Borg Manufacturing

Tracking 1,000 deliveries a day

Based in Charmhaven and Oberon in New South Wales, Australia, Borg Manufacturing is a leading manufacturer of wood panel surfacing and cabinet doors. Their key customers include medium to large secondary manufacturers, decorative material and panel resellers and distributors, as well as their own distribution business, Polytec.

Despite being an extremely successful operation, Borg was aware of a high rate of unsafe driving and vehicle rollovers – especially in deliveries that took vehicles over hills and through forests. But, with a total eet of 200 vehicles completing 1,000 deliveries a day, it was impossible to understand the exact cause of these rollovers or what drivers were doing on the road.

This, coupled with Borg’s desire to live up to their Chain of Responsibility (CoR) obligations and reduce their insurance liabilities, lead them to Airco to discuss the possibility of a vehicle telematics solution.

Setting the scene

Airco, a MiX Telematics channel partner based in Sydney, recommended MiX Fleet Manager, a fully integrated fleet management solution that would help to meet the company’s safety, efficiency and compliance needs. By combining an in-vehicle monitoring system (IVMS) with MiX Vision, MiX’s in-cab video offering, the solution presented Borg with a way to monitor driver behaviour, driving hours and vehicle performance in a bid to improve their business outcomes.

Implementation started in January 2015 with 20 vehicles that drove the most dangerous routes. Initially, buzzers were only set to activate when vehicles overtook the general speed limit of 103 km/h, as this gave Borg a data benchmark for future interventions. Phase 2 of the implementation in February 2015 saw all buzzers activated for speeding events.

As expected, there was some initial resistance from drivers with regards to MiX Vision, but once Borg had taken the time to explain the benefits, drivers soon realised that there were safety implications for themselves too.

After roughly a month, drivers even started activating the buzzers themselves when events occurred, knowing that footage would later absolve them – and the company – of any wrong-doing.

By March 2015, the system started showing its true worth and Borg invested in dedicated resources to monitor and interrogate critical events on a daily basis. Borg also started using footage captured by MiX Vision in coaching, training and counselling initiatives with drivers.

Major driver improvements

Once a benchmark was established and measurement could begin, it became apparent that instances of speeding and harsh cornering in heavy vehicles were commonplace and often the cause of rollovers. But, once buzzers were activated for drivers to use and feedback sessions started, driver behaviour across the company started to improve considerably.

In terms of RAG scoring, green (safe) scores went from 45% of total km driven to 99% in just six months. Red (unsafe) scores dropped from 22.49% to 0.11% in just seven months and amber scores dropped from 33.01% to 4.52% over the total reporting period of 16 months.

The company also set up geo-fences in areas where rollovers had happened on a regular basis and dropped speed limits in those areas from 60 km/h to 50 km/h. As a result, drivers had to slow down in those areas. Rollovers are no longer an issue for Borg and there have also been no major crashes whatsoever!

A combination of success factors

Borg attributes their success to the detailed event reports offered by the MiX solution’s reporting suite, used in conjunction with MiX Vision footage to identify and correct driver behaviour.

“The MiX Vision in-cab camera provides our team with the ability to better understand the hazards encountered by our drivers every day, and we have used this information to improve the driving standards of our team,” says Michael Borg, the company’s Managing Director.

Managers also use daily movement reports to monitor driving hours of line-haul drivers as verification of their logbooks to ensure compliance with driving hours and rest breaks. “The solution provides me with actionable information to ensure that I can execute my Chain of Responsibility obligations,” claims Michael.

Finally, Borg has been able to go the “self-insured” route. What they’re saving on comprehensive insurance is being invested in telematics for the remainder of their fleet as an alternative means of insurance – this plan has already been set in motion.