Construction industry supplier Mick George has achieved fleet cost savings of 5% with the Masternaut Connect Platform and is now targeting a 9% saving.

The company was previously using the Masternaut MWeb platform but continued business growth meant it needed a new system. After evaluating all telematics systems on the market, Jonathan Willmore, procurement manager at Mick George, opted for the Masternaut Connect platform, which uses a traffic-light format – green/amber/red – to provide drivers with in-cab feedback.

The first stage of the migration involved 250 HGVs and was successfully implemented over five weeks. The fitting of the LGVs and cars was done in a second stage.

When introducing the new technology, drivers in the red were targeted first. Mick George's in-house driver trainers spent time with them helping to improve their scores.

Four months in, they use a two-week rolling report to target those in the red, concentrating with internal one-to-one training and continuous communication providing feedback between the trainers and drivers.

One driver has seen their points per hour reduce by 86.7%.

Mick George has introduced a ‘Drivers Academy’ which equips new drivers with the skills they need to ensure safe driving practices.

Once fully installed the aim is to establish a leader board, encouraging a safer fleet through inter-depot competition.

Richard Thorpe, enterprise account manager at Masternaut, has been working closely with Mick Geogre, ensuring a smooth migration and the right modules to continue the company's success.

Thopre said: “It has been great working with Mick George, seeing how it is embracing the latest technology to drive efficiencies. It is already seeing significant savings, particularly in fuel. Continuing to work closely, we are looking into how we can integrate our systems further, making the fleet more efficient, safe and increasing its ROI.”

With Mick George's focus on efficiency, it has also implemented PTOs in its skips and tippers to help reduce unnecessary idling and TachoFresh Live and Remote Download to make logistics more effective. Live tacho information has removed the need to arrange meet ups to download data and the transport manager can instantly see hours driven, breaks taken and progress made. Both modules are already providing cost benefits and increasing productivity.

Willmore said: “The support and driver materials we have received from Masternaut are great. We are already seeing results in improved driver behaviour and efficiency savings. We now need to keep up this momentum.”

The next steps are getting all drivers out of the red zone and rolling out the mobile app.

Willmore is currently trialling the driver app with his own vehicle and commented: “It’s fantastic, you don’t need a technical background to use it and I can see my trends in real time and try to improve my driver behaviour.”