Stay Safe This Winter: Tips For Driving In Wintery Conditions

Brrrr! winter has certainly arrived, and to help you stay safe on the roads, we’ve put together our Top tips for driving in wintery conditions.

Before working at Business Vehicle Tracking, I spent my winters working in a number of ski resorts across Europe, driving customers to and from the airport and quickly learnt that driving in the snow in the UK is nothing compared to driving in the mountains of Switzerland or France. 5cm of snow in the UK brings us to a halt, 1 foot of snow overnight in the Alps and its business as usual! You get in your vehicle drive to the airport and come back. The journey may be twice as long, however no gridlock, no sleeping in your vehicle overnight and far fewer weather related accidents, especially when compared to the UK.

European roads and vehicles are far more prepared for the winter and the infrastructure they have in place for main roads and airports puts the UK to shame. I witnessed 4 gritter lorries on one road, two pushing the snow off the road and the other 2 spreading huge amounts of salt and apparently, this is standard practice. There are however, things that you can do in the UK that can potentially save lives and avoid accidents. Just completing simple checks before setting off could save many lives and avoid unnecessary pile-ups on the roads:

• Make sure your vehicle is clear of snow – How often do you see vehicles driving with several inches of snow on the roof? The windscreen’s clear so everything is ok, right? No! If you have to heavy brake the snow on the roof could slide down onto your windscreen blocking your view and making it extremely dangerous. The weight could stop windscreen wipers working and if you are travelling at high speeds this could be potentially life threatening. Make sure all snow has been cleared.
• Winter-proof your windscreen - With all the salt and dirt on the road, you get through so much screen wash when out on the roads, so take extra care to ensure they are working and that you have plenty of anti-freeze de-icer fluid. It’s always sensible to keep spare reserves in the car too. Once during an airport run in Switzerland, I didn’t check before the journey and, of course, ran out. My windscreen was so filthy I had to stop, get out of the car and rub snow on the windscreen to clear it until we came to a garage. I can assure you, my passengers weren’t too pleased about stopping every few miles!
• Think about where you park overnight - If you know it’s going to drop below 0° overnight think about where you are going to park your vehicle. If you can put it under shelter then do so as this will save you having to de-ice your vehicle. Also avoid having to reverse out of tight spots. When you park up at night in winter, you should always ensure your first trip in the morning is an easy getaway.
• Make sure your tyre pressures are correct - Lack of grip can cause you to skid on the winter roads and you want to be confident that if you need to heavy brake, your car will respond as expected. You could even invest in a Tyre Pressure monitor, like this one from Maplin to ensure you’re always meeting regulations http://www.maplin.co.uk/wireless-tyre-pressure-monitoring-system-390208.
• Keep your vehicle in a high gear - If you drive in a low gear (i.e 1 or 2) you will cause the vehicle to wheel spin when pushing your foot down. Use 3 or 4 and crawl around dangerous roads and up hills. You will be surprised how much easier it is to get around.
• Make sure you can see through your misty windscreen – It is common sense all year round to make sure you have optimum visibility whilst driving, but it is especially important during the winter months. Low light levels and difficult conditions make even a short journey with a partially obstructed view, treacherous. Using the air-con will clear your windscreen much quicker than a normal heater.
• React properly when skidding - If you find yourself skidding on ice and you don’t have and an ABS (Anti-Lock Braking System) in your vehicle, take your foot off the brake. It seems a silly thing to say however if you keep your foot on the brake you will continue to slide & your wheels will fail to turn. Take your foot off and try and gain control of your car. Once this has been achieved, pump your brakes until you come to a standstill.

I hope the above will help you all out on the road this winter, drive carefully and stay safe!

5 Ways To Cut Costs On Your Fleet Insurance

5 Ways to cut costs on your Fleet Insurance

1. Driver Training – Insurance companies can offer driver training and will take into consideration defensive driver training if undertaken.

2. Telematics System – More insurance companies are taking into consideration that you have vehicle tracking units installed within your fleet, always notify insurance companies and tell them that you have trained your drivers on what you will be monitoring to improve their driver behaviour.

