Insight: New Year's Resolutions 2015

Improving efficiency, reducing grey fleet risk and balancing diesels and hybrids are high on fleet operators’ wishlists for 2015. Ben Rooth reports

Peter Bonney, fleet controller, Salvation Army

What is the initiative? Getting a better balance of vehicles, including diesels and hybrids, within our fleet of 775 cars.

When do you plan to introduce it? From the start of the new tax year in April.

Why are you introducing it? We introduced a petrol-only policy for ministers and other employees in 2011 which has much to do with the fact that most of them are based in urban areas and do comparatively low-mileage city driving. We’d previously had issues with diesel particulate filters (DPFs) as some cars simply didn’t get taken on to the motorway in order to regenerate them. In response to the fact that there are some ministers and employees serving rural areas who frequently drive for relatively long distances, we believe that it’s now appropriate to reintroduce them into our fleet. For car users in urban areas we are looking to make petrol electric hybrid vehicles more accessible.

How is it being introduced? We’re aiming to draw up a new policy during the first three months of 2015 to allow for benchmarking, with three power options: petrol, hybrid and diesel.

The intention is to have a revised policy ready to roll at the start of our new financial year in April.

At the moment, our thinking is that ministers and other employees who do less than 20,000 miles will be eligible for a petrol or hybrid car, while those with higher annual mileage will be able to have a diesel.

We have been holding stakeholder consultations, and these have led us to believe that the current policy does not work well for higher-mileage drivers and that whilst a greater number than current of urban users would consider a hybrid, they are not always willing to downsize to achieve this.

Ronnie Wilson, fleet manager, NG Bailey

What is the initiative? We’re attempting to be accredited with the Freight Transport Association’s (FTA) Van Excellence which is awarded only to van operators that can show they reach the requisite standards required to operate a fleet of vans - with safety being the main criteria.

When do you plan to introduce it? We plan to have our first audit with the FTA’s assessor in January.

Why are you introducing it? At NG Bailey, we place a premium on the safety of our drivers. I’ve actively been encouraging our staff to regard themselves as professional drivers when they are behind the wheel for some time now. If we receive this accreditation, it’ll be an endorsement of the safety practices that we currently have in place. Alternatively, we’ll find out if we’re doing anything wrong.

How is it being introduced? We’ve already introduced best practice safety processes. For example, the drivers are going to be monitored in daily pre-use checks that HGV drivers undertake. In effect, a safety audit trail is already in place. The FTA will be auditing these existing processes and letting us know what we’re doing well.

Gillian Joyce, national fleet manager, Post Office

What is the initiative? Addressing the grey fleet risk

When do you plan to introduce it? A trial is currently underway, which commenced in late summer 2014.

Why are you introducing it? We are introducing this as one of many measures to improve road risk. Having previously been under the umbrella of the Royal Mail Group, Post Office is now wholly responsible for its grey fleet of around 2,000 vehicles. We’ve identified a number of opportunities to mitigate risk in this area – and are now acting on them.

How is it being introduced? Our trial is looking at the effectiveness of several ways of minimising risk when it comes to grey fleet users.

For a start, we’ve produced and issued a ‘driver’s manual’ for private car users highlighting their own responsibilities towards road risk and the safety of their vehicle. In addition, we’re actively:

¦ Performing driver licence checks – via the DVLA online registry – for private car users

¦ Verifying with the employee that their personal car insurance includes business use cover

¦ Checking that the employee’s private vehicle has a valid MOT

¦ Declining to insure employee additional drivers such as friends and family if they are identified to pose a risk after checking their driving history

In addition, we’ve instigated a ‘no use’ of personal cars for business mileage until these checks have been completed.

We’ll be rolling the trial out to a wider section of the Post Office’s grey fleet users in the first part of 2015 and anticipate that it will be implemented nationally later next year.

Larry Bannon, national fleet services manager, NHS Blood and Transplant

What is the initiative? Fully install a transport management system (TMS) to ensure the greatest possible fleet efficiency.

When do you plan to introduce it? We’ve installed OBS Logistics’s TMS in two of our sites and intend to roll it out across the remaining 13 during the first part of 2015.

Why are you introducing it? NHSBT delivers blood and blood products to hospitals nationwide: getting to the right place at the right time is imperative. Basically, we want to ensure that our fleet is best utilised at every point in the day, and installing the TMS is an ideal way to achieve this. In September, we installed TomTom telematics across our 230 vehicles which tracks each vehicle. This will, ultimately, work in conjunction with the TMS to give us the most accurate picture of what’s happening across our fleet and what needs to happen.

How is it being introduced? The new system will be phased in during the first half of 2015. It will enable us to track and trace where vehicles are at any given point. We’ve previously operated a paper system where we’d manually log vehicle locations and this sometimes resulted in missed opportunities to maximise deliveries and collections. The TMS, combined with telematics, will overcome this. We’re also analysing data produced by telematics to ensure safe driving practices.

Rick Young, fleet manager, Wakefield and District Housing

What is the initiative? We’re introducing a new, updated Driver Policy and Procedures for Fleet Vehicles document across our entire fleet.

When do you plan to introduce it? I’m anticipating that it should be in place by the end of February.

Why are you introducing it? At the moment, we have around 150 Citroen vans and 250 Volkswagen vans. All the Volkswagens were introduced in June 2014, but it’s our intention to have a fleet that consists entirely of Volkswagens on four-year contracts by March 2016. Currently, we’ve got two separate driver policies in place depending on the make of vehicle being driven. I want this to be streamlined with one universally relevant document that’s stored in each vehicle so that a driver knows exactly what to do if, for example, they break down or are involved in a collision.

How is it being introduced? Our last driver policy was introduced in 2012 and the primary reason for this programme is to ensure that the document reflects the changing dynamics of our fleet as we move from Citroën to Volkswagen. When this process is complete, the new document will include vehicle specific details for each make, such as tyre pressures, sizes and driver assistance contact numbers. I anticipate that the policy will be reviewed once we’ve completed the transition by April 2016.