Bates Office Services improves MPG and cuts idling

Bates Office Services has cut idling, improved MPG performance and driver safety by implementing Lightfoot’s in-cab technology.

The dashboard display device uses live engine data to provide real-time visual and audible feedback to drivers, helping fleets improve efficiency and safety.

Drivers maintaining Elite Driver status are able to enter weekly competitions to win cash-prizes in The Drivers’ Lottery as well as a range of other rewards encompassing consumer technology, which serves as an additional incentive to maintain a smoother driving style.

Having installed Lightfoot across its fleet of 60 vans - which together travel up to two million miles each year - Bates Office Services is now seeing fuel savings of between £6,000-£7,000 each month, after increasing overall MPG by 13%.

In the first five months alone, this has not only cut fuel bills but has led to a significant fall in accident numbers, down from 15 over twelve months to just one in five months, it said.

During the blind phase of the Lightfoot trial, just 17% of Bates Office Services’ drivers achieved Lightfoot’s Elite Driver status.

Once Lightfoot’s in-cab device went live, accompanied by its audible and visual driver guidance, this figure increased to 83%, generating instant fuel savings and lower emissions.

Ben Hensby, operations director for Bates Office Services, said: “We trialled Lightfoot to see if it stood up to its claims. In a very quick space of time there was a real buzz around it. Our drivers were earning prizes and those outside the trial started asking ‘why haven’t we got it, we want it’.

“Now that all our drivers have Lightfoot, we see a great deal of competition, especially with the in-house leagues that we use.

“I separate the leagues between departments. I also separate leagues between locations and so we get a lot of competition between our offices in Wales, Crewe and Strood; healthy competition, which makes the fleet self-managing.

“The biggest appeal for us is Lightfoot’s ease of use. It’s easy to get clear data from it and it provides an absolutely crystal-clear picture, as opposed to what you might perceive.

“Even the drivers that you thought were good have opportunities to improve and now, given the rewards app, they have the incentive to be better too.”

Martin Kadhim, Lightfoot partnerships director, added: “It’s great to see that Lightfoot has had such as positive impact on Bates Office Services’ drivers. Once a few of them had it, the rest wanted a piece of the action.

“The in-cab assistance and verbal feedback from the pocket-sized dashboard device - including end of journey scores - has profoundly change the way the Bates fleet is driven.  As a result, drivers want to be better than their colleagues and they all want to win prizes.

“The outcome is smoother, safer and more fuel-efficient driving, saving the business thousands of pounds each month and that’s before you factor in reduced vehicle downtime as a consequence of fewer accidents.”

Joel Collins, senior motor underwriter at Allianz Insurance, concluded: “It’s great to see another Allianz client using Lightfoot to help manage their risk. We have worked with Lightfoot for over five years now and the Allianz London Motor Team have a good understanding how this technology can help a client lower fleet risk through improving driver behaviour.”