Industrial maintenance provider Altrad Services UK has seen manifold benefits, from major cost savings to a significantly reduced accident rate, after deploying Trakm8 telematics across part of its fleet.
The company has more than 1,000 business drivers, and has initially installed Trakm8 tracking, driver behaviour scoring and vehicle health alerts on 300 of its light commercial vehicles, ahead of rolling the solution out to hundreds more over the next few months.
Already, the company has reduced its total fleet mileage by 1.5 million miles, more than halved its accident rate, and average driver scores have soared from a baseline 68% to 97%. In addition, Trakm8’s Connectedcare vehicle health alerts help prevent breakdowns and costly repairs, saving the company £20,000 per annum.
Matthew Hammond, head of fleet, plant and equipment at Altrad Services, said: “We are absolutely astounded by the results we have achieved. Trakm8 has proved to be an invaluable part of our operations and has saved us a lot of money.”
The solution is also enabling the business to identify higher-risk drivers and work with them to reduce that risk. As a result, it’s seen the accident rate fall from 30% to 12.5%.
“For us, driver risk management to us is not about trying to find fault with drivers, it is trying to identify the high-risk drivers and, through education, make them better drivers. The buy-in from our drivers has been fantastic. When we refreshed our fleet, we swapped 250 vans out over the course of two weeks. The majority of our drivers specifically came to me saying ‘don’t forget to move my device over’. They like the protection and security that Trakm8 gives them,” added Hammond.
“Complaints about our drivers have almost completely stopped. We have even used the data to successfully dispute parking fines and bus lane fines,” he continued.
The company has also achieved a return on investment due to lower fuel expenditure. “Our diesel bill has reduced by about 11%,” explained Hammond. “We attribute that to smoother driving and better vehicle utilisation. We set ourselves a target of saving 1 million miles and we actually saved 1.5 million.”
The company is also using Trakm8’s technology to identify potential costly issues with the fleet before they become costly repairs. Trakm8’s Connectedcare technology uses the telematics device to read vehicle faults and communicate them to Altrad’s fleet team, including low batteries and blocked diesel filters. Data on the latter alone has saved the business in excess of £20,000.
“Telematics can make such a difference if you commit the resources to properly utilise it,” finished Hammond. “What it can give us as a business is phenomenal. It impacts every part of the business.”
