Richard Irvin Facilities Management to roll-out Lightfoot across fleet

Richard Irvin Facilities Management plans to roll-out Lightfoot’s in-cab training and driver rewards platform across its fleet of 225 vans and 90 company cars.

The announcement follows a trial of the technology that reduced CO2 emission by 8% and instances of dangerous driving, the company said.

As part of the trial, Lightfoot was rolled out in 91 vans including VW Crafters, Vauxhall Vivaros and Vauxhall Combos.

The phase one implementation led to a 30% fall in incidents of harsh acceleration, braking and cornering and resulted in an 8% lift in mpg and a 10% fall in idling time.

Lightfoot’s in-cab dashboard device was adopted as part of the trial, which keeps drivers in the ‘sweet spot’ of their engine through visual and audible nudges.

Lightfoot said this is ‘boosted’ by the Lightfoot reward platform, where through Lightfoot’s smartphone app, drivers can enter draws for prizes by achieving the Elite Driver target level of efficiency.

In Richard Irvin FM’s case, Lightfoot has lifted driver engagement to ‘record levels’ and has set the business on the path to reduce CO2 emissions over the next four years by over 205 tonnes, said Lightfoot.

Steven Rawding, HSEQC director at Richard Irvin FM, said: “We invest and focus on general health, safety and welfare across our organisation and always have.

“The behaviour of drivers and the ability to positively change that through direct in-cab training, encouraging safer and more efficient driving, was something that we were looking for, but it was not offered by our standard tracker provider.

“We discussed this with Lightfoot who explained that their driver-led solution focusses on helping drivers to be better by giving them the both the tools and the incentive to be safer, more aware and more efficient. That chimed with our company values, which focus on safety, integrity, excellence, responsibility, and collaboration.

“With Lightfoot in place, we were able to deliver on all these, giving our staff the technology to be better, the opportunity and incentive to drive with greater responsibility, a transparent solution that engenders integrity and encourages excellence through leagues and rewards, and a collaborative solution where each driver has a part to play in helping the business to be better one mile at a time.

“The results are excellent; our driver performance has increased by at least 51%; we’ve seen a 100% reduction in dangerous driving and a fuel saving of 8%. As a direct result, we are aiming to roll this out across all our fleet of 225 vans and 90 company cars as soon as possible.”

Prior to Lightfoot, Richard Irvin Facilities Management relied on core training to ensure the safety of its drivers, other road users and pedestrians.

The company said the challenge was that despite this, drivers regularly fell into poor driver habits, which Lightfoot addresses through its ‘always on’ in cab solution.

Rawding added: “Our phase one 91 vehicle implementation was an incredible success.

“Lightfoot has demonstrated a direct cost negative investment with many indirect critical safety benefits. And more than that, our implementation of Lightfoot has also resulted in the business being recognised for the use of best practice innovation and safety improvements during our recent ISO 45,001 audit.”