Philip Dennis Foodservice has saved £38,000 in fuel usage in the first quarter of operation of its Fleetmatics telematics system.

Philip Dennis is long-established family-owned food wholesaler with depots in Devon, Oxfordshire and the West Midlands.

With 60 HGVs, 32 cars and four vans on the road six days a week, Philip Dennis needed to put into place new strategies to save fuel in line with its green credentials. With this in mind, the company recently decided to install Fleetmatics Reveal.

“When I joined Philip Dennis, I was given the difficult task of reducing fuel consumption as part of the green policy of the company,” explained Mike Carter, transport manager.

“As a former driver, I knew that improving driver behaviour was key to saving fuel but I needed a tool which could enable me to do so. That is why I turned to Fleetmatics.”

“I noticed that some drivers would leave the engine on while grabbing a coffee from the canteen or filling in their paperwork,” he said. “There were some widespread misconceptions about idling. Some drivers thought that leaving the engine on was necessary to keep the vehicle refrigerated when stopping for a delivery: this is wrong. Ensuring that the doors are shut properly is enough.”

Carter s now able to visualise on Live Map if a vehicle is regularly parked to perform a job (red), running (green) or idling (amber). “Whenever one of our vehicles turn to amber I immediately give the driver a call to make him aware of the incident,” he said.

“As the drivers are being monitored their driving behaviour has improved dramatically and idling practices have decreased by 90%.”

Philip Dennis was also able to identify and tackle common harsh driving behaviours – including harsh braking, speeding and hard cornering – which can have a significant impact on fuel consumption. In less than year since Fleetmatics Reveal was first introduced, driving style has improved dramatically, but the company has plans to enhance it even further.  

“We are planning to put into place a driver league table across all three depots and the tables will be displayed so that everyone can see them,” explained Carter..

“No one wants to be at the bottom of the league, so I’m confident that drivers will be encouraged to do better. We are also planning to give incentives to our top drivers while offering coaching to those at the bottom of the league.”