Canal & River Trust says it has made significant efficiency gains since installing Navman Wireless vehicle tracking across its fleet of 420 vehicles and 217 boats, which make up the front line maintenance force working on 2,000 miles of canals, rivers and locks.

In less than 12 months, Canal & River Trust, which is the charity responsible for managing inland waterways in England and Wales, says it has reduced its operational vehicle mileage by over a million miles, saving 78,000 litres of fuel and 206 tonnes of carbon.

The charity is working in partnership with telematics specialist Navman Wireless as part of a wider efficiency drive.

“Since we began using the Navman system we have reviewed how we work which has led to new working procedures, resources and productivity improvements,” says Ian Jarvis (pictured), financial controller at Canal & River Trust.

“We have identified a significant saving, which Navman has influenced.

“Thanks to Navman, and our use of newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles, our operational vehicle mileage has reduced from 6.6m miles per year to 5.3m miles per year.

“Annual fuel spend has reduced from 993,000 litres of fuel to 915,000 litres, for the same number of vehicles.”

Jarvis said operational vehicle CO2 emissions have also reduced, from 2,650 tonnes to 2,444 tonnes.

“We set ourselves a carbon reduction target of 25% to be delivered by the end of 2015 and 14% of our carbon comes from road vehicles and transport,” he said.

A further advantage to Canal & River Trust has been the decrease in speeding. “That was an unexpected but welcome outcome,” Jarvis added.

“Vehicle tracking has slowed our vans down and we've made a real efficiency improvement in terms of fuel usage, and more importantly improved the safety of our fleet”