Bakers Basco has boosted the use of GPS tracking devices by 50% as part of an ongoing effort to increase efficiencies across its operations and investigations.
The membership scheme, which was set up by Allied Bakeries, Fine Lady Bakeries, Frank Roberts & Sons, Hovis, and Warburtons to provide and manage bakery equipment, first introduced GPS technology to its equipment in 2015.
Since then, it has been through a number of upgrades and enhancements with Bakers Basco significantly upping investment as it has proven to significantly reduce losses and improve recovery levels by its national investigations team to find and reclaim missing equipment.
The latest iteration of custom-made GPS trackers weigh in at approximately 140g. They were designed by Lightbug to be as small as the size of a deck of cards but boast an increased battery life of up to 15 years, Bluetooth 5.0 technology, remote controlled alarms for equipment tracking alerts, and NFC capabilities.
The trackers are also being used by Bakers Basco to identify the turn rate for each channel in the business, establishing the time it takes for equipment to return from the customer base. This allows teams to identify which channels and locations have potential bottlenecks and backlogs.
GPS tracking technology continues to play a key role in a number of successful court cases securing judgement in Bakers Basco’s favour and was involved in 22% of charges made during the last financial year.
“Our investment in GPS tracking technology will only grow further as we continue to explore the potential of how this technology can help with our recovery efforts,” says Stacey Brown, national investigations manager, Bakers Basco.
“We’re also seeing benefits on the operations side of the business as it enables us to better track backlogs and bottlenecks and work more efficiently,” she added.
Ex-police officer Brown, who also has experience as a bakery manager at a Tesco Extra in the north east, joined the organisation in 2022. She has been tasked with overseeing the investigations team as it expands into new areas and industries outside of bakery – specifically festivals, markets, and events – as part of a more measured approach to how the company runs investigations.
In March this year, Bakers Basco reported it had seen marked improvements in attrition rates across its bread baskets and dollies.
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