Margerison said too tough a line with the worst performers could hinder change as they won’t want to tell others that they have been tackled about their driving.

“It is better to compliment and reward the good guys, as they will tell everyone they got a pat on the back or reward.

“Positive word of mouth from advocates is key to any change management in any business.”

Floyde confirmed that driver training will be recommended for at least one of the employees on the trial, with other staff being monitored for the remaining few weeks before the equipment is removed from the vehicles.

She said that the ‘stick’ approach would be used with processes being followed with relevant line managers and the human resources team for consistent offenders.

Yeoman said: “In terms of helping drivers and employees to improve their behaviour, eco-driving training or advanced driver training courses are always an option and often provide great results.

“However, training fatigue can set in a few weeks down the line and people can revert back to their
old ways.

“Tracking and telematics can provide a longevity for training by ensuring that learned behaviours
are not lost and can be monitored with refreshers where needed.”

Young says: “Training is the first option, and the regular monitoring of Traffilog’s application to identify change and improvement.”

However, he admitted some staff do not react well to being highlighted as having poor driving standards, and this can lead to further problems.

“Sometimes drivers are obstinate, with a compulsion to defy the need to improve.

“Consistent poor driving efficiency and regularly triggering the same events without a desire to improve should be seen as a disciplinary matter because an incident caused by these bad habits can be very damaging.

A failure to deal with consistent high inefficient events being scored will impact on those drivers willing to improve and set high standards.”

Margerison says that while drivers need to be aware that the vehicle tracking is going on, the company is observing trends rather than individual drivers and incidents.

He said: “To make the change lasting and to really see the benefits, companies need to benchmark against best practice and use the information from systems to measure against this.”

According to Yeoman, it is important that companies and individuals take responsibility for the efficiency.

He said: “Using carrot rather than stick methods will certainly help with this and start embedding efficient and eco-friendly behaviour into fleets in the long term.”

Bauer to favour stick over carrot

Debbie Floyde, fleet manager at Bauer, believes incentives are a positive way to encourage good behaviour, but say they might not work for all fleets.

“A league table would work for people in similar roles, but probably wouldn’t work as successfully in an organisation like Bauer,” she said.

“I think it is a brilliant idea to be able to reward the drivers that drive most economically or who show the biggest improvements.

"But it can also be difficult to go to management in the current economic climate and ask them to set aside money to be given as rewards for people driving correctly and safely.”

Floyde added that the information provided by the telematics equipment has been hugely valuable in identifying drivers with bad habits.

However, she believes that with the Bauer fleet, with staff using company cars in different roles and split across a range of different locations it would be difficult to create the conditions that would lead to friendly rivalry over driving behaviour.

Ultimately, change will be enforced using HR and disciplinary procedures.