vehicles
transported every year
vehicles
handled every week
vehicle transporters
in the fleet
As the UK's largest automotive logistics provider, BCA Automotive transports approximately 2.2 million vehicles every year, operating a fleet of more than 1,100 vehicle transporters and handling around 45,000 vehicles every week.
Part of the Constellation Automotive Group, BCA Automotive supports many of the UK's leading manufacturers, leasing companies and fleet operators. With responsibilities ranging from vehicle collections and deliveries to port operations, maintaining the highest standards of safety and vehicle care is critical.
For BCA, success is not measured solely by how quickly a vehicle reaches its destination. The company's reputation depends on ensuring every vehicle is delivered in pristine condition.
However, changing workforce demographics and an industry-wide driver shortage created new challenges that required a fresh approach to recruitment, training and route planning.
the CHALLENGE
A new approach to driver recruitment
Like many transport operators across the UK, BCA faced increasing pressure from a shrinking pool of experienced HGV drivers. An ageing workforce, retirements and post-pandemic labour shortages made recruiting experienced transporter drivers increasingly difficult.
To address the issue, BCA launched its own Driver Academy, creating a new pathway into the industry. Rather than relying exclusively on experienced HGV drivers, the business began recruiting individuals with standard car licences and guiding them through inhouse professional training programmes, helping them obtain their HGV qualifications and develop the specialist skills required to operate vehicle transporters safely.
While the academy successfully expanded the driver talent pool, it also created a new operational challenge.
Matt Roberts, Operations Director at BCA Automotive, explains:
"The Driver Academy allowed us to attract people with the right attitude and potential rather than waiting for experienced transporter drivers to become available.
“We were taking individuals from a car licence through to HGV license acquisition and developing them into professional vehicle transporter drivers.”
“We needed technology that could support them from day one and help them make safe routing decisions every time they left the depot."
"However, this meant we had more drivers entering the business without years of route knowledge.
“Operating a car transporter is very different from driving a standard HGV. Drivers need to consider load height, vehicle positioning, low trees, restricted roads and low bridges as the cargo is exposed.”
The CHALLENGE
For BCA, one of the biggest risks associated with vehicle transportation isn't delayed delivery, it's vehicle damage.
Transporters frequently carry new and nearly-new vehicles worth tens of thousands of pounds each. Even minor contact with overhanging branches can result in costly repairs, customer disruption and additional operational expense.
Low trees and overgrown routes represented a particular challenge, especially when transporting vehicles on upper decks. Furthermore, bridge strikes and encounters with height-restricted infrastructure had the potential to create significant safety risks while impacting service performance and reputation.
"The greatest challenge isn't necessarily finding a route from A to B. It's finding the safest route for the vehicle profile you're driving. We wanted a solution that could proactively identify risks and guide drivers away from hazards before they became incidents."
Matt Roberts, Operations Director at BCA Automotive
BCA required a route planning platform capable of doing far more than conventional satellite navigation. The company needed a solution that could:
Account for varying load heights across vehicle transporters
Identify low bridges and height restrictions
Avoid low trees and overhanging branches
Enable route customization based on operational experience
Improve consistency for newly qualified drivers
Reduce vehicle damage and associated costs
the SOLUTION
Intelligent route planning built around vehicle logistics
Following a detailed evaluation, BCA selected Trimble CoPilot due to its flexibility, customization capabilities and ability to support vehicle-specific routing.
The platform enabled BCA to incorporate its own operational data and route restrictions, creating a routing solution tailored specifically to the demands of automotive logistics.
Matt Roberts explained:
"What attracted us to Trimble was the ability to build routing around our operation, rather than forcing our operation to adapt to the software."
"The system allows us to identify risks such as low trees, low bridges and restricted routes and then actively manipulate route plans to avoid them. That capability is incredibly important when your primary objective is delivering vehicles damage-free."
More recently, BCA has integrated Trimble’s API into its Driver Planning System, providing real-time vehicle arrival data.
This enables more accurate scheduling of collections and deliveries based on optimized routing, while incorporating their bespoke restrictions and operational requirements.
As a result, they have improved planning accuracy, increased operational efficiency and enhanced service reliability for their customers.
Supporting new drivers from day one
The implementation of CoPilot became a key part of BCA's Driver Academy strategy.
Rather than relying solely on local route knowledge built up over years of experience, newly qualified drivers could access routing intelligence from their first day behind the wheel.
This significantly reduced the learning curve associated with operating specialist vehicle transporters.
"The system effectively places years of operational routing knowledge into the cab, helping drivers avoid hazards that they may not otherwise recognize."
Matt Roberts, Operations Director
THE results
Reducing low tree damage
One of the most significant operational benefits has been the reduction in vehicle damage caused by low trees and roadside obstructions.
By combining vehicle-specific routing with continuously updated restriction data, BCA can proactively steer drivers away from routes that present a higher risk to vehicles carried on upper decks.
The business now:
- actively monitors incidents,
- investigates causes
- and introduces new restrictions where required, allowing routing intelligence to continuously improve.
THE results
Enhanced bridge strike prevention
Bridge strike prevention has also become a major component of BCA's routing strategy.
Vehicle transporter heights can vary significantly depending on the types of vehicles being carried.
Trimble CoPilot enables routes to be planned based on specific load profiles, helping drivers avoid low bridges and other height-related hazards before beginning their journeys.
DAMAGE-FREE
delivery performance
BCA now achieves 99.7% damage-free delivery performance across approximately 2 million vehicles transported annually while also improving operational consistency, route efficiency and fuel performance.
THE RESULTs
Improving service performance
The implementation was completed within four months, with high levels of driver adoption across the fleet.
Today, CoPilot supports drivers throughout the organization, from newly qualified Driver Academy graduates to highly experienced transporter operators.
Matt Roberts commented:
"The biggest success has been our ability to reduce preventable damage through smarter route planning."
"We now have far greater visibility and control over how vehicles move around the UK. That means safer routes, better-supported drivers and a more resilient logistics operation."
the future
BCA continues to work closely with Trimble to further enhance driver support, route intelligence and system integration.
Future plans include deeper integration with operational platforms, enhanced in-cab functionality and further development of routing intelligence to support both experienced drivers and Driver Academy graduates.
“The partnership with Trimble has helped us create a safer and smarter transport operation. As we continue to recruit and develop the next generation of drivers through our Driver Academy, having intelligent routing technology will remain essential."
Matt Roberts, Operations Director
