CIVIL engineering firm Propin Services has cut its fuel and wages bill by £500 a week by using a vehicle telematics system.

The Wakefield-based company, which has a fleet of seven Ford Transits each covering more than 18,000 miles a year, made the savings by using the Vehicle Management Information System from telematics company Minorplanet.

The Leeds-based telematics company signed up Propin Services as its 2,000th customer, but Propin managing director Stephen McDermott wishes his company had taken the system on sooner.

'We had the system installed in April and started making substantial savings almost immediately. After just one month we saw a £400 reduction in fuel and wage costs but that has now risen to £500-a-week because we can now monitor our suppliers' reaction time and our own vehicles' movements.'