Lightfoot trials have proved this to be the case.

One fleet installed the system into 100 Transit vans for six months. Its fuel savings, on an annualised basis, were calculated at £388,000 on the back of a 9% increase in fuel efficiency.

The fleet also saw accident numbers fall by half, particularly instances of driving into the back of a vehicle in front.

Whittam estimates that a fleet of 100 vans will save on average £169,000 over three years based on 28,000 miles a year; over five years the savings rise to £310,000.

It equates to roughly £600 per van per year.

The corresponding CO2 reductions amount to 187 tonnes over three years and 311 tonnes over five.

Wiltshire Council has been running the Lightfoot system on five vans for almost a year.

Transport officer Ian McKinnon said: “Having monitored the daily reports against our own fuel systems, we have improved our consumption by 8-10% on these vehicles.”

Lightfoot starts at £250 per van plus between £8 and £15 per vehicle a month for the sim card and fleet reports.

Discounts are available for volume deals. It takes 20 minutes to install the system which requires no drilling or cutting.

Return on investment, claims Whittam, is “typically within months”.

So far 10 large fleets are using the system. On-going talks with other fleets should see this number double by summer, with Ashwoods estimating sales of 15,000 units this year.

The company is also in talks with leasing companies and manufacturers about installing it into their vehicles.

Lightfoot on test

With fuel savings of up to 15% possible, it’s easy to see why many van fleet operators will be interested in fitting Ashwood Automotive’s Lightfoot system to their vehicles.

But be warned – there’s more to it than simply clipping a unit on the dash and hot-footing it to the bank with the extra cash.

Lightfoot isn’t a quick fix ­– it’s more of a slow burn. We tested the system fitted to a Vauxhall Corsavan for a three-day period.

To be honest after a day, I was ready to chuck the thing out of the window. Luckily, it was securely bolted on to the dashboard, so the temptation was not actually put into effect.

It wasn’t until the third day and after a journey of 250 miles that I began to see the benefits of Lightfoot and I believe that if I had been driving the van for a month or so it would have become second nature.