Application makes its mark

Mobile technology provider Aeromark has announced that Menzies Aviation will be deploying Aeromark's Aerotrack vehicle tracking system at Heathrow.

Menzies' operations include collecting cargo from warehouses both on and off the airport site, and delivering it to aircraft. Lesley Coleman, Operations Manager at Menzies Aviation, commented:

“Our customer base includes airlines and cargo handling agents, all working to tight deadlines and delays are costly, so they demand that their cargo is unloaded and loaded as quickly as possible. As a result, it is crucial that Menzies can accurately monitor its SLAs to determine why delays have occurred.” The deal will enable Menzies to monitor Service Level Agreements and should improve both productivity and efficiency.

Lesley Coleman added: “Previously, we had to manually measure our SLA performance by checking truck loading and unloading documents when they were returned to our central location and there was the potential for inaccuracies. With Aerotrack we can instantly see where each vehicle is, who the driver is and how long it has been at a specific location.”

The new service will include a mobile data terminal (MDT) with voice capability, which will enable workers to connect to ten pre-programmed telephone numbers. Drivers are issued with identification key tags that are recognised by the MDT which allows Menzies to track and identify any vehicle and driver within the fleet.

Lesley continued: “Aerotrack enables us to instantly understand why a SLA has not been met. We can see that a vehicle was held at a security checkpoint for much longer than normal or that a vehicle arrived at a stand on time but that the plane was delayed or that it arrived at the warehouse but had to wait for the cargo to be loaded. Aerotrack allows us to more accurately monitor when a vehicle has cleared a job, and is available for the next one, which has helped us to increase our productivity and efficiency as we have reduced the amount of time our vehicles are idle.”

Another feature of the new service is the ability to monitor vehicles when they are idle. When the ignition is turned off on a vehicle, a warning will sound if the lights are still on. The company says this will reduce the possibility of a vehicle being immobilised because of a flat battery. Stranded vehicles can cause delays across the airport, both to aircraft as well as other vehicles.