Plumbase says it is saving money and improving road safety after installing driver behaviour technology in 220 company cars.

The plumbing and heating merchant does not track the vehicles – it uses the devices from Trakm8 to monitor the safety and efficiency of their drivers.

Plugging into a car’s on-board diagnostics port, the device monitors high-risk and fuel-burning behaviours, such as over-revving, harsh braking, sharp cornering and speeding.

Drivers receive a percentage score for each journey, with a high score indicating smoother and safer driving. Each driver can view their own score in the Trakm8 Drive app; while the transport manager can view all scores.

Plumbase says that within three months, the average score across the company rose from 72% to an 84%. It has also established a Driver of the Month competition to incentivise employees to continue increasing their scores.

Nigel Grainger, transport manager for Plumbase, said: “An increase of 12 percentage points is really pleasing, as it demonstrates that our company car drivers are fully engaged with this initiative.

“We are also getting reports of much-improved fuel economy, meaning that we are saving money and reducing emissions from our car fleet as well.”

The company was also able to negotiate a reduction in its insurance premium for implementing the technology.

It said it chose Trakm8 as it was able to provide a plug-n-play solution for the company cars, using their on-board diagnostics (OBD) ports. Furthermore, Plumbase already had hardwired Trakm8 telematics units in all of its 200 delivery vehicles, providing vehicle tracking, driver behaviour and driver identification.

 

More articles on: