Natuurpunt is an independent Flemish volunteer association headquartered in Mechelen, composed of several non-profit organizations working on nature conservation, nature study, and nature education. Since 2021, the Facility Unit has been using LIVE.connect to track who drives which of the seven pool cars via existing staff badges, and correctly charges the costs of those pool cars to the appropriate non-profit organization.
Bert spoke to about four firms, but AllConnects was the only one that managed to pull it off – quite brilliantly, I suppose. They really had to put in serious effort. Apparently, it really wasn't a given.
About Natuurpunt
Natuurpunt is an independent volunteer association consisting of several non-profit organizations. These work in various domains: nature conservation through purchase or management, the study and monitoring of nature, and nature education.
For locations that are difficult to reach by public transport, employees of the various non-profit organizations can make use of seven shared pool cars.
The challenge: fairly distributing the costs of the pool cars
Diederik Willems from the Facility Unit explains how things used to work:
The costs of those pool cars were passed on to the various non-profits on a pro rata basis. Not according to how much they drove, but according to the number of staff members. But that is, of course, completely incorrect. The people from management and research, for example, drive around much more than people from policy.
Natuurpunt therefore needed an accurate cost calculation, preferably with significantly less manual work.
The condition: continue using the existing badges
The employees already use a company badge to check in and out. Natuurpunt wanted that same badge to also work for signing in to the pool car. That proved less straightforward than expected: Bert Jacobs from the Facility Unit spoke to four suppliers, and AllConnects was the only one who managed to make it happen.
For example, driver identification registers who is driving which pool car for every trip, without employees needing an extra badge or code.
The Solution
Natuurpunt works with LIVE.connect. Both FLEET.connect and LIVE.connect track your vehicles, but you choose LIVE.connect when you want to combine this with team management.
Because every trip is linked to a driver, Natuurpunt now charges all kilometers to the correct service, without manual calculations.
Kilometers per non-profit organization
Each trip is linked to a driver, so the costs go to the service that actually drove.
Find car quickly
Did someone forget to make a reservation or fail to badge in properly? With live tracking , the pool car is quickly located.
Assign fines
If it is not immediately clear who was driving, the system points in the right direction.
Simple management
Creating and managing new users is easy, and you can extract a lot of data from it.
Maintenance and inspection automatically followed up
An advantage Natuurpunt had not counted on beforehand: maintenance and inspections are now also automatically followed up.
You can also enter your vehicle maintenance alerts there. When maintenance is needed, technical inspections, and things like that. We actually didn't have that before. That is a plus point we have also gained. Previously, we had to keep track of all that in Excel and extract the mileage readings. Now it all arrives automatically in your mailbox.
A collaboration without surprises
Diederik and Bert are both full of praise for the guidance provided by their former account manager at AllConnects.
You can tell that as a salesperson, he has mastered that technical background. He works magic with it, thinks it's cool, and understands everything. He has mastered it, and it gets done. And we can say the same about his after-sales service.
Diederik and I were quickly convinced that we wanted to work with them. That had to do with what they could do with those badges and also with our project manager at AllConnects himself. He didn't promise anything he couldn't deliver and delivered on everything. And that is a very nice way of working. You don't buy a pig in a poke.
Pool cars that pay for every shift correctly?
We would be happy to look together at how you link trips to the right driver and service, using the badges you already have.
