Philip Dennis Foodservice has seen a dramatic reduction in its fuel usage and saved an estimated £38,000 in the first quarter of the year, after installing Fleetmatics’ Reveal mobile workforce solution across its fleet of 96 vehicles.
The system was implemented in a bid to improve efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions across the company, a UK 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 opted to put the Reveal solution into place as part of various new strategies to save fuel in line with its green credentials.
“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 for Philip Dennis. “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 Reveal.”
One negative driving practice that he was able to address was idling. “I noticed that some drivers would leave the engine on while grabbing a coffee from the canteen or filling in their paperwork,” Carter continued. “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.”
Thanks to Fleetmatics Reveal’s innovative traffic light system, the company is now able to visualise on a live map if a vehicle is regularly parked to perform a job, represented by red; running, shown as green; or idling, in amber.
Fleetmatics Reveal’s live map shows the real-time status of the entire fleet.
Carter added: “Whenever one of our vehicles turn to amber I immediately give the driver a call to make him aware of the incident. As the drivers are being monitored their driving behaviour has improved dramatically and idling practices have decreased by 90%.”
Thanks to Fleetmatics Reveal’s driving style summary and live alerts, 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. 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.
“We are very happy with what we have been able to achieve thanks to Fleetmatics Reveal. Compared to other GPS tracking systems on the market it is very intuitive and it’s easy to use without any training.”
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