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Scotia Gas Networks

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Scotia Gas Networks

Scotia Gas Networks enjoys 14% drop in overtime claims

Scotia Gas Networks is the second largest UK gas distribution company supplying 5.7 million homes and businesses across a wide swathe of the south east of England and throughout Scotland. It supplies gas to domestic, commercial and industrial customers through 75,000 kilometres of gas mains. In Scotland, three quarters of households, including many in remote areas, receive their gas from the company. Across a wide area of southern England, stretching from Milton Keynes to Dover in the east and Lyme Regis in the west, including London boroughs south of the Thames, almost four million households and businesses are supplied.

The Challenge

With 1,500 mobile engineers providing 24/7 coverage across a large area of southern England that includes some of the most densely populated and heavily trafficked parts of the UK, knowing the precise location of engineers and getting them between jobs as efficiently as possible, was a major challenge to SGN.

The nature of the job requires SGN to attend emergencies quickly in order to meetings its obligations to protect the public and to meet tough regulatory requirements. Also the ability to give customers accurate ‘expected time of arrival’ information was key to managing their expectations and providing a high level of service. Locating key network installations, especially in the hours of darkness and often by engineers who were outside of their normal territory, was also crucial.

Improving the safety of its engineers on the move, was an additional consideration for the company along with minimising vehicle mileage, cutting fuel usage and reducing the overall level of emissions from its fleet.

The Solution

The Connected Navigation solution provided by Webfleet Solutions WORK is based on each vehicle being fitted with the Webfleet Solutions LINK 300 vehicle tracking device and a Webfleet Solutions GO satellite navigation screen. The Webfleet Solutions GO navigation device determines the best route to a location and guides the driver there with both a 3D map view and spoken instructions. The system is constantly updated with traffic information to include potential holdups resulting from roadworks and traffic congestion. Its use contributes to safer driving by removing the need to consult paper maps or written instructions.

The Webfleet Solutions LINK 300 box feeds information between the vehicle and the control room through Webfleet Solutions WORK’s unique Webfleet Solutions WEBFLEET system. This enables the control room to allocate jobs to an available engineer who is nearest to the location of the task. This, along with the precise navigation information provided by the GO unit, will reduce wasted mileage as well as improving customer response times.

The system, which is being progressively rolled out over 18 months, will bring major benefits to the company and its customers by:

  • improving call-out response times, particularly in emergencies
  • bringing added flexibility to the management of SGN’s large field engineering team
  • eliminating unnecessary travel leading to reduced fuel usage and a lower environmental impact
  • protecting assets and aiding recovery should a vehicle be stolen
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