3. Keep a close eye on your young drivers – Drivers under the age of 20 are two times more likely to put in a claim, therefore manage young drivers closely, their claims are normally 3 times more than other drivers therefore good training of young drivers on speed and road attention is vital.

4. Provide adequate vehicle security – Vehicle security can be improved through immobilisation systems, alerting the owners when vehicles are moved without authorisation, all these can be added through a telematics system.

5. Renew policies in good time – always allow yourself to research the market so you don’t just jump at the first quote you receive, sometimes they may sound good but look at the excess, windscreen and legal cover.

The majority of the above points can be monitored or improved through using a telematics system, whilst you may be paying around £20 a month to monitor a vehicle, the Return on Investment that you can get will out-way all the unnecessary claims that you may face each year!

For more info contact us via www.businessvehicletracking.co.uk

BVT Update

Business Vehicle Tracking are proud to announce the release of their new website www.businessvehicletracking.co.uk, in moving with the expansion of the business and recent move of premises we thought that the website would like to have a much needed makeover.

With our new report and features section you can now view all the data that you could potentially receive through one of our vehicle tracking systems, along with all the add-ons that you can get to tailor make your tracking product to suit your requirements.

Why not take the time to have a nose through and let us know what you think!

Only 1 in 5 Companies use a Vehicle Tracking System!

What are the reasons for companies these days who are choosing not to have tracking devices fitted to their vehicles despite the financial and efficiency benefits that can be gained?

What is the main barrier to having a Fleet Management System installed?

Do you have the right to know where your company vehicles are and how they are being driven?

Driver Resistance – Many employees see a vehicle tracking unit as a way of spying on their drivers. The main obstacle is that you can monitor your drivers Private usage, now this doesn’t seem so bad on company vans however when you have a company car and you are permitted to use the vehicle when you wish the ‘Big Brother’ aspect keeps getting bought up, however if it is your vehicle and your fuel why shouldn’t you have the right to know where it is and when it has been used? Having the HR department on your side can always be a large factor in Vehicle Tracking, if you simply bring it in as a necessity to bring it into line with your Insurance Policy and Security measures then your drivers don’t have a choice (the drivers which are normally against the idea of Vehicle tracking are normally the ones who know they have to change their ways). Incorporating this into your employee handbook also means that new employees will be signing and acknowledging that they are aware that there is a tracking device within the company vehicles.

Speeding within a company vehicle during private usage is also another area which companies do not like to tackle however they are actually breaking the law and they are using your vehicle so why wouldn’t you want to know, also if your company logo is on the side of the vehicle they could be damaging your company image, drivers are ambassadors of your company when driving even when it is being used for private usage and this should never be forgotten.

A few months ago we ran a trial on two company vans to see how they were treating the companies’ vehicles, we asked the drivers to continue their driving habits and not to think about the vehicles having trackers in and the results were as follows:

Week 1 – 314 speeding offences of which 120 of these were over 80mph.

After the week 1 figures were released to the drivers, we then asked them to drive knowing that we would be monitoring their driver habits and how they would drive knowing that their Transport Manager would be getting weekly reports, the results are as follows:

Week 2 – 57 Speeding offences of which 1 was over 80mph.

It doesn’t take much analysis to understand where you can make savings on the fuel bill, driving at 90mph rather than 70mph uses 15% more fuel so with this one feature the fuel bill would be reduced. We can also reduce the risk of accidents and keep the vehicle in better condition as it is driven with care. Since this trial the company invested in our Telematics system and have seen big savings on their fuel bill just from this one feature, not to mention the increase in productivity and the use of Vehicle Timesheets, no longer are they relying on the drivers to give them overtime hours this can now be done automatically and with no discrepancies.

There is always resentment when a Fleet Management System is put in place however after a couple of months it does die down and they are used to being tracked, sometimes sharing the info with the drivers puts them more at ease. Many companies now use it as healthy competition by rewarding drivers who don’t break the speeding limit or always arrive to site on time.

From a Transport Managