Steve Smith, regional transport manager, Oxfam

Why did you trial telematics? We place great importance on our duty of care responsibilities to colleagues. We wanted to see if telematics could help us ensure our drivers were not driving for excessively long distances or at inappropriate times when drivers might be tired, such as early in the morning or late at night.

How did you get approval from senior managers? I presented the idea first to Oxfam’s driving at work committee and,  once passed, it was subsequently presented to our senior management team.

How did you decide which supplier to trial? Our entire fleet of cars and vans is leased from ALD and each vehicle has telematics fitted as standard. But we’d never tested this system before. Once we decided to do so, we opted for the Premium Plus version of ALD’s ProFleet2 telematics.

Which vehicles did you trial it in?  Three Ford Transits.

What type of journeys are the vehicles used for? They are used to make deliveries and collections from Oxfam shops and donation banks.

How long was the trial? Six months.

What results did you see? By the trial’s conclusion last November, it had shown us that more than 99% of all journeys made by those vans were entirely appropriate, i.e. no speeding, harsh braking/accelerating/cornering. There were a few isolated incidents of harsh braking and I was able to pick up the phone and have a chat to those concerned about improving driving behaviour.

What challenges did you face? People were worried we were snooping on their driving behaviour. These concerns vanished once we explained that we wanted to ensure their safety and fulfil our duty of care commitments.

What are you doing as a result of the trial? We’re rolling it out across our entire fleet of eight vans and 72 cars. In time, we’ll also use it to monitor our carbon emissions more effectively as well as to ensure that colleagues can log business miles for fuel expenses more easily.

What telematics advice do you have for other fleet managers? It can demonstrate that you are fulfilling your corporate responsibilities to colleagues by showing how vehicles are driven and acting on information, if required. It’s a cost-effective way to meet these responsibilities.

Ryan Mills, fleet manager, Help-Link UK

Why did you trial telematics? We’re a company that specialises in installing domestic boilers and central heating systems and wanted to monitor – and reduce – our fuel costs.

How did you get approval from senior managers? The initial decision to trial telematics was taken at board level. How did you decide which supplier to trial? We source our vehicles from Northgate and used Northgate Vehicle Monitoring after assessing both the cost and usability of its system compared with other options.

Which vehicles did you trial it in? 25 Ford Transit vans.

What type of journeys are the vehicles used for? They are used nationwide, including motorway and residential areas.

How long was the trial? Three months.

What results did you see? We saw a 7% improvement in fuel efficiency during the trial by ensuring that the vans were being driven at the most fuel-efficient speeds and weren’t left idling. This means there is potential to save more than £2 million per annum across our fleet of 550 LCVs and 60 cars.

What challenges did you face? We found the installation of vehicle tracking is an emotive issue and drivers generally think it’s a way for employers to spy on them, which simply isn’t the case. We overcame this by being honest about our reasons for installing tracking (such as improving fuel efficiency) and by talking with our drivers.

What are you doing as a result of the trial? Since the trial concluded last May, we’ve now fitted 90% of our commercial fleet with telematics. The remainder will be fitted over the coming months.

What telematics advice do you have for other fleet managers? It’s easy to get bogged down with the massive amounts of data produced by telematics and you need to be aware of this. We found it was best to try to involve other departments of the business from the start of the trial to ensure you get the best return on investment as they may have valuable input into different ways the system can be used to benefit other parts of the company. For example, we intend to use telematics to check timesheets for payroll.

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