The Coventry-based firm adds 10 new Volvos to its fleet with each named after a local hero.
Slam Transport has introduced 10 Volvo FH with I-Save 4×2 tractor units to its fleet and named each of them after local heroes.
As a company we like to honour those who help the local community, so we recognise that by naming our trucks after them. We’ve named the 10 new Volvos after local heroes of Balsall Common including Mikey Akers who has verbal dyspraxia and has raised £11,000 for the Mikey’s Wish organisation to help other people.
Slam Transport has also named trucks after fallen soldier James Mundy, World War II spitfire pilot Leslie Lunn, and Isabella Harlor who, with a group of others, produced 50,000 masks for NHS staff.
“There are far more good people out there than bad, and this is our small way to say thank you for all they do.”
The first Volvos introduced to the Slam Transport fleet join 225 other vehicles on the road. They been brought it in to support its growth.
“We are the busiest we have ever been,” says Gould. “The challenge is always the same, getting good drivers who represent not only us, but the company we are hauling for, as our drivers represent Slam Transport.”
Indeed, the company has introduced around 70 new trucks and 150 new trailers this year with more coming in early 2021. “Recent events have been terrible, however, our staff have been heroes to keep on working, against all the issues that have been thrown at them. We do a lot of Amazon work and they have been very supportive in making Amazon sites very safe during this crisis.
“As a company we have always employed staff to clean the inside of driver’s cabs after their weekly shift. Now we have to ensure our staff who do that work have the correct protection for the job and keep them safe, as well as social distancing in the offices and warehouse.”
In many respects, the logistics sector has been the lifeblood of not just the UK economy in 2020 but in ensuring people’s lives have some sense of normalcy. Gould argues the dedication of those who have worked tirelessly during this period needs to be recognised. Those who ensure food has remained on supermarket shelves, PPE and vital equipment has arrived for the NHS and at temporary units such as testing sites and Nightingale hospitals, and parcels have been delivered to homes.
“I think the future is bright for UK Haulage, however, all UK drivers need a bit more respect from the UK government and the public in general. Drivers need more parking with facilities other than the side of a busy road. In times of crisis the UK needs its transport to keep the UK going, so build cheap parking areas for drivers to sleep and eat in.”
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Cubo are proud to be the telematics partner for Slam Transport, as an Amazon Tier One Distributor fleet efficiency and visibility is key. We originally supplied Slam with vehicle tracking, including information on driver behaviour and mpg. At the same time, we installed equipment to enable Remote Tachograph downloading which could easily integrate with their tachograph analysis software from Aquarius IT.
This not only ensures compliance, but also gives them access to Live Driver Decision Support, which is vital for dynamic planning. Having benefited from their initial investment, the next step was to introduce trailer tracking to almost 500 trailers. All of Cubo’s solutions can be viewed on one single platform.
Further compliance measures were required with the introduction of Direct Vision Standard. Slam Transport wanted to ensure they were well prepared for DVS, so 3-way cameras were installed with sensors, giving the capability to access live views. Transport for London recommend that audible warning devices require a minimum driver intervention – on that basis Cubo’s integrated solutions deactivate the external audible alarm between the hours of 11.30pm and 7.00am so as not to infringe on London’s strict noise pollution laws and receive even heftier fines than DVS (up to £2500).
Many of our best solutions derive from customer collaborations and discovering where we can add value to their daily operations. Slam Transport discovered that some fuel theft was happening, mainly when their vehicles were parked up on rest. We developed a solution that includes the installation of Anti-Theft Diesel Caps, which when removed, trigger a message to the tracker with a command to wake up the cameras to record.
Cubo currently support Slam Transport on over 1500 connected devices and look forward to supporting them in whatever the next challenge may be.
- Credit: Transport & Logistics Magazine
