If the report shows a series of green lights, a brief conversation takes place.

Drivers are encouraged to provide any updates about their route and journey that might not have been picked up by the system.

A series of red or amber lights leads to a more in-depth discussion, perhaps taking 15-20 minutes, after which recommendations are made which might extend to full assessment by an in-house trainer.

The conversation is always recorded. “This system gives us a way to trend performance by driver and by metric,” says Hannant.

“We can focus on the areas where we have to take corrective action and it gives us an audit trail.”

However, he is at pains to stress: “It’s not about blaming drivers; we treat it as a two-way conversation.

"There might be issues with the route, such as road closures, that are affecting delivery times or other health and safety matters to take into consideration.

"We encourage drivers to be part of the process which helps us to get to the heart of any problem.”

Allied Bakeries developed the debrief system in-house, bringing together expertise from its IT developers and operations managers as well as the fleet and safety team.

“Industry-standard packages are not bespoke to our operation and they were very expensive,” explains Hannant.

“We needed something bespoke to collect the data on our vehicles to ensure reconciliation of the issues. It also links to our RTA forms.”

The impact has been immediate and far-reaching. From a service perspective, Allied Bakeries vehicles are achieving a higher percentage of deliveries on time.

Given that each route averages 15-20 calls, getting the sequence right and taking traffic issues into consideration is vital.

"If the first call is late, the knock-on effect will mean every other call is late and this puts added stress on the driver. Stress will affect their concentration, while another reaction might be to drive more quickly, breaking the speed limit to make their next drop on time, which increases the risk of accidents.

DAVE has addressed all of these issues by enabling Allied Bakeries to constantly fine-tune its routes.

It has also changed some delivery slots if they clashed with other suppliers, which previously resulted in drivers waiting for other deliveries to be completed.

“Without a structured debrief, all of this becomes more ad hoc,” says Hannant. “We are also reducing our RTAs and there are financial benefits by improving the driving style for better fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions, which also helps the green agenda.”