North West Media Services (NWMS) has fitted a Touchstar a tracking and telematics solution, to help the organisation to monitor and manage its entire fleet of commercial vehicles.

NWMS's team of mobile workers are responsible for erecting and taking down outdoor adverts in a number of premium advertising locations. With the time sensitive nature of this work, it is critical that North West Media Services has the ability to accurately monitor and manage the status of each and every job as it is being carried out.

TouchStar’s solution allows NWMS to track the geographic location of its fleet of commercial vehicles, including vans and Mobile Elevating Work Platforms (MEWPs). NWMS also uses the system to manage work schedules and provide workers with directions if they get lost on route to a job, according to the GPS information that is collected and relayed to the depot in real time. 

"When it comes to outdoor advertising space there is an expectation from our clients that an advert will be in place at an agreed time to ensure that it receives the maximum desired impact", explained Tony Jones, Operations Manager at North West Media Services.

"If there is a query from a client we can use TouchStar's solution to rapidly and accurately identify where the assigned driver is, and estimate his time of arrival while the client is still on the phone. We can also identify factors that may be causing any delay, such as heavy traffic."

In addition, TouchStar’s solution enables NWMS to monitor fuel usage, oversee ‘out of hours’ assignments to prevent unauthorised personal use of its vehicles and quickly locate a vehicle in the event it is stolen. The system has already proven its worth in this regard, when a vehicle that was stolen while on site at a job in Liverpool was found and recovered in just 15 minutes.

NWMS chose the solution after being impressed with TouchStar’s proactive response to their search for a new provider. Having previously been left disappointed by tracking systems – and going for 12 months without any vehicle tracking solution at all – NWMS took on TouchStar for a week-long proof of concept trial so they could see the benefits of the system before a full deployment.

Jones concluded: “We looked at a number of suppliers before making our decision, however TouchStar were able to provide the visibility we needed at a competitive price and most importantly, they were located right around the corner from our depot. Their proximity to our business means that we can quickly and easily work with them to resolve any potential problems, make changes to the system or fit new trackers to new vehicles in our fleet. The ability to react quickly in our business is vital and working with TouchStar gives us complete peace of mind.”