ORANGE FLEET MANAGEMENT SOLUTION HELPS COMPANIES TO COMPLY WITH NEW TRANSPORT WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE

Telemetry Solution Hauls Business into Shape

London 1 December, 2004:  Orange and Mill Transport, one of the leading UK haulage transport companies, today announced successful implementation of Orange Fleet Link, a solution that is enabling the company to receive detailed and accurate information on its fleet of delivery vehicles.  One of the most valuable pieces of information is how long drivers have been on the road, which enables Mill Transport to ensure it complies with the amended Road Transport Working Time Directive.

Initially, the Working Time Directive excluded a number of industries, including road transport, as these sectors required specific legislation to accommodate the nature of their business.  The amended Road Transport Directive makes provision for breaks, rest periods and working time and is required to be implemented by March 2005 in the UK.

Orange Fleet Link uses telemetry technology to transmit information over the extensive Orange GPRS network.  Through a black box fitted on the vehicle dashboards, real time information on location, arrival and departure times and route history is sent to a central server at Mill Transport's headquarters.

Duncan Clark, Contracts Manager, Mill Transport said: "With the new Road Transport Directive coming into place, we wanted to implement the necessary tools to ensure that we comply with the new legislation.  Orange Fleet Link gives us detailed reports on driving/ duty time. This is excellent for the driver and management staff as they get live information regarding duty hours so as to avoid working beyond the new legal constraints.  The historical information stored on the network server is vital for management as they can ensure they have the proof of compliance when the auditors come in."

Mill transport recognised a need to update their fleet management systems, not only for the compliance factor, but also to provide added business benefit.  The Orange system provides 'actual' journey information compared to 'planned' routes that many other fleet management systems provide.  With the ability to measure turn around times at delivery points. Orange has also built in a fuel monitoring element into the solution, enabling Mill Transport to analyse fuel consumption, one of the biggest costs in the haulage industry.

Shaun Orpen, marketing director, business solutions, Orange UK, said: "Orange Fleet Link is an ideal solution for haulage companies like Mill Transport.  It provides a number of business advantages and the real-time responsiveness and monitoring capability ensures that Mill Transport can keep its fleet at optimum production, while driving efficiency through the business."

Mill Transport offers a range of services from ad hoc deliveries to operating core fleets for national and international companies such as Hepworth Building Products, Celsius First, and Frigoscandia AB.  The solution has been installed in 140 heavy goods vehicles, of which 10% will make regular journeys to Southern Ireland and mainland Europe.  Improved fleet management will drive efficiencies across the board through streamlined processes. 

"We are currently rolling out a 'driver initiation package' to train our drivers and communicate the benefits of the system to them," said Duncan Clarke.  "Benefits for them include extra security in cases of hijacks,  back-up information from accident scenes and most importantly a clear way to ensure they are not being overworked and keeping their hours within the working time directive."

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About Orange
Orange, wirefree and any other Orange product or service referred to in this release  are trademarks of Orange.

Orange UK provides high quality coverage to 99% of the UK population, and offers roaming to pay monthly customers on 288 networks in 128 countries and to pay as you go customers on 28 networks in 19 countries.

At the end of December 2003, Orange UK had over 13.6 million active customers, more than any other UK network, making it the UK's number one. 

In October 2003, Orange UK won the Mobile Choice Consumer Awards  - voted for by readers of Mobile Choice magazine – for Best Network Operator for the third year running, and for Best High Street Retailer

The sixth annual J.D. Power and Associates UK Mobile Customer Satisfaction Study published in June 2003 showed that Orange ranks as the number one telephone service for customer satisfaction in the contract sector in the UK.  J.D. Power and Associates 2002-2003 United Kingdom Mobile Customer Satisfaction Study based on a total 2,111 consumer responses.  Orange was ranked number one in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001, when the contract and prepay sectors were combined, and was ranked first in the contract sector in 2002 and 2003. 

Information about Orange can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.co.uk and media information can be found at www.orange.com

For further information, call the Orange media centre on 020 7984 2000
 
About Mill Transport
Mill Transport offers tailored transport solutions to a wide range of industries from the building industries to food service sector.   Services offered include ad hoc deliveries to in-house supply chain - a solution adapting our service to suit the needs of the customers.  Mill Transport is a Yorkshire based company but due to the number of motive units and trailers the company has a visible presence in almost every corner of the UK and Ireland. This presence has recently spread into the Nordics and Europe at large.

For further information, please visit www.milltransport.co.uk