MICROLISE
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A recent trial conducted by the Freight Transport Association (FTA) and Microlise set out to prove that telematics and fleet management can offer a good return on investment, even for smaller fleets.
Over three months, waste management firm Vetspeed fitted seven of its 40 vehicles with a Microlise telematics system. This wasn’t revealed to the drivers for five weeks, after which the fuel consumption and driving data was analysed, and the results given to the drivers. After a second period of trials, the monitored drivers had cut their fuel consumption by 0.43mpg, despite severe weather conditions. This could potentially save Vetspeed around £13,000 a year.
Transport manager Gary Gate says: “We didn’t doubt that our drivers would perform well, but we wanted to see whether they could do better. By allowing us to look at engine idling, for example, we were able to tell our drivers how they could fine tune their driving behaviour.” Awards were given to the ‘best’ and ‘most improved’ drivers from the trial.
Since the end of the exercise, Vetspeed’s productivity has improved by 200 drops a month due to better routeing and closer driver monitoring.
The FTA’s Julian Barker adds: “It doesn’t really matter how small a fleet is, being able to ‘drill down’ data to address areas of performance or even non-compliance is very useful for any company.”