John Mitchell futureproofs with Fargo
Grangemouth-based John Mitchell Haulage & Warehousing has implemented transport and yard management software from Fargo Systems to help optimise its fleet processes.
With roots going back to 1956, John Mitchell Haulage & Warehousing invested in a new management team in 2019 to pave the way for the next phase of its development, and also commissioned Fargo Systems to undertake a full review of the transport management systems currently in place and advise on its optimisation for the future.
According to Steve Collins, director at Fargo Systems: “Jim Slade, projects team manager, and I spent some time up in Grangemouth working closely with the team. Identifying better processes in TOPS and new areas for development and enhancement projects to yield further business efficiencies.”
John Mitchell’s transport operations director, Ross Mitchell, explained: “Having Steve and Jim here to review our daily operations was invaluable. We’d invested in Fargo’s TOPS [transport management] and Cyman [container and yard management] systems back in 2007, and 2010 and whilst the technology was serving us well, the review quickly highlighted that both systems had far greater functionality than we had been using.”
Following the review, the logistics specialist readily accepted Fargo’s recommendations, and in 2019 increased its investment in TopsTMS technology to include the TOPS…on the go and TOPS Anywhere systems, closely followed by Cyman.Web and projects to review the fleet management and purchase order processes.
Angela Martin, business support manager at John Mitchell, said: “Our strategy is to ensure every aspect of our business is as robust as possible and that we’re working as smart as we can. Armed with a better understanding of our existing TOPS solutions’ capabilities plus our new TOPS investments, everyone in the business can view day-to-day activity in real-time.
“Benefits are being reaped across every part of the organisation, from fleet to our drivers, the accounts department, yard operatives and lifters.
“Another stand out benefit for us is that every one of our TopsTMS solutions is constantly evolving and regularly updated – keeping us at the forefront of the industry.”
John Mitchell’s use of TOPS enables the company to monitor its inland container movements and plan all jobs and create purchase orders.
Finance co-ordinator Tracey Birkett explained: “Before TOPS, it’s hard to believe that each person in the business had a paper book where they were recording their POs. Now the whole process is digital; it has completely streamlined the month-end process with all the data accessible in one place.”
TOPS has also transformed the data held and managed by John Mitchell’s 150+ vehicle fleet.
Jordan Lumsden, the workshop administrator, explained: “With TOPS, we’ve been able to digitalise our mechanics’ service documents. Removing the need to complete manual paperwork, the operator now inputs everything straight into TOPS.
“Providing greater checks and controls, and the system has a validation function that ensures necessary authorisations have been made. With the old-fashioned clipboard and pen, potentially, this does not happen.
“What is exciting is that our TOPS investment has enabled us to apply to join the DVSA’s Earned Recognition programme. We are also Fargo Systems’ first client to be involved in the project.”
Earned Recognition scheme members regularly share key performance indicator (KPI) data with the DVSA, and are therefore less likely to be stopped for roadside inspections or be visited by enforcement staff.
Ross Mitchell highlighted the traffic operations benefits of TOPS…on the go.
“With our current fleet standing at 150 plus trucks and future vehicle investment planned, we must provide the tools for our drivers to do the best job possible,” he said.
“TOPS…on the go provides a seamless service, defect and repair management, job management, sign on glass PODs and camera capture, the latter both being transformative to how the industry does business during these Covid times.
“We’ve had significant buy-in from our drivers as all aspects of their admin is now paperless, with automatic ETA and actual time arrival updates as well as instant communication, which enables us to message them any time at the touch of a button.
“Then, when you factor in TOPS Anywhere implementation, which allows remote and instant access for our traffic operators, we’ve already seen a significant return on investment.”
John Mitchell had used container and yard management system Cyman for over ten years to integrate container movements and availability into TOPS, pre-arrival notifications, and pre-container releases. The logistics review recommended introducing Cyman.Web into the company’s suite of transport technology solutions.
Angela Martin explained: “Cyman.Web is designed for smartphones and tablets and brings benefits on two fronts – jobs and interchanges. On the job front, it enables our warehouse team to view the tasks assigned to them in advance, ‘complete’ their jobs and report status updates back into Cyman automatically and in real-time, using the industry-standard ISO codes.
“Invaluable to our warehouse division, Cyman also plans the workload, calculates efficiencies, and allows documents and photographs to be attached, instantly accessible for others to view and act upon. It’s a win-win all around; customer reports are sent automatically, saving even more time within the operations team.”
