New vehicle tracking from Trakm8 Prime has helped Fareham Car & Van Hire reduce the risk of vehicle breakdowns while also monitoring driver behaviour.
The hire firm has 45 Trakm8 Prime devices hardwired in its fleet, including in Ford Transit vans and minibuses, as well as Mercedes-Benz Sprinters.
Although the Gosport-based company was already using vehicle tracking a different provider, it switched to Trakm8 after being impressed with Trakm8 Prime’s additional standard features, including real-time vehicle battery status and diagnostic trouble code alerts; as well as driver behaviour scoring.
Lauren Stone, executive support officer at Fareham Car & Van Hire, said: “The vehicle health features of Trakm8 Prime are really helpful to us as a hire company. It means that we can sort out problems before they cause a breakdown.
“We have quite a lot of vehicles on long-term hire and they all undergo monthly checks to make sure they are in the best possible condition. With Trakm8 Prime, we can immediately see if something needs sorting out on a vehicle, rather than finding out weeks later. We solve a little problem before it becomes a big one.”
Fareham is also making good use of the driver behaviour scoring system within Trakm8 Prime. This monitors key bad driving habits such as heavy acceleration, over-revving, harsh braking and sharp cornering and can show how customers are treating vehicles.
The company has also used Trakm8 Prime to set up geofences, and gets alerts when vehicles have left and returned to the company address, providing a clear digital record of when a vehicle was hired and when it was returned.
“The live vehicle tracking is much better with Trakm8 Prime than our previous supplier,” added Stone.
“Their system felt old and slow, whereas Trakm8 Prime is much more user-friendly. It was a pretty basic vehicle tracking system compared to the full package we get from Trakm8 Prime for essentially the same price.”
