How TomTom Telematics Can Keep Your Business Moving Forward Successful businesses need to find ways to improve their margins while still delivering excellent and efficient customer service. VDM's CEO, Deon van der Merwe, explains why this wouldn't be possible in his business without TomTom Telematics' solutions.

When TomTom Telematics entered the South African market in 2010, the local team took a deep dive into the different industry verticals they were servicing.

The more they got to know their customers, the more they realised a different solution was needed to address local conditions, and a subscription model was introduced whereby customers didn't need to invest a large capital outlay into TomTom Telematics' technology, but would receive the tech and software, including installation, at no extra cost, in exchange for a monthly subscription fee.

This model gives SMEs affordable access to TomTom Telematics' solutions, but it's had another benefit as well: As TomTom Telematics introduces new innovations, existing customers can benefit — without the costs associated with replacing all of their existing technology themselves.

An indispensable tool

For a transport and logistics business like VDM Group, which has more than 160 vehicles on the road, this means they have access to incredible new offerings, without needing to replace their TomTom units themselves.

"TomTom plays a critical role in our business," says Deon van der Merwe, CEO of VDM Group. "It's an indispensable tool in ensuring quality customer feedback and the management of KPIs for all supply chain stakeholders.

"Earlier this year, TomTom Telematics launched their New WEBFLEET product. We were very satisfied with what we had, and yet they still approached us and offered to replace all our existing units with new tablets, and they're covering the installation costs," explains Deon.

"New WEBFLEET is the result of TomTom innovating their product based on customer feedback from around the world, and the local team wanted to ensure we had access to the additional functionality and innovations that had been introduced."

Seamless integration with your network

According to Deon, the new TomTom PRO 8275 units seamlessly integrate VDM's fleet scheduling software with information they extract from TomTom, including individual vehicles' standing time and arrival notifications.

"The software from TomTom is open API, which means that all our various applications can communicate and interact with each other," he explains. "From a productivity perspective, we no longer need to manually capture any trip information.

In addition, we have every conceivable piece of data available that will assist us to run a leaner, more cost-effective fleet, enabling us to ensure that we are delivering on all our KPIs — particularly with regards to meeting our customers' needs."

VDM is a large transport business, but Deon believes the benefits for SMEs are as great, if not more so. "Many SMEs don't have the back-office support that we do. The ability to capture and use this information without a team of admin specialists at your disposal is a huge competitive advantage for smaller businesses," he says.

Offering you the competitive edge

VDM offers a specialised logistics service that creates custom-made options for clients. In order to ensure the most optimal and cost-effective solutions, while still ensuring top quality delivery, they need to consider special and complex individual customer requirements, from the point of origin to the point of destination, before finalising a customer-specific solution.

"We take into account a host of factors, including inventory carrying costs, volume requirements, product specific factors and route to market," explains Deon.

"Road transport significantly impacts total supply chain costs, and if not managed properly, can have a severe impact on the sustainability of any particular channel. We try and manage this risk by continuously improving our service through innovative logistical solutions, the use of advanced technology, vertical integration and a team of passionate and talented experts.

TomTom assists in creating differentiators

"This focus has helped us to develop a market offering that includes dedicated and completely flexible inter-modal solutions, which is a big differentiator for us. TomTom Telematics plays a key role in our total productivity, helping us measure the performance of road transport across our supply chain."

Deon believes that what you don't measure you won't know.

"TomTom provides updated fleet statistics that allow us to constantly benchmark our fleet against pre-defined route surveys and, in so doing, enables massive savings in fuel and total turnaround time.

Communicating via the WEBFLEET platform also helps us save time and creates a formal trail of correspondence with our drivers. I don't believe it's possible to successfully run a business like ours without a solution like this."