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Investment in new technology and a driver instructor team is saving Tesco.com £3.5 million per year.
That’s the price the company estimates it would be paying to repair vehicles in its 2,000-strong fleet involved in collisions if it had not addressed what it says was a growing problem.
“As your fleet grows, you expect costs to grow,” said Dino Papas, fleet and equipment operations manager for Tesco.com.
“What we were finding was that was the case and the faster the fleet grew the faster van damage grew.”
The key to tackling this, according to Mr Papas, was more effective people management and the decision was made to invest in a driver instructor team.
In addition, an accident review board was formed to review every incident through a weekly conference call.
Investment in telematics followed, but it was the investment in people that Mr Papas believes has really paid dividends.
Seen as the public face of the organisation, Tesco.com’s 6,000 drivers were christened customer delivery assistants.
By investing in people and in technology, and despite fleet growth of 27% in the past couple of years, van damage is down to 2005/06 levels and it has achieved a fuel saving of between 10-11%.
- Mr Papas won the Van Fleet Manager of the Year – Delivery/Logistics Award at the inaugural Fleet Van Awards held on the evening of the conference.