Information Technology of Vehicles - Term Paper Example

CONTENTS PAGE I. The Two Scenarios 2 a. A third-party option? 2 b. Are there advantages? 3 c. What about managing our own? 3 d. Whatabout the drivers? 3 II. What do we recommend? 4 III. Full operation by 2010 4 IV. Recruitment and training of drivers 4 V. Products Processing 5 VI. Information Technology 6 VII. VOSA Requirements 6 VIII. Sophisticated tracking device 7 IX. Operating the fleet of vehicles 8 X. Chilled vehicles (pictures) 9 XI. Data from ERS on organic farming 9-10 XII. Conclusion/Recommendation 10 XIII. Executive Summary 11 XIV. References 12 TO: The Managing Director Sir: This is our report for the management of a fleet of vehicles, plans and projects for the full operation of the farms, and contingency measures. We will be utilizing a fleet of vehicles during delivery of the first volume of products to our valued customers on 2010. We applaud the family’s decision to sell the hotel and restaurants and to make fully operational the farms to produce organic apples, salads and pears. This is our chance to prove our strength and capability to supply the country with the best of organic fruits and vegetables. I. The two scenarios Here are the arguments and counter-arguments in the two operational scenarios. Are we going to hire an independent company to manage the fleet of vehicles? Or shall we do it ourselves? What are the benefits of a third-party option? The management of a fleet of vehicles, no matter how small the number is, still needs long and careful planning. 2010 is still far ahead but we already see a load of work when time comes that all of our products are exposed to the market. Our products require some extra care and attention; therefore we have exerted a lot of efforts, time and resources to give an outstanding output. Our recommendations and conclusions are in order. A third-party option? We can not have a hands-on management if we hire a third party for the management of the fleet of vehicles. This option is not safe and business-wide; we could run to a lot of problems. The workers and employees of the third party will be answerable to them and not to us. Are there advantages to a third-party option? Yes, there are. By having a separate company to handle the fleet of vehicles, we can save time and, therefore, money. The supervisor/manager of this independent company will report directly to me and I will report directly to the Managing Director. In this way there will be a systematic reportage of events and communication. The company will be responsible of their own fleet of drivers, to include recruitment and training of drivers and personnel. We will monitor and track down locations of the vehicles and products through their supervisor. Legalities and other small details of manning the fleet will be taken cared of by this independent company. The legalities will also be handled by the independent company. We can save time and money with this kind of operation. Meantime, my office can go work on some other pressing issues of the company. What about managing our own fleet of vehicles? On the other hand, by having our own fleet of vehicles under the direct supervision of my office as the Transport Manager, you can fully utilize my office and staff, a fact that should be followed, for that is what my office is intended for. The question now is will hiring a third party to manage the fleet of vehicles not destroy the morale of our employees. It may put our employees in a compromising situation. There will surely be contractual employees among the drivers because this is a company of drivers. What about the drivers? We are not sure how these drivers are assessed and trained. In the business world, these drivers are our own PR or liaison officers, our contact to the outside world. Like in any other retail and market-oriented business, the drivers and salesmen will have the personal contact to our customers. And any misconduct committed by these personnel will truly reflect on our own business. What we have built all through the years will be put to waste by just a few unscrupulous drivers. II. What do we recommend? We recommend that we have our own fleet of vehicles with my office as the supervising team. With this set up, we can have full control of our drivers and personnel who are out there doing business with our customers. What we don’t recommend is somebody or some company to handle our fleet of vehicles. This is good as saying that we can’t manage our own fleet of vehicles. Hiring other people to man the operations of our vehicles will give us headaches. III. Full operational by 2010 We will be fully operational by 2010, and that means our fleet of vehicles should have been ready and without any problems. We are ready however of any eventuality; contingency measures are installed along with this Report. We conducted some monitoring inside our own company. And we found out the number of vehicles that we needed by the time we are fully operational. These are the numbers: light refrigerated vans should be at least ten, five large vans all of which are good for inland shipping. We can also purchase at least two to four service trucks for our employees. It is not necessary to have all refrigerated vans, because we have customers near us, so that it is not necessary that the products are refrigerated. IV. Recruitment and training of drivers By managing our own fleet of vehicles, we can recruit and train our own drivers. They