Merlin Works - Merlin Housing Association

Merlin Works are the in-house, maintenance and repair team for Merlin Social Housing.

Challenge

Merlin Housing is the biggest social housing provider in South Gloucestershire. It’s in-house maintenance and repair team are always on call to service the needs of over 8000 homes across the region. Prior to installing web fleet from TomTom, the team of workmen in 60 vehicles were responsible for their own travel management which was proving both time consuming and difficult to manage, not to mention the health and safety risk that self-governance posed. In addition to their employee safety obligations, Merlin Housing also have a responsibility to meet the needs of their tenants, by responding quickly and when promised.

Solution

Merlin Works did their homework, talking to their industry contacts and other suppliers to find out the word on the street. They put together a specification which went out to tender and after hearing the pitches a Tomtom BUSINESS system from iTracking was selected as the hands down winner. “simply the best features and best fit for our business. What’s more it’s easy to install and use.” The benefits were instant, as it enabled complete visibility of the fleet at all times. Accurate and easy route planning, scheduling and on route communication all meant that Merlin Works were quickly able to reap the benefits of the system and deliver an improved service to their tenants.

Result

The results have been fantastic, with complete realtime visibility, Merlin are able to see exactly how the fleet is being deployed, leading to a better understanding of the cost of mileage, out of hours use and improved vehicle and contents security. The TomTom system also drives an awareness programme on MPG and driving habits, which is fed back to the team. Tenants are also reaping the benefits with accurate job planning and arrival estimates and as the fleet has grown, so too has system, increasing from 60 to 94 units…

“It’s been so easy to bolt more onto the system the more vehicles we’ve added. Every time Clive has been there to support our growth – not just made the sale and left us to it. We’re extremely happy with both the system and service we’ve received from iTracking and couldn’t recommend them highly enough”

Ask iTracking about making a big difference with a small fleet – call 08454 084 670