Hughes ‘eradicates’ dangerous driving and cuts vehicle idling

Fleet operations are a lot safer and efficient at Hughes after the electrical retailer fitted in-cab driver coaching technology from Lightfoot.

Rolled out across its fleet of 200 vans and 20 cars, Lightfoot’s dashboard-mounted device, combined with its rewards app, has cut harsh acceleration in the Hughes fleet by 56%, harsh breaking by 30% and harsh cornering by 24%, while MPG has increased by 6%.

Lightfoot has also helped Hughes cut vehicle idling by nearly a quarter. Based on current CO2 reductions, Hughes is on target to cut its emissions by almost 1,000 tonnes of CO2 over the next five years.

Dave Stokes, group procurement, fleet and properties manager at Hughes, said: “Lightfoot was initially recommended to us by Activa, whom we lease our fleet of cars and vans from.

“They outlined how Lightfoot engages drivers in a new and different way, which promotes a smoother, safer style of driving at the same time as personally and routinely rewarding drivers for carrying out their daily duties in a more efficient and responsible way.”

By creating a driver-first approach, aided by Lightfoot’s ‘always-on’ visual and audible driver coaching and nudge psychology, Stokes said drivers are encouraged and enabled to keep in the sweet spot of their engine.

“That not only helps to reduce overall costs to our business but allows us to meet our occupational road risk management obligations, aiding the safety of our drivers and other road users,” he said.

“Today, our drivers operate their vehicles in a completely different way to pre-Lightfoot. They effectively self-manage. They understand the benefits of improving their driving style, and they have a personal interest to be better because that enables them to access great prize draws.”

By maintaining Lightfoot’s Elite Driver status, drivers have access to weekly draws on the app including the chance to win up to £200 in The Drivers’ Lottery.

“That’s proved a game-changer for us,” continued Stokes. “It’s why 95% of our drivers now achieve Elite Driver status every week. When we started out, that figure was just 24%.”

Martin Kadhim, co-founder of Lightfoot, says that, with Lightfoot in place, Hughes is saving the business money at the same time as enhancing the welfare of their drivers and reducing their impact on environment.

“By implementing Lightfoot’s self-managed solution, those in the driving seat are driving change for the better one mile at a time and getting regularly rewarded in the process,” he added. 

Lightfoot’s technology has been developed in partnership with IAM RoadSmart and driver-behaviour experts at Bath University.

It uses real-time engine analytics which take account of different factors such as load and road gradient to provide live, in-cab coaching, helping drivers improve both efficiency and safety, and rewarding them for being better.