have to be trained properly by our own experienced drivers. Our assessment centre will conduct psychometric assessments, interviews and other examinations to driver applicants. Training will also be initiated by our experienced drivers who will see to it that applicants/candidates are ready for any eventuality and are well-trained in emergencies. They will also be trained in proper handling of products, such as vegetables and fruits, to see to it that our products are not mishandled. Moreover, our drivers should know the art of selling, customer and public drivers, because they and our products are the showcase to the world. Any ‘foolishness’ or misbehavior committed by our own drivers will reflect on the company, and we may lose customers in the process. V. Products Processing We have now a big number of land banks so that it is necessary that our vehicles should be in a good and running condition most of the time, with free of maintenance all the time. We therefore recommend a motor pool section in an area accessible within the land banks. This will put our vehicles always available for maintenance. We have estimates as to the exact number of vehicles, but there may come a time that these will not cope during peak season, and with the quantity of harvested apples and pears. We can catch up by hiring vehicles, if we will not be able to cope with the quantity. But this is not to say that we will sacrifice quality. Our products will be contained in special packages which will be processed by our trained employees. But we can also minimize manpower by purchasing packaging machines. Samples of these packaging machines are from Packaging International. Their “VC999 Tray sealing machines cover all needs of packaging case-ready products (fruits, vegetables, salads, mead, etc.)”. (Packaging International, 2008) VI. Information Technology We are in the age of the ‘global village’, information technology, computers and the internet. We recommend that our website, the Kent Limited, with its affiliates Herne Organics and Herne Associates by on the show as our showcase to the world. We can have direct and open communication with our valued customers and clients. Likewise, our customers can make recommendations and suggestions, put their blogs in our site. They can also keep track of company announcements regarding fruit and vegetable salads. We can feature our products, the management staff, blogs for the customers to post their problems and complaints, and other valuable information. The customers’ information will be listed in the website’s directory with their own customers’ panel. We will have someone to answer questions and complaints. The customers will have to furnish us with the following information: what products they want, the date of delivery, quantity, transportation details, the staff, supervisor, and manager responsible for the handling and shipment of the products. Our main feature is “Man of Kent” product. VII. VOSA Requirements VOSA is the Vehicle and Operators Safety Agency which produced the VOSA Guide “to explain the operator’s licensing system and to help make sure that all goods and passenger carrying vehicles are used safely and legally.” VOSA Safe Operators Guide Section 1 to 2) It is our responsibility to follow these rules to make our business legal. VOSA enjoins operators to: 1.) follow “best practice advice on safety procedures relating to various aspects of employees’ duties (such as driving and loading); 2.) follow “general procedures for managers of commercial road transport businesses to make sure you comply with all licensing regulations and contribute to road safety; and 3.) explains the legal position of operators in relation to compliance.” VOSA Safe Operators Guide Section 1 and 2) VOSA guidelines also include “Traffic Commissioner guidance for transport managers in the road haulage and bus and coach industries.” (VOSA Annex 1 to 7) This guidelines mirror the concern of the Traffic Commissioners “to make sure that only people who can fulfill the statutory requirements for having ‘continuous and effective responsibility’ for the transport operations under an Operator’s License are given the authority to fulfill those requirements.” (VOSA Annex 1 to 7) Licensing for the fleet of vehicles, or operator’s license, will be coursed through the Traffic Commissioners. Erring drivers will be reported and grounds for suspicions will be processed. VIII. Sophisticated tracking device Installing a GPS “can provide fleet managers and owners with a powerful tool that will reduce fuel costs and provide a huge upswing in productivity.” (Technology Blog, 2007) With this tracking device, our vehicles can be monitored and tracked down from the moment they leave our premises or from the farms and orchards to wherever they are in the different states. Even if they are in far-away states, delivering our products, or doing some other businesses, we can monitor them, thereby reducing extra mileage and further costs. This software can be purchased for a low price. Some other benefits from using the software: We “save money… on mobile calls. “More productive journeys saves labour costs… “More accurate timesheets from drivers… “Save on fuel… Allocate work more efficiently…increase productivity.” (Pinpoint Tracking Systems website) IX. Operating the fleet of vehicles We will conduct on the spot surveys as to the need basis. At present, we have some details, but we’re working on some hypotheses. This is because we can not truly get the accurate numbers before the actual work on 2010 when our first products will have entered the market. But come 2010, we may become financially stable. Despite the financial squabble in Wall Street, our products are trusted. Once again, we say: Organics are in demand. We can conduct our own survey; we can utilize the drivers to conduct surveys regarding our products and services. In this we, we can work on the management of the fleet and the distribution patterns. The results of the survey will be studied by our staff and inputted in our own database. The software Fleet Manager 4.0.4 can also help in operating our fleet of vehicles. It can locate and track down vehicles. X. Chilled vehicles to transport vegetables and fruits and other products of Kent Ltd. SOURCE: Fleetwatch: The Definitive Trucking Site 2005. Available from: http://www.fleetwatch.co.za/magazines/Oct2005/53-Cooling%20the%20market%20garden.htm. [cited 6 December 2008] As said earlier, peak season will be managed by hiring additional fleet if we couldn’t afford to buy new ones by then, but that would be managed later on. XI. Data from Economic Research Service on organic farming Following are data sets from organic farming and farmland across the United States. “In 2005, for the first time, all 50 States in the U.S. had some certified organic farmland. U.S. producers dedicated over 4.0 million acres of farmland – 1.7 million acres of cropland and 2.3 million acres of rangeland and pasture – to organic production systems in 2005.” (USDA Economic Research Service, 2008) More information from USDA on organic farming: Top 10 States 2005 Number of certified Cropland acres Pasture acres operations California 1,916 California 223,263 Alaska 1,460,000 Wisconsin 580 North Dakota 143,322 Texas 241,353 Washington 527 Montana 126,450 California 137,004 Iowa 453 Minnesota 116,813 Montana 103,433 Minnesota 433 Wisconsin 91,030 Wyoming 66,290 New York 427 Texas 87,124 Colorado 60,766 Vermont 366 Idaho 81,220 North Dakota 37,811 Oregon 317 Kansas 80,180 Wisconsin 31,308 Pennsylvania 308 Nebraska 77,820 Idaho 19,412 Maine 288 Iowa 64,158 Nebraska 17,655 SOURCE: All data from USDA Economic Research Service, 2008. Available from: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/Organic/. [cited 7 December 2008] XII. Conclusion/Recommendation: All things and data considered, we are prepared for a full operational scenario on 2010. Vehicles that have been purchased, and the old ones are already in place. Staff, materials, equipment and software are also well in place for a full utilization of once we are in full swing. We are in full support of all the plans carried out by management. The staff, manpower, vehicles and equipment have to be ready during this time. We will not try, we will do it. We have the backing of the Tenants and the entire staff, and our people are working double time and ecstatic to see that time when we’ll be hauling products, vegetables and salads. We are proud of the Company of which we have regarded as an organization we like to promote because of its products and its people. XIII. Executive Summary During the initial stages of this Report, we found out applicable to conduct our own surveys regarding the production output and the possible vehicles to be fielded in our full operational scenario on 2010. We have this number: 10 light refrigerated vans, 5 large vans, and four service trucks. We may not have the exact number of vehicles because these are all estimates. However, we recommend another 10 light vehicles to be purchased during 2010, but depending on the need basis. We also have recommended in the early part of this Report, to have our own fleet of vehicles, i.e., insourcing. We don’t need to source a third party management for our fleet of vehicles because this would be detrimental to the morale and unity of our staff and employees, especially among our drivers. The moment we have decided in managing our own fleet of vehicles, we will form our own assessment centre to be manned by our own staff of experienced drivers. The assessment centre will assess applicants, give them psychometric tests and interviews, to determine their qualifications and skill in delivering our products to customers and to the different states. References Packaging International, 2008. Inauen Maschinen AG – VC999 - development, production & selling of vacuum packaging systems. Available from: http://www.packaging-int.com/companies/inauen-maschinen-ag-vc999-packaging-systems.asp. [cited 8 December 2008] Fleetwatch: The Definitive Trucking Site 2005. Available from: http://www.fleetwatch.co.za/magazines/Oct2005/53-Cooling%20the%20market%20garden.htm. [cited 6 December 2008] Pinpoint Tracking Specialists. Vehicle Tracking Systems for Business: Realtime tracking via the internet. Available from: http://www.techstore.ie/Tracking/Fleet-Management.htm. [cited 6 December 2008] Technology Blog. 2007. How to efficiently reduce fuel costs and increase fleet productivity. Available from: http://techstore.ie/Blog/index.php/2008/11/09/how-to-efficiently-reduce-fuel-costs-and-increase-fleet-productivity/ [cited 2 December 2008] USDA Economic research Service (The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America. Data Sets: Organic Farming. Available from: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/Organic/. [cited 7 December 2008] VOSA Annexes, guidelines for transport managers. 8 December 2008. Read More