Menzies Keeps Cargo Moving with Aeromark Tracking Solution

Published 20th May 2008

Aeromark, a leading mobile technology company, today announced that Menzies Aviation, one of the world’s major independent suppliers of ground handling services to the aviation market, is successfully deploying Aeromark’s Aerotrack vehicle tracking solution across its airside fleet at London Heathrow. Aerotrack is enabling Menzies Aviation to accurately monitor Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and to improve productivity and efficiency.


“Our customer base includes airlines and cargo handling agents all working to tight deadlines and delays are costly, so they demand that their cargo is unloaded and loaded as quickly as possible. As a result it is crucial that Menzies can accurately monitor their SLAs to determine why delays have occurred,” said Lesley Coleman, Operations Manager, at Menzies Aviation. “Previously we had to manually measure our SLA performance by checking truck loading and unloading documents when they were returned to our central location and there was the potential for inaccuracies. With Aerotrack we can instantly see where each vehicle is, who the driver is and how long it has been at a specific location.”


Menzies Aviation, collects cargo from warehouses located both airside and landside (on airport/off airport) and takes it out to be loaded on to its customer’s planes. “Our vehicles have to be at the right stand, at the right time,” explained Coleman. “When unloading planes our vehicles must be waiting when the plane arrives at its stand. We simply cannot allow our vehicles to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and if they are, we need to understand why. We needed a tracking solution that would deliver this capability plus it needed to have operational tool capabilities that would deliver information to help us to manage the day to day running of our business.”


Aerotrack, a component of Aeromark’s Optimatics, which takes traditional Telematics solutions to the next level, was chosen by Menzies Aviation. The solution comprises of a mobile data terminal (MDT) with voice capability allowing connection to ten pre-programmed telephone numbers. Menzies drivers are issued with identification key tags which are recognised by the MDT, enabling both the tracking of the vehicle and identification of individual drivers. Menzies is now able to monitor exactly when a vehicle arrives and departs from a location, and to accurately track its position when it is on the move.


“Aerotrack enables us to instantly understand why a SLA has not been met. We can see that a vehicle was held at a security checkpoint for much longer than normal or that a vehicle arrived at a stand on time but that the plane was delayed or that it arrived at the warehouse but had to wait for the cargo to be loaded,” Coleman added. “Aerotrack allows us to more accurately monitor when a vehicle has cleared a job, and is available for the next one, which has helped us to increase our productivity and efficiency as we have reduced the amount of time our vehicles are idle.


Aeromark was the obvious choice for Menzies as it has been deploying its tracking solutions for its landside fleet since 1997. “I was given a demonstration of how Menzies was using the latest version of the Aeromark solution to track our vehicles which deliver and collect cargo from warehouses located at London Heathrow to and from other UK airports,” said Coleman. “Our existing strong relationship with Aeromark made it very easy to work with them on the unique additional requirements of an airside solution. For example we did not need mapping that detailed road names, we needed the location of stand numbers.”


An important feature for Menzies Aviation was the ability to build into the software a ‘Lights On’ warning’ to be triggered when the ignition is turned off, to prevent vehicles becoming totally immobile as a result of a flat battery. Stranded vehicles can cause serious delays to aircraft by blocking stands and hampering the operation of the airport. The Aeromark solution also enables Menzies to monitor airside speeding events, providing the opportunity for the company to re-train individual drivers.


“Aerotrack ensures that we have satisfied customers as we are able to keep their cargo on the move and get their planes back in the air as quickly as possible,” concluded Coleman.


About Menzies Aviation

Menzies Aviation is one of the world's major independent suppliers of ground handling services to the aviation market providing passenger, ramp and cargo services for many of the world's leading airlines and some of the busiest international airports. The division employs some 14,500 people across the world, operating at some 122 airports in 28 countries servicing more than 500 aviation customers.

For further information please visit www.menziesaviation.com.



About Aeromark

Aeromark is a provider of mobile technology and the next level of telematics, Optimatics. Aeromark’s are the only systems to gain the status of a Branded Solution for Orange and Preferred Telematics Partner for Vodafone. Aeromark’s Optimatics is a powerful new technology platform specifically designed for companies with field-based staff. Based on a simple ASP model with an intelligent interrogation engine at its core, Optimatics combines complex data feeds from Aeromark’s telematics systems with its own and other third party solutions to deliver previously unattainable analysed data. Access to this new data helps organisations to reduce operating costs, optimise productivity and increase customer service levels. Aeromark also offers end-to-end support to its customers and its systems are warranted for life.