Facilities chief: Paul Osland
Supervisor: William Harris
Company: Chicago Public Schools
Operation: Warehouse fleet of 23 vehicles
Problem:
When supplies are needed at one of 800 Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the school system’s warehouse operation is on the case, making deliveries from one of several storage facilities located across the Windy City. This is done via one of the 23 vehicles in its fleet: 16 Workhorse Custom Chassis step vans, five International 4300 18-ft. box trucks, an International 4300 24-ft. box truck, or a Ford E-350 van.
The warehousing operation always got the job done—and done well. But CPS wanted to see if the fleet’s efficiency could be fine-tuned to help save the school system a little more money, money that could then be spent on students.
“It goes to our operating philosophy here. Every dollar we can save in our operation is one more dollar we can use for student education,” says William Harris, a supervisor within the Student Transportation Services Dept., which oversees the CPS warehouse operation.
To find ways to make the school system’s warehouse operation more efficient, Paul Osland, CPS facilities chief, suggested more data analysis. Yet that data also needed to be managed properly, especially when it came to vehicle maintenance needs.
Solution:
Osland’s solution rested in part on equipping all of the warehouse operation’s trucks with Zonar telematics equipment, including its 2020 mobile tablet.
With the system installed, dispatchers would be able to tap into Zonar’s Ground Traffic Control portal to determine current truck locations while moving drivers over to electronic pretrip inspections, capturing potential maintenance items faster and more accurately.
CPS owns all of its vehicles; however, vehicle maintenance is handled by Ryder System. If maintenance work is needed during the day, the warehouse group deploys one of its spare trucks or a truck may be asked to pick up an additional route.
To ensure that vehicles are taken offline only for immediate and necessary work, Harris says pretrip inspection data is routed daily through maintenance gatekeeper Miguel Cortes, foreman of motor truck drivers.
“Having Miguel as the gatekeeper allows him to properly plan for and schedule vehicles that would need to be out of service,” he notes.
Harris adds that the use of Zonar’s technology has enhanced the sense of professionalism among the warehouse drivers, as they know issues that may arise with their vehicles will be resolved expediently.
“It has also enhanced the driver’s knowledge of their vehicles while inspiring confidence that their work environment is in safe working [order],” Harris adds.
The data gained via telematics shows the actual routes driven by drivers, associated fuel consumed, and mileage traveled. This lets warehouse planners see and analyze real-world routes and their deviations. It has also helped avoid potential delays associated with road construction or traffic congestion.
“We are now working to use that GPS information to develop more optimal routing scenarios based around delivery time windows, location, and distance with actual driver information to develop and plan more efficient daily routes,” Harris points out.
Potential mileage reductions may also allow for longer maintenance intervals.
“Better oversight and communication with drivers results in less time and resources spent due to drivers getting lost, misdirected, or going off route,” he adds.
