Case Study - Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd
Background: Family-run Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd has a proud and successful 46-year history in the removals and self-storage industries. Covering business and domestic moves throughout the UK and beyond, the company is not only internationally active but forward-thinking too, having recently opened a newly extended head office in Cwmbran, South Wales and launched a new interactive website.
Recognising that relocation can be a very stressful time, Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd strives to offer an efficient, cost-effective and reassuring service which has enabled businesses and home owners to move properties with the minimum amount of disruption.
This attentiveness along with a highly ethical reputation has awarded Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd the honour of finalist at the British Association of Removers 2016 Commercial Mover of the Year awards.
Challenge: Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd required a crate specialist that would enable them to fulfil exacting requirements of a public health body in Wales. With their operations condensing from 11 sites into one, the potential for items to be misplaced was fairly high. Obviously, the nature of material being relocated, which may have pertained to patients’ health and personal information, falls under data protection legislation, and so required strict handling procedures and traceability.
As experienced commercial movers, Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd had the procedures in place to ensure a safe and accurate relocation but required a system whereby each removal crate could be monitored en route and assurance for their customer that it had been delivered to the right location within the new site. With a large volume of identical-looking crates to be moved, Rob Poyner, Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd’s Group Business Moving Manager turned to phs Teacrate.
Solution: phs Teacrate was able to provide barcoded crates directly to Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd’s customer site in good time for packing to be completed. Prior to removal, each unique barcode was scanned using a PDA which linked the crate to a database detailing its location at time of scanning, it contents and its destination.
The crates were scanned again as they were loaded onto Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd’s removal vehicles, and yet again when they arrived at their new location. At any time during the relocation process, the database could be interrogated to discover the location of a particular crate.
Benefits: The public health body was assured that the right crate was removed to the right location with the confidence of knowing that each crate could have been tracked to the site or vehicle at which it was last scanned. In the unlikely event that a crate had gone astray, its last known location could have been easily retrieved from Cratelink, phs Teacrate’s bespoke data management system.
Since the introduction of phs Teacrate’s barcoded crates to the business, Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd has been able to offer the same high level of traceability to other customers, such as legal firms where the ability to audit a document trail is crucial.
Rob Poyner says, “We’ve experienced a very responsive service from phs Teacrate. I’m often out at client sites and it’s such an advantage to be able to pick up the phone, speak to a friendly, knowledgeable contact at phs Teacrate and discover the progress of crates belonging to any number of Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd’s customer projects. Wherever I am in the UK, I can get the information that I need.
“All members of the team are extremely approachable and calls, emails or online queries are dealt with helpfully. Last minute requests are never a problem and we’ve been able to make use of phs Teacrate’s handy packaging materials service too!
“Thanks to phs Teacrate, barcoding is an additional benefit that we can offer as standard to all Fox Group (Moving & Storage) Ltd customers.”