KOREC System Helps FM Conway to Reach Million

Specialising in the maintenance of highway and surface water drainage systems, FM Conway's Cleansing Division has adapted its KOREC mapping systems to provide ‘added value' to potential customers and help win new contracts such as this.

Tristan Miles, FM Conway's Director of Cleansing explains, "We've been looking for a solution for plotting gullies for a number of years. When we won a cleansing contract for West Sussex County Council with our client contractors May Gurney, it was on the basis that we had a GPS mapping solution in place. West Sussex Council worked closely with us to come up with a method that would enable them to proactively manage their gullies through the accurate plotting of their location and recording of specific attribute information. Over a period of time they could then build up a history of each asset enabling them to prioritise where work was needed most to increase drainage capacity and at the same time reduce unnecessary cleaning in other areas and consequently, unnecessary costs."

FM Conway trialled a number of systems before contacting Trimble's UK and Irish distributor, KOREC, and opting for their Trimble GeoXT sub-metre GPS handheld with FastMap Mobile software on board. Tristan continues, "We now have 20 GeoXTs and their large internal memory makes them the perfect platform for us to load an entire county's OS MasterMap data onto. We can achieve sub-metre accuracy positioning of the gullies but importantly also have the option to plot manually, directly onto the map, if there is a car parked over the gully or in the rare occurrence that we can't get a signal. KOREC's FastMap Mobile software allows us to move the positions of gullies on the map if they have previously been mapped incorrectly whilst the continuous movement of the on board maps means that our drivers can also use them as a navigational aid. Our drivers love the fact that they are rugged and that the FastMap software is straightforward. A pre-defined database means that they record information from dropdown lists covering everything from data, time, silt levels, defects etc. and there is little room for error. Although we did have a few teething problems initially, they were quickly rectified by KOREC and after the first couple of weeks we've barely received another driver query"

Back at the FM Conway office, data is downloaded into FastMap Office, checked for errors by their skilled GIS technicians and then forwarded to clients as a SHAPE file that can be dropped straight into their GIS for immediate use.

Tristan concludes, "We now have much closer control of the data that we collect because we get to see it before it's sent to the client. This means we get the job done right first time. The success of our first project with West Sussex Council has really opened up new opportunities for us and our ability to offer clients this positional and attribute information as an extra service has helped us win further contracts across the Country. This increase in business means that our Cleansing Division now carries out just over one million gully cleans every year!