The city of Diksmuide is the largest municipality in the Province of West Flanders. It is a merged municipality that has consisted of fifteen sub- municipalities since 1977.
Diksmuide’s technical services department consists of approximately 60 employees and is responsible for managing the city’s roads, green spaces and public buildings.
Since Diksmuide occupies a total surface area of 149.4 km² (16,000 ha), this is definitely a challenge in organisational terms.
Diksmuide’s technical services department possesses a fleet of over 50 vehicles and 150 machines.
The technical service is busy day in, day out keeping the City of Diksmuide safe and clean, and the aldermen and heads of departments ensure that all tasks are completed in a proper and efficient manner. After all, they must also be able to justify the costs that such a service involves to the residents of Diksmuide. Moreover, the heads of department must be able to quickly respond to any complaints and assign new tasks to their team.
Previously, on each occasion the heads of department had to contact the teams by telephone to find out where they were and whether they had time to handle a new task. What’s more, any speeding or parking fines could not be linked to the person driving at the time they were incurred. Ultimately, the municipality had to pay the fines and no preventive measures could be taken to avoid the problem happening again in the future.
An employee was charged with reckless driving and causing an accident, but thanks to the track & trace system installed in the vehicle the head of department was able to prove that his employee was innocent. It showed exactly how fast he was driving and where the vehicle was in relation to the situation.
The City of Diksmuide fitted the Suivo track & trace solution in 42 vehicles, and drivers can now be identified using an RFID reader.
In addition, four lawnmowers and two gritters have been fitted with a PTO connection. This allows the technical services department to see what area has been gritted and where the grass has been mowed at any time.
Using the Suivo track & trace system has delivered significant time and cost savings to the City of Diksmuide. For example, drivers can be monitored more effectively and can adapt their driving behaviour following a possible assessment interview. As a result fuel consumption decreases, maintenance costs fall, vehicles last longer and, last but certainly not least, employee safety increases.
