation
of complete or partial logistics
outsourcing solutions.
More than 2000 employees at
15 European locations are
making the company's mission
statement "Everything is
doable" a reality every day.
Rudolph Transport GmbH – a
company with 100 employees
that is part of the Rudolph
Logistik Group – provides the
full range of international
freight carrier services.
2 Background
With their current fleet of 58
Mercedes-Benz trucks, more
than 90% of Rudolph Transport’s
business consists of regular
scheduled routes.
"Therefore, there is no room
for further optimization of
routes that could lead to an
appreciable reduction of
ongoing costs; the deciding
factor was and is fuel costs."
This depends largely on the
truck driver's economy driving
performance. "Up to
now, we compiled fuel consumption
statistics once a
month, using our fleet administration
system," explains
Fleet Manager Jens Hildenbrand.
"This, however, did not tell us
how much was loaded onto
the vehicle and which routes
it took. In addition, it was a
monthly overview so that I
was not able to analyse individual
trips and was, thus, not
able to evaluate individual drivers.
Therefore, we could
only utilise the numbers from
the statistics to a limited
extent." Since the corporation
overall sees itself as an innovative
service provider, they
continued to look for an innovative
solution that enables
significant savings in fuel
consumption.
3
Solution
In 2001, Rudolph Transport
decided to equip 23 vehicles
with FleetBoard Driver &
Vehicle Management and
FleetBoard Mapping.
The focus is on the
FleetBoard Performance
Analysis Reports that
Line of business:
Company headquarters:
Fleet size:
FleetBoard
services used:
Contact:
enable an objective evaluation
of each individual driver’s
driving style.
When analysing the driving
style, factors such as the
vehicle's total weight, the
severity of the route and traffic
density (from brake information)
are also taken into
consideration. The driving
style is then graded on a scale
from 1 to 10.
Good grades are given not
only for correct gear changing
and defensive driving,
but the drivers also gain
points for reducing wear on
the braking systems.
At Rudolph Transport, one
employee is tasked to run
Case Study No. 11 10/02
Experiences from practice
Full Service Logistics Provider
34225 Baunatal / Germany
58 vehicles
FleetBoard Driver & Vehicle Management,
FleetBoard Mapping,
Jens Hildenbrand, Fleet Manager
Telephone: (+49)561/49911 44
FleetBoard. "Every morning,
this employee analyses the
data from the previous day and
talks to the drivers with regard
to those areas where there is
still room for improvement.
Our business is a living organism,"
emphasizes Jens
Hildenbrand. “The FleetBoard
'champion' in the transport
office is always available to
speak with the drivers."
Despite some apprehension
that the introduction of
FleetBoard might have a low
degree of driver acceptance,
the system was received positively
from day one.
"Most of the drivers try
to continue to improve
their grading of their own
accord."

In addition to the FleetBoard
Performance Analysis
Reports, Rudolph Transport
also uses FleetBoard’s Service
and Trip Records Reports.
Although all the vehicles run
under a CharterWay full service
leasing program, minor
repairs and maintenance work
are carried out in their own
workshop. "When a repair is
pending, our master mechanic
checks the vehicle in the
system; the result is that I can
often delay minor service
issues and then have regular
maintenance done at the
same time."
"Optimal co-ordination
enables us to minimize
downtime for repairs and
maintenance,"
explains the fleet manager.
Jens Hildenbrand uses the
analysis from FleetBoard Trip
Records to check whether
existing journey calculations
actually match with those in
reality.
"I often do a comparison,
especially with regard to the
weight of the load and the
fuel consumption. Is my calculation
perhaps too high
or too low?"
The FleetBoard Mapping Service
enables the employees in the
transport office to be able to
give their customers up to the
minute information about the
location of a vehicle. "For vehicles
that are being deployed
abroad, we often check to
make sure that they are where
they are supposed to be."
4
Advantages
For Rudolph Transport, the
most significant advantage of
"FleetBoard was received positively by
the drivers from the very first day."
FleetBoard is the substantial
savings in fuel costs.
Advantage 1:
7% lower fuel costs
Advantage 2:
Motivated drivers
Advantage 3:
Lower maintenance costs
Advantage 4:
Better customer service
"I can assume that with
FleetBoard, we have 6–7%
lower fuel costs,"
says Jens Hildenbrand. Additionally,
employee motivation
has become a very significant
factor. "We now have real
competitiveness within the
company. Especially as we
have many drivers, who alternately
drive the same routes.
Very often, the first question
when a driver gets to work is,
'My colleague was really 10%
better than me? Well, then I
must try harder.' This doesn’t
leave me a lot to do." At
Rudolph Transport, motivated
employees are indirectly contributing
to a reduction in
personnel costs.
"Our drivers feel an incentive
to drive their vehicle in an
optimal way. This enables us
to achieve a higher degree
of efficiency when deploying
our vehicles without increasing
personnel."
The fleet manager sees additional
savings potential with
regard to maintenance costs.
"All of these vehicles are in the
CharterWay full service leasing
program, that means that
lower maintenance costs do
not have a direct positive
effect on us. However, when it
becomes obvious that the
maintenance costs are falling
because of FleetBoard, we are
in a better position to negotiate
future contracts." Last but
not least, for Rudolph Transport,
FleetBoard is yet another
step towards even more comprehensive
customer focus.
"When the customer calls and
asks, 'When will the truck be
here?' we can immediately find
out where the vehicle is at that
moment. This enables us to
live up to our reputation that
we are always ahead, especially
in our use of information
technology."
Summary
This is how Jens Hildenbrand describes FleetBoard's main advantage:
"Reduction of the variable costs together with great employee motivation.
What really fascinates me is that the employees really enjoy
achieving savings."
"Everything is doable" with FleetBoard vehicle management and mapping.
For further information call: (+49)711 / 17-9 19 99 or (+44)1827 311912
www.fleetboard.com or www.fleetboard.co.uk
DaimlerChrysler Services FleetBoard GmbH, 70546 Stuttgart 01/0305 Printed in Federal Republic of Germany/Imprimé en République fédérale d’Allemagne
FleetBoard - Fleet Management with IQ
5 Outlook
The Rudolph Transport drivers
are already highly motivated
to drive their vehicles optimally
and thus considerably reduce
fuel and maintenance costs.
A bonus system will provide
additional incentive in the
future.
"I would like to introduce a
bonus system soon based
on the FleetBoard analysis – at
least for the long – distance
drivers,"
says Jens Hildenbrand. In
order that the entire company
can profit, every truck that
Rudolph Transport GmbH leases
from CharterWay will be
equipped with FleetBoard in
future.