A North America retail chain of home improvement stores is known for selling the tools and materials their customers need to create their in-home visions, all on their own. Unfortunately, many of those do-it-yourselfers don’t have the right vehicles to transport home their big and bulky purchases. With their hearts in the right place, the stores decided to give their customers a DIY load hauling solution by purchasing a fleet of pickups and vans that its customers could rent on an hourly basis.

But for the exact reason the customers need to rent the vehicles — because they don’t own pickups and vans themselves — they do not know how to properly load them for weight and stability. As a result, the customers (and sometimes even the stores’ own employees) were overloading the vehicles, and thereby compounding the wear-and-tear on the them. Fleet operating expenses increased, including repairs on parts like the suspension and brakes, and reduced fuel efficiency degraded the engine performance. In addition, uneven loading was leading to safety hazards, and therefore adding extra liability for the company.

Pleased with their 18-year partnership with Holman, the company turned to us for help. We recommended a simple technology solution — adding a weight sensor to each truck and van that was programmed for the vehicle’s Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR). That’s the maximum amount of weight a vehicle can carry, including the weight of any passengers and cargo.

The sensor would monitor the weight of the customer’s purchases as they are loaded into the vehicle. When the payload reaches the vehicle’s GVWR, the sensor would beep loudly and lock the vehicle in park until the weight is mitigated.

The company agreed and moved forward with Holman’s solution. As a result, the sensor has solved the problem by reducing fleet expenses and eliminating the safety risk.

Are you interested in learning more about fast and simple fleet solutions from Holman? Contact us today!