Starting with just one truck and a single trailer back in October 1996, SRH Milk Haulage has developed into one of the nation’s largest transporters of milk.
Now operating across three states, SRH’s fleet has grown to 60 trucks and 100 tankers, transporting nearly 1.9 million litres of milk daily – a quarter of all Australian farm milk.
Enhancing operational efficiency
Given the fleet’s explosive growth, SRH has adopted a commitment to continual improvement. The business is always looking at ways of how its staff can streamline operations and master complex compliance laws to increase efficiency and bring more money back into the business.
With this in mind, compliance manager at SRH, Blair Harvey, began to explore how technology could help improve driver safety and monitor compliance, while enabling the business to maximise profits through fewer trips and improved efficiency.
Delivering results with technology
With support from the wider organisation, SRH Milk Haulage joined the Intelligent Access Program (IAP) through Teletrac Navman’s suite of solutions, with the aim of enabling the company to deliver higher payloads and become more efficient.
IAP enables SRH to access more of the road network and carry more per load, in exchange for monitoring compliance through approved Teletrac Navman telematics and adhering to specific access conditions.
Thanks to the IAP, SRH can now transport an additional 3400 litres of milk per load. At the same time, access to the IAP has allowed SRH to remove an entire delivery run from its schedule, as the extra litres per load mean it can transport the equivalent of 12 loads in just 11 runs. SRH now moves an astounding 880 million litres of milk a year.
Harvey explains just how valuable this improvement is to the business’ operations. “That might not sound like much, but it makes a huge difference and now we’re up to nearly 41,500 litres per load,” she says.
Streamlining Compliance
In addition to joining the IAP, SRH also installed in-cabin devices across its operation to enhance driver safety while ensuring each team member is staying compliant. “The drivers can launch their own declaration for what’s on the load, which makes everything so much easier,” said Harvey.
“Now they do it as it is happening, rather than having to do it after the load has been delivered. And it’s extremely user friendly, which is very important.”
SRH is keen to do even more with Teletrac Navman. According to Harvey, the telematics supplier’s EWDs are next on the list of solutions to implement.
“Over the next 12 months we want to start an EWD trial. At the end of the day, they’re the future (of transport) and it’s only going be a matter of time before paper-based reporting is gone,” she said. “We are ready to take that next step in our digital journey.”