Herd Group adopts Jaama Key2 system

The Herd Group has rolled out Jaama’s Key2 asset management system to run all aspects of its rapidly expanding 2,000-vehicle fleet.

Key2 also powers Herd Connect Brilliant Fleet Management, which is the van hire specialist’s new solution for SMEs that provides an end-to-end system aimed at reducing the burden of in-house van fleet administration.

Herd selected Jaama’s Key2 after a competitive tender for a software solution to manage all aspects of its business including vehicle rental fleet bookings, acquisition, management and disposal, financial accounts, and workshop management. This extends to Herd’s mobile servicing fleet.

A scalable system was crucial to Herd as it runs one of the UK’s fastest growing van hire businesses having just appointed its 13th franchise in Aberdeen.

Mike Cooke, Herd Group’s head of fleet, explained: “Key2 quickly proved that its modular design enabled us to adopt a single system to manage all aspects of our business which was extremely important.

“Herd Group has its own vehicle and business needs, we also need to seamlessly on-board new franchisees and power our new SME vehicle management proposition.”  

At the heart of Herd’s system requirements is to ensure its core van fleet remain safe and compliant. That includes all servicing, maintenance, and MOTs where notifications are scheduled and sent automatically to the relevant Herd site.

Key2 provides a complete fleet picture at all times while being flexible enough to set different parameters for each customer, including recharges, it says.

Cooke continued: “Ultimately, the successful management of the fleet is at the heart of our business which is where Key2 is very strong.

“It takes away a lot of manual intervention from keeping the fleet compliant and enables us to ramp up our fleet expansion plans without the need to employ more people. It ticked every box against what we needed from a system.”

Jaama has also worked in partnership to develop Herd Connect which is the group’s new vehicle management proposition for SMEs and smaller fleets.

Aimed at both car and LCV operators, Herd Group’s cloud-based customer dashboard provides real-time information to its customers in a number of areas. This includes vehicle allocation, utilisation tracking, driver, vehicle and lease management, flexible vehicle rental, driver grade and vehicle band definition, trade up/down management, servicing and maintenance management, accident and risk management, licence checking, risk profiling and fuel management.

Jaama’s MyVehicle App enables drivers to carry out vehicle inspections and log defects via their smart phones, which is fully integrated into the Key2 fleet management system.

Cooke concluded: “Herd Connect effectively becomes a fleet department for customers that do not have resource in place to proactively manage drivers and vehicles themselves.

“It saves on resource and costs and takes the administrative pain away from running vehicles. Key2 has been pivotal to the launch of Herd Connect and provides us with a market-leading service for our customers.”