Unprepared businesses to count the cost of winter compensation claims

(PRWEB UK) 14 January 2013

GRITIT undertakes 100,000 service visits on average across the UK during the wintertime. Partnering with innovative companies to keep job efficiency on a clear path, it selected Masternaut to provide the ‘window on the mobile workforce’ it was looking for to guarantee legal compliance for its customers in the private and public sectors.

The number of people across the UK making claims for personal injuries over the winter months has increased by 23 percent over the past four years (1). Reports suggest that this upward trend is expected to continue which business should mitigate against.

GRITIT’s snow clearance and gritting services are fully automated through a number of integrated specialist management tools, creating a powerful operating system. 200 gritting vehicles have been fitted with Masternaut telematics technology, with the sophisticated tracking software enabling GRITIT to manage its PDA-based mobile workforce in real-time.

Martin Hiscox, Chairman and CEO, Masternaut, commented: “GRITIT’s strategic approach has seen them integrate our technology end-to-end and has transformed their ability to provide their customers with innovative, reliable and accountable service whilst at the same time providing a wealth of operational tools to improve productivity and manage risk.”

As Masternaut is able to confirm a vehicle’s location for its clients, drivers won’t face the need to frequently return to the depot, providing the platform to service additional customers via live real-time job scheduling. Masternaut’s business intelligence solution has also led to an increased awareness of driver safety. Control room managers can now take immediate action without driver input, based solely on the strength of data feedback.

In addition to injury claims, companies may find their insurance is compromised if they cannot prove best efforts to maintain premises and eliminate risk. The Masternaut system is used as a source of accountability for GRITIT’s customers and front-line employees during the snow season. Masternaut’s vehicle tracking provides proof of attendance, leading to a reduced number of complaints against scheduled gritting jobs.

GRITIT Managing Director, Nikki Singh-Barmi, believes it isn’t too late for companies to get a winter risk strategy in place. He adds: “The law places responsibility on employers and owners or occupiers to ensure that premises are maintained to a level that reduces the risk of injury. Anything hazardous, such as snow and ice, must be removed.

“At GRITIT we’ve spent all summer planning and getting ourselves, our equipment and – more importantly – our clients ready for what may lie ahead. The importance of ‘getting it right’; or being as accurate as you can be when it comes to business planning for snowfall and icy conditions, cannot be underestimated.”

Providing services to major retailers, offices, the NHS and schools, GRITIT uses a corporate weather forecasting service provided by MeteoGroup that has 97.67%. percent accuracy in short-term forecasting. The weather reports are entered into a unique web-based solution for rigorous management of UK-wide commercial gritting operations. GRITIT required complete compatibility if it was going to introduce new processes into its reporting and job scheduling system.

Masternaut’s system ensures the right vehicles are sent to suitable locations, creating greater job efficiency. Masternaut uses GPS to track the gritters, with the information automatically transmitted via GPRS so that the position of the vehicle can then be recorded. This information is available to the gritting managers in real-time for accurate reporting or incident management. A daily report is also delivered by email for historical monitoring. Accumulating and securely storing this information allows GRITIT to create a legally compliant audit trail providing details as to the location of any vehicle within the fleet, at any given time.

ENDS

(1) Figures from the Compensation Recovery Unit of the Department for Work and Pensions – winter months of November to March 2012.

Images to accompany the news:

Masternaut logo

GRITIT vehicle

About Masternaut

Masternaut is Europe’s largest provider of telematics solutions. With over 550 employees and more than 10,000 customers, Masternaut designs and delivers innovative mobile workforce management technologies. These products drive tangible savings and service improvements for customers and partners, across all parts of the organisation; from finance to HR, operations to customer service.

Masternaut has the largest telematics R&D team in Europe, continuously innovating to deliver the most reliable and scalable platform available. The company has over 300,000 assets, vehicles and people connected to its Software-as-a-Service solutions. Over 12,000 users interact every hour with the systems, and over 45 million data transactions are processed and configured into 16,500 reports every day.

Founded in 1996, Masternaut equips businesses and fleet operators with the tools to achieve lower fuel consumption, reduced wear and tear, greater operational efficiencies, improved management of driver behaviour, and a reduction in CO2 emissions.

With customers in 32 countries, Masternaut is headquartered in Marlow, UK, with European regional offices in France, Germany, Spain and Sweden.

Website: http://www.masternaut.com

About GRITIT

GRITIT (http://www.gritit.com) is the UK’s leading provider of winter gritting and maintenance services, providing protection for clients against the financial and physical risks of adverse weather.

Founded in 2004, the award-winning company was the first in the UK to focus exclusively on winter gritting and maintenance services and has developed a reputation as an innovator and market leader in this specialist field.

GRITIT currently provides specialist gritting and snow-clearance to private and public companies in the retail, commercial, industrial, logistics and health sectors. In an average winter GRITIT will provide more than 100,000 service visits across the UK from its 92 depots.

Over recent years, it has become abundantly clear that adverse cold weather can be detrimental to business. GRITIT is able to minimise this exposure by keeping premises open, operational and by preventing unnecessary closures.

GRITIT saves businesses money by ensuring they remain operational during adverse weather conditions and by preventing accidents and reducing the unnecessary costs of injury.

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