Hand-held mobile solution keeps Covent Garden market as fresh as the produce
June 14 2006

Covent Garden Market Authority has upped the cleaning ante by investing in a hand-held mobile solution that ticks all the right boxes, without the tick sheet, and is helping it raise the bar on standards.

4,000 vehicles a day roll in and out of the 56-acre Covent Garden market site in Nine Elms Lane, London with their cargoes of flowers, fruit and vegetables. The biggest market in London, Covent Garden is almost a city in itself. “An extraordinary site to be so close to the centre,” remarks Robin Hope, Deputy General Manager for Covent Garden Market Authority (CGMA), who manage the mammoth facility.

Up to 2,500 tenants, staff and wholesalers a day populate Covent Garden, leaving the Authority with a huge commitment to match their expectations for cleanliness and hygiene. It’s the herculean task of Cleaning Inspector Colin Corderoy to oversee standards on site which is particularly important in view of the quantity of food coming in and out.

“The busiest time here is from midnight to 4 or 5am, when the traders, buyers and deliveries arrive. By 10am, the lorries are pulling away and by 11.30am, they’re gone. That’s when the bulk of the cleaning is completed. By 2.30 –3pm, the place is spotless.” Corderoy continues, “My first inspection – at 6am – is in the toilets – they’re a priority, although everything is important in my eyes”. The inspection operation runs like a smoothly oiled machine but there came a point where he knew that new technology could make a big impact on the job.

“I first saw PowerSurvey at a trade show”, Hope recalls. “`That looks interesting`, I thought. `A hand-held computer for what we do here would be very helpful because we have such a large site’. After comparing different makes, we chose PowerSurvey.” Corderoy adds: “The ability to bespoke PowerSurvey proved decisive. We wanted to create something for ourselves from scratch rather than have to adapt to someone else’s system.”

Corderoy patrols the site checking the 380 or so barcoded labels that are located strategically around the site, each entered on the PowerSurvey’s database. “Every time I put a new barcode out I enter it on the database. Once entered, the number cannot be erased”, he says. “If a barcode gets ripped off, I simply go back and put in another barcode number. PowerSurvey records everything - the time I started the survey, writing the survey, the time I finished it, any maintenance or cleaning fault, response time and remedial time. If a fault needs an immediate response, I’ll return within half an hour to check that it’s been done.”

This handheld is placed in a cradle to download the surveys although a GPRS enabled version of PowerSurvey is available. All the information gathered during the inspection is downloaded, ready for acting on as necessary. Once downloaded, the data can be printed off on separate pages and a copy of “the remedials” given to the cleaning manager for attention, plus a rundown of the inspections carried out.

“The unit has saved us so much paperwork, tick-boards and pen. We thought that it was going to be complicated but it’s not. The site’s cleanliness has certainly ensured we have a much better relationship with the tenants and the general public and it helps attracts new tenants. The compliments on cleaning standards come in thick and fast, which certainly never happened when I first arrived five years ago.”

“The inspection process has brought other benefits too” Hope explains. “Insurance has been one of the main issues that have come to the fore over the last three years or so. As the health and safety risk manager of the Authority, one of my priorities is the inspection of staircases for trip hazards to ensure nothing is lying about such as bottles and cans. We have a very good record – the cleaning data helps us keep it that way by acting as a defence against certain personal injury claims. Someone might claim to have fallen over something on this or that staircase on that day. We can say that we are aware that we inspected it on that day and here’s our regime and we can prove what we’ve been doing.”

PowerSurvey was developed and supplied by ROCC.

A Microsoft Gold Partner, member of the ORACLE partner network and Adobe partner, ROCC is a UK wide operation with an HQ in Brighton with offices throughout the UK. For further information please contact Meeta Patel, Promotions Manager, on telephone number 01273 274713 or email marketing@rocc.co.uk.