Speedy Asset Services is on fast track to improved safety

One of the few benefits of the pandemic was a reduction in road collisions as the traffic on UK roads dropped significantly during this period.

However, as mileage returned to pre-pandemic levels in the second half of 2021 after the last of the lockdowns, Department for Transport figures show the number of crashes reflected this, with an annual increase of 7%.

Despite this upward trend, Speedy Asset Services, the 2022 Fleet News Awards winner for Excellence in Fleet Safety and Compliance, was able to reduce the number of incidents involving its vehicles by 23% in 2021 compared with the previous year.

The tools and equipment hire firm attributes this to continuous improvement on new vehicle innovations, along with extensive prevention and post-collision training and support for its drivers.

“Safety has always been one of our core values,” says Aaron Powell, head of fleet at Speedy (left in picture).

“We go above and beyond what is required.”

The company’s approach to safety is comprehensive and encompasses drivers, vehicles and technology.

All new employees complete an online driver risk assessment as part of their induction, which includes areas such as age, gender, job role, mileage driven, penalty points and incident history.

Questions are based on the categories listed on drivers’ licences and their roles. For example, if a driver’s job includes towing, they will have questions on towing and tachograph law.

Their answers are used to identify any training needs.

All new employees also spend a week with an experienced driver as part of the Speedy buddy initiative.

Powell says one of the major safety gains has come from combining the previously separate VisionTrack vehicle camera and Masternaut telematics systems which are fitted to all Speedy commercial vehicles.

In the past, if there was an incident, Masternaut would alert Speedy by email and, if the fleet team wanted to see any footage from the cameras they had to take the memory card out of the camera and upload it into a computer. The cameras are fitted to the front, rear, sides, load areas and in the cab facing the driver.

Following an upgrade from VisionTrack which saw footage uploaded to the cloud and accessed through an online portal, Powell got his two suppliers to speak to each other to streamline the process.

Instant video footage

“Now we simply get an email from Masternaut to say there’s been an incident and here’s the footage,” he says.

For each incident, the system automatically downloads an 11-second video clip and sends this, together with all the relevant driver data, to Speedy’s fleet and compliance manager within 60 seconds of the event.

Powell says:

“We often get the footage even before the driver has got out of the vehicle.

“We can see what has happened, who is at fault, and then, if it involves a third party, we can check they are all right and see if they want us to deal with the repairs.

“They last thing people want is to have to start ringing their insurance, getting their car repaired and going through that whole process.

“If we get involved quickly and take this on, then that can help us keep our costs down through reducing credit hire and so on, as well as getting that person’s vehicle back on the road as soon as possible.

“There are always people who will want to sort things out themselves, but the majority of people just want their car back on the road quickly, so are happy for us to get it sorted for them.”

The cameras can also help Speedy protect its drivers if they are not to blame for an incident or collision.

“We’ve had vehicles hit us in the rear and drive off, and the footage has shown this,” says Powell. “Or, if a member of the public complains that one of our vehicles has cut them up then we can look at the footage and find out what had happened.

“A lot of the time it may not be our driver, but it was the third party who was in the wrong lane, or did something wrong, but just didn’t realise it. So, it can protect our drivers in that way.”

The footage is also reviewed by the company’s post-incident review group, which meets every two weeks and is attended by staff from HR, fleet and health, safety, security, environment and quality (HSSEQ).

This group analyses the incidents and determines any training needs or other actions.

All incidents recorded

“We record all incidents, even near misses,” says Powell.

“If we find that a lot of people are doing the same thing, we can build training around it.

“For example, recently we’ve had a number of slow manoeuvring incidents, so we’ve designed a training course and our training manager is currently holding roadshows on it.”

Speedy has its own internal training academy, with courses ranging from vehicle familiarisation to one-to-one training after a collision.

Training for drivers follows a matrix based on job role and vehicle, and includes manual handling, first aid, daily vehicle checks and load security.

It is carried out through Microsoft Teams, e-learning, classroom sessions and one-to-ones dependent on the course.

Given Speedy is a FORS (Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme) gold operator, all drivers undertake at least one e-learning course annually.

Additional drivers, such as employees’ partners, are also offered training if listed on the fleet management system.

All depot managers also complete a transport compliance course which is predominantly focused around safety.

Core areas include completing a correct vehicle check, recording and acting upon defects, safe loading of a vehicle, correct use of the tachograph and safe driving.

Speedy has also introduced a driver of the year competition to incentivise employees to improve their behaviour behind the wheel.

This works by running driver of the month contests, which are based on a number of factors, including incidents, driving style, harsh braking and fuel consumption.

Eight awards are presented each month to cover different regions and vehicle types. At the end of the year one employee will be named driver of the year and receive a “significant prize”, says Powell, adding:

“The drivers love it because they can get something at the end of the month and also the bragging rights of winning the award.”

Paul Turner, national account development manager at TrustFord, hands over a vehicle to Aaron Powell (right)

Fleet electrification

Speedy’s embrace of technology goes far beyond just using it for safety. The company is going through a major electrification programme, having committed to ensuring most of its vehicles are electric by 2030.

Two years ago Speedy changed its company car choice list to only include plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and this is due to switch to BEV-only from 2024.

This move has proved popular with employees, with a large number of drivers who had opted out of the scheme to take a cash allowance coming back in to take advantage of the favourable benefit-in-kind tax rates on the ultra-low or zero-emission vehicles.

“It was a hands-up moment – everybody wants to do it because it is a personal tax saving and we are doing it because we want to reduce our carbon as a business,” says Powell.

“At one point we had up to 400 grey fleet drivers, but that has come down to about 250 with many more wanting to opt back in.

"However, we’ve had to put a hold on that at the moment because we just can’t get the vehicles.

“The way it was working was that those coming back into the car scheme would sell their own vehicle and we’d then put them in a hire car at our cost until the company car arrived.

“But, with the lead times tending to be 12 months or more, we’ve had to tell those drivers they can’t go into a hire car, but will have to stay in their own until their vehicle arrives.”

Currently, more than 50 of its 600-strong car fleet are BEVs.

Order for 150 E-Transits

Electrifying its commercial vehicle fleet of 680 vans and 220 trucks is proving more difficult, but Speedy has also made good progress in this area.

It trialled electric vans at its Leeds superstore and used telematics data from diesel vans to help determine which vehicles could to swapped to BEVs based on current operational needs.

It used this data before ordering 50 Ford E-Transit panel vans and 100 chassis cabs last year.

“The plan is to do the same every year until we’ve completely replaced the fleet,” says Powell.

Speedy took delivery of its first E-Transit Chassis Cab in December, with the first of the panel vans arriving in March.

It has also introduced two 7.5-tonne Fuso eCanter electric trucks to its delivery fleet.

One eCanter is based at a depot near Whitehaven, Cumbria, which supplies contractors working at the Sellafield former nuclear power and fuel reprocessing site.

The other works from a branch in Warrington, where it services a client base comprised largely of building firms.

Speedy is looking to convert 50% of its commercial vehicle fleet to alternative fuels by 2030.

Powell says the remaining 50% will be a case of looking to see how technology progresses before making a decision.

“We have a target to be carbon-neutral by 2050,” he adds.

“We don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket and replace the whole fleet now and then find two years later that the technology has moved on considerably.”

Speedy is also adding charging infrastructure at its sites to smooth the transition to EVs. Depots will be installed with split 22kW chargers that can offer 11kW for each van.

The business is also temporarily using Juice Booster cables connected to a three-phase connection until the full charging infrastructure is completed. Powell says:

“We’re on a mission to put chargers at each of our depots.

“All of our larger sites now have them, the superstores are next and then the smaller outlets will come after that.”

Getting the chargers installed is one thing, but another challenge is the physical space needed at each depot to accommodate vehicles charging overnight.

“Some of the space on our estates is limited,” he adds. “Central London, for example, doesn’t have enough room to park all the vehicles overnight.

“It’s tricky, but we’re looking at how we can use on-street charging as a potential solution for instances where we don’t have enough space at the depot.”

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Judges’ comments:

Speedy has a comprehensive policy around safety that covers every element of risk management. Its holistic view encompasses detailed policies with an extensive range of training options. Excellent use of data is helping the company to drive down incidents across the board.

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Powell on...

Grey fleet

“Our grey fleet drivers are held to the same standards as our company car drivers, with all of their documents held on the Jaama Key2 fleet management system, which we have our own vehicles on.

“There’s a flag on there to say when the MOT is due, when vehicle excise duty (VED) is due, a copy of their licence, and so on. We check their licence dependent on points. The DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) doesn’t push information, you have to pull it. So, if someone gets banned, there is a chance they could still be driving until we reach out to the DVLA and find out otherwise. That’s the same for any company.

“We also have the ability to withhold mileage payments if their documents are not in place.”

Carbon reporting

“Telematics was originally brought in to improve driver behaviour, but, more and more, it’s being used for carbon reporting.

“With the introduction of Scope 3 emissions, we’re getting a lot of our larger customers requesting data about our deliveries to them. They ask: how much fuel was used? What was the carbon impact of that journey?”