“In this way, telematics is enabling us to be proactive rather than reactive,” he says.

Reduce insurance bills

Daniel Contractors currently pays an excess of £5,000 following a collision and Boulds anticipates that this bill – which came to £135,000 last year – will be down in the future.

Reduce fuel costs

In addition, he expects fuel costs – which were £6m last year – will be reduced by £1m through better driving practices.

Boulds says the telematics system has been well-received by drivers who’ve been incentivised with payments for “the best” or “most improved”.

He said: “It’s my intention to ensure that this telematics system is embedded more fully within our operations.

"I think that there’s great potential to integrate it far more into the planning side of the business.”

Case study EDTE 

Engineering to facilities management company ETDE originally introduced telematics to ensure duty of care within its street lighting and highways infrastructure division two years ago.

The company opted for Tracker to monitor its drivers’ speed.

Simon Hayman, head of operational support, says: “Initially we invested in fleet tracking solutions to ensure our staff were safe on the road.

“We specifically wanted to focus on speeding. Excessive speed increases the odds of an accident occurring, therefore, we started to monitor any staff who were speeding excessively to find out why.

Reduce road accidents

ETDE road traffic accidents have fallen as a result.

“We still actively monitor our speed alert emails – although they are now few and far between. For us, fleet tracking wasn’t primarily about cutting costs, we were actively implementing a duty of care
and greener driving policy.”

Driver league tables

Hayman adds that Tracker has also provided ETDE with the ability to create driver league tables for its entire fleet as well as specific groups of vehicles.

He adds: “Our focus is now utilising this data and highlighting the efficient drivers.

Reduce fuel bills

Fuel reduction has also risen up the agenda and ETDE is looking to implement Tracker’s latest offering ‘driving style’ to improve driver efficiency and safety.

Robin Fellows, product manager at Tracker, says it is increasingly being approached by companies who are concerned about speed.

“ETDE’s focus on speeding and driver behaviour is exactly right, particularly with the increasing concern around the Corporate Manslaughter Act,” he says.

“With employers at risk of being prosecuted as a result of a staff driving accident, telematics could be a lifeline for businesses needing to monitor and manage the safety of their company drivers and vehicles.”

 

Q: You’ve been successfully using telematics for several years. What do you do next?

‘Implement driver league tables and reward top performers’

Steve Blackburn, European vice-president, Navman Wireless

Telematics is a long-term investment, which drives continual improvement through ongoing performance monitoring and evaluation.

It is the businesses which use the technology regularly and over long periods of time which see the greatest benefit.

It is therefore important that businesses understand the features that are in the tracking system they are using.

All too often, users don’t explore the possibilities of the technology and, as a result, only see a fraction of the benefit they could enjoy.