Dundee electronics firm Stoneridge has hailed the sales success of its new Optimo tachograph after winning a race against time to ensure the product was ready for European markets.
The touch-screen programming and calibration device, designed and built at the city’s Claverhouse Industrial Estate, has boosted revenues to the tune of more than £1.5 million since its launch in early October last year.
Such was the demand that more than 200 customers placed pre-orders ahead of the release date, with new European legislation requiring haulage firms to double-source their tachograph data.
But engineers at the city instrument manufacturer and aftercare provider had to battle against the odds to ensure the unit was ready on time in the face of competition from rivals.
Stoneridge’s Amanda Robertson praised the firm’s engineering staff for their efforts to make sure the tablet-like device was ready to be released to the market.
A slipping development schedule had suggested Optimo may not be ready until as late as April this year, before
Ms Robertson’s move to head up the company’s engineering team as part of a concerted effort to pick-up the pace on a “critical product”.
“There was urgency because this was legislatively-driven, and we needed this product in order to work with these changes,” said Mrs Robertson, who was appointed Stoneridge’s international vice-president for aftermarket sales in August.
“We really had to push hard and fast in order to achieve it.
“It’s been a Dundee-led development project, and we’ve had great help from Scottish Enterprise because the investment needed in order to achieve the plan meant a lot of money needed to be spent.
“It was touch and go whether we could get the product up and running on time. We have had extremely good teamwork to get the product out.
“We had a job to do and everyone in the team committed to make it happen. The guys have done really well and I’m very proud of what they did.”
Bringing the release date forward saw more engineers committed to the project, alongside external sub-contractors.
The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency-approved technology, a winner of two design awards, is now shipped across Europe, with more than 700 units sold to date.
Used alongside a plug-in dongle, the upgradable and “future-proofed” PC-based device allows workshop technicians to programme and calibrate the digital tachographs which record driving hours and other HGV statistics securely and easily.
A change in the law was prompted by the widespread but illegal use of magnets to interfere with modern tachograph recording equipment and disguise fraud over drivers’ hours.
The new system, which was developed with £80,000 in Scottish Enterprise grant support, allows the now legally-required additional recording signals to be set meaning unscrupulous drivers will no longer be able to circumvent on-board equipment.
Stoneridge Electronics, a subsidiary of Ohio-based Stoneridge Inc, employs around 140 people from its Dundee base and posted revenues of £19.3m in the year to the end of 2011.