EcoTrak: A Valuable Training Aid for Improved Fuel Efficiency and Driver Safety
EcoTrak is a vehicle tracking system which allows fleet managers to monitor key information about driver behaviour. The main benefit of this is a reduction in fuel costs through educating drivers into better driving habits, such as sticking to speed limits and avoiding excessive braking and accelerating. An added side-effect of this is that many of the driving habits that lead to fuel saving also lead to a reduction in the risk of being involved in a road accident.
In the current economic climate, reducing fuel consumption is an important motivation for all fleet managers. Added to this, many companies are now looking at carbon reduction due to pressure from consumer groups and even their own employees, as environmental issues have become a top concern for many. But fleet managers are also increasingly under pressure to provide ongoing driver training, specifically aimed at the prevention of road accidents.
The government are likely in the near future to introduce new targets aimed at the continued reduction of road accidents, and a recent announcement shows that they are set to focus mainly on business drivers, who currently are believed to account for around one third of road deaths. In 2007 the number of road deaths fell below 3,000 for the first time, but it is expected that new government targets will be set at reducing this figure still further to 1,000 per year.
Tough new measures are set to be introduced, including the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence which has already come into effect for bus drivers and will soon include lorry drivers as well. Both the Health and Safety Act (2008) and the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act (2007) make it clear that a portion of the responsibility for safe driver behaviour lies with the employer.
Vehicle tracking solutions, such as EcoTrak, enable businesses to gather information about driver behaviour, which can then be used to assess where improvements can be made. The sort of data that can be gathered from car tracking includes, for example, miles per gallon, the exceeding of speed limits, patterns of harsh acceleration or braking, and many other key factors related to reducing fuel consumption, to increase MPG and to improve road safety. This can be used to provide feedback to drivers and even to develop specific training programmes to target problem areas.
In addition, driver alerts can be put in place, for example highlighting when drivers have been on the road for more than a certain length of time, or if speed limits are being exceeded, both of which could have a crucial impact on the risk of having an accident. In terms of fuel saving, further factors to consider include longer time than necessary spent idling, and controlling RPM by changing up a gear.
EcoTrak is already being used by businesses to enable fuel reduction and to increase MPG, for case studies demonstrating how EcoTrak is being used visit the website at www.ecotrak.co.uk. In some cases drivers are given incentives to improve their fuel saving in the form of bonuses or driver league tables. Improved safety is a further incentive, both for employee and employer.
Fleet managers interested in assessing the benefits of employing the EcoTrak system can take CMS SupaTrak’s Fuel Saving Challenge – a four week structured product trial. For firms looking to introduce driver training into their business, perhaps for the first time, the managed trial may be the best option, since drivers will be individually assessed and trained on improvement techniques using the information gained from the EcoTrak reports. For firms who already have a dedicated driver training programme in place, the cheaper unmanaged trial will still provide information that can be used to improve driver habits.
