Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) has downsized its fleet by 15%, and reduced insurance claims by 25%, since introducing Tracker Fleet.

Telematics technology has allowed WDH to do more than simply identify where a vehicle is on the road.

Fleet manager Rick Young, said: “With electricians, plumbers, plasterers and general builders to manage it is vital that we deploy the right person for the job. Our tradespeople are not always assigned to one vehicle, which is why driver ID is so important to us. We can see exactly who is driving what vehicle and where they are, giving us the ability to respond to each job individually with the correct and nearest driver – vital if it is an emergency. We have also established health and safety guidance for lone workers to monitor their safety whilst out on the road and understand the length of time they spend at each job, whatever its nature.”

Giving WDH the ability to analyse its driving data retrospectively has been beneficial, enabling them to lower their insurance premiums.

“By utilising the telematics information since 2006, we have been able show our insurers how we are improving the performance and safety of our drivers.  As a result, we have been able to reduce our insurance claims by 39% in 2012 and 26% in 2013 by combining telematics data with a new claims management system - therefore helping us reduce our insurance premiums.”

“Over the next two months we will be replacing our current fleet of vehicles with a wide range of VW vans, and with business growth projections we anticipate to grow the fleet by 10% over the next two years.  Of course, Tracker Fleet will continue to play an integral part in managing our fleet efficiency and growth,” added Young.

David Wilson, sales & services director for TRACKER says, “Investing in telematics can provide a business with much needed insight on how they can cut costs as well as ensure they are running a safe fleet.  As the case of WDH proves, telematics can be about more than cost-savings alone – it can help change the whole ethos of a company’s driver policy for the better.”