How what3words has Transformed the Way We Do Business
At Morclean, we undertake a vast amount of project work including excavation, civils, and installations for high-end car marques, national UK car auction sites, major ports, waste transfer stations, recycling depots, municipal/government/council depots, national funeral care, rail, shipping, and more.
From the onset, we need to see a site to spec, price, and provide drawings. Normally this involves driving to the site and a physical inspection or site survey. However, it is near impossible for our team to visit every single site.
What Location?
Recent Covid-19 restrictions have been a catalyst in this and have pushed many firms to work smarter.
Take Guilford, for example, one of the sites we’re currently looking to progress. It’s anyone’s guess which building it is, never mind the precise location. We can’t even rely on the building name because the firm has taken over previous premises, and even the main contractor isn’t aware of the name on the building.
As we said earlier, it would be near impossible to visit every site.
Added Confusion
This meant that our clients were having to describe over the phone where the location of our installation would be, saying things like: "the workshop near the front" or "the storage unit at the back". Whereas we could only see a roof while not being familiar with the usage of each building. With a road on either side, we couldn't decipher which was the front or the back, and when we could only see a roof we don’t know where the reception was to identify the front or back of a unit.
We even had one client describe the area as “where the offices used to be...”
Some sites are vast, very often ports, and large areas of land have more than one postcode which makes it difficult to fully understand locations, orientations, and positions looking at an ariel map with a postcode.
Very often the Google images are taken on a day when, for e.g., trucks are parked in a row, or a temporary building is in place. When describing the site to us the client can be looking at an empty yard, or where a temporary building has now been removed; or where no trucks are parked at that time, and therefore reference points are vague.
The Solution
Then we came across what3words (w3w), the ingenious app that allows you to pin down precise locations.
With w3w we can now quote desk-to-desk versus losing a full day visiting the site (3.5 hours each way from our offices to Guildford, for example).
We need specific locations and positions within a site – services, drain covers, etc. The location of services or a manhole or drain on a proposed site can create major issues or changes to civil works, etc. if we’re not aware of their position in relation to our installation.
We need to be certain to have interpreted the site correctly. In fact, in the past we have even conceded to having to visit the site because the descriptions and information are too vague, the client doesn’t fully understand what to look for (a drain cover, etc), or they simply haven’t got the time and have an expectation that we will make all the decisions.
With w3w, we are now able to spec, price, draw and plot on an image exactly where our installation will be positioned (or offer an alternative location) without even leaving our desks.
With w3w we have:
- Clarity and speed
- Exact positions/locations/orientations
- Easy to communicate locations
- No confusion
- Less time describing the site
- Certainty
- Specific locations
- Reduced travel and time
- More efficiency and professionalism
If you’re not sure how to get where you need to be, download w3w today.
email: info@morclean.com | tel: 01246 471147 | web: www.morclean.com
Comments
Post a Comment