Fine Lady Bakeries is a traditional, family-run plant bakery, proud of its heritage and even prouder of its quality products. With a commitment to making the best – better, Fine Lady Bakeries is a business that doesn’t simply rest on its years of experience, but looks to strive forward and improve.
The same can be said about its logistics operation. Led by Adam Robson, Logistics Manager, the mission is clear: to deliver products to their customers as safely and efficiently as possible, whilst maintaining the highest service levels.
When it comes to their customers, Fine Lady Bakeries deliver into some of the largest supermarket retailers in the country. Their delicious fresh loaves and rolls are baked on site at their Banbury or Manchester bakeries, packaged up and delivered daily, 364 days a year, into stores across the UK.
As one of the largest commercial bakeries in the UK, they make 50 deliveries a day and cover around 3.2 million miles every year.
The Challenge
All systems, under one provider – that’s the goal for Adam and the Fine Lady Bakeries team. But like many of our customers, managing multiple fleet systems, across multiple platforms can be a real source of pain. Not only do you need individual log on credentials, but getting systems to talk and work together can be a significant challenge.
For Fine Lady Bakeries, not only was this causing headaches but poor customer service was also a concern. With disparate systems and different ways of working, being heard and getting the support they needed to move their operation forward, they felt was holding them back.
Back in 2021, they embarked on their journey to move towards one, integrated solution. And with Microlise’s modular approach, it’s made it easy to level up and take those next steps towards a smoother, more sophisticated way of working.
The Result
From improved fuel efficiency, to avoiding significant cost increases through new roller brake testing legislation, the more Microlise systems Fine Lady Bakeries bring within their fleet package – the more optimised they become. And with one single point of contact, they know their Account Manager is only ever a phone call away; helping move forward with new solutions or upgrades much simpler – and quicker.
In the early days it was about embedding Fleet Performance, giving them the vital fleet telematics data they needed to track vehicles and usage, to improve driving styles and maximise fuel efficiency. Progressing onto Journey Management, this provided visibility of the real-time execution of 50+ deliveries, every day, 365 days a year.
All management information is now consistent, in one place and provides Fine Lady Bakeries with a single source of truth – one that they can rely on to give them accurate and robust data, day in, day out.
Next up was Tachograph Management, keeping track of driver hours and licence checks with the Trutac suite, alongside Remote Tacho Download, they could streamline processes and avoid clunky, manual downloads. More recently, all new vehicles are now fitted with Microlise’s Multi-Camera Systems including forward, near, offside rear-facing cameras, providing the line of sight required and offering immediate incident video footage.
And finally, enter Trailer Brake Performance Monitoring – on-the-go trailer brake monitoring, significantly reducing the number of meaningful brake tests to just once a year.
Trailer Brake Performance Monitoring
Following new trailer brake legislation, Fine Lady Bakeries’ O-Licence requires that their trailers are serviced every eight weeks. For each now laden test, each trailer needs to be loaded, tested and then unloaded, which means tests take longer and cost more in labour.
Adam calculated that his annual servicing cost would increase to over £500 per trailer, and across 82 trailers, they were looking at an additional £80k in service costs alone! Not only was action need to manage these escalating costs but also to tackle increasing vehicle downtime too.
Now, with the new, electronic monitoring devices fitted to their trailers, their brakes can be continually checked, removing the need to take trailers off the road for multiple tests throughout the year.
This, plus savings in fuel from more efficient driving, and a reduction in insurance premiums from enhanced camera safety systems, makes investing in safer, more streamlined fleet operation a winning business decision.
Reduced vehicle downtime through Trailer Brake Performance Monitoring
Improved fuel efficiency through improved driving styles and reduced harsh braking
Improved safety and reduced number of accidents and at-fault claims
What’s next?
With a few more projects in the mix, it won’t be long until each of their 55 trucks and 82 trailers are fully optimised with the latest Microlise tech.
The install team are busy as we speak, upgrading camera systems and working on their extensive trailer fleet.
Up next, we’ll be looking at installing new in-cab Drive Tab devices across the entire fleet and a new TruTac application to support with vehicle maintenance.