Even low mileage business drivers can benefit from telematics, according to Martin Otter, insurance development manager at Trimble.

He said: “If people are driving 4,000 miles a year does it mean telematics doesn’t work there? No it doesn’t. It just means we need to have a different approach.”

Self-installed technology is one approach that Trimble is looking at as it would reduce the expense and time of fitting telematics in a vehicle.

Otter also said that he was “fascinated by the opportunity to use emergent technology such as smartphones”.

He said that fleet managers could get “a massive amount of data” from smartphones to help them monitor, measure and modify driver behaviour.

He suggested that smartphones would be “a very cost effective way to make improvements in driver safety”.

“From my perspective I’m quite interested in putting a box in the vehicle but I understand all the issues around that,” he said. “If a driver has a smartphone with them anyway shouldn’t we use it to understand where they are, how they are driving, what they doing and help them to improve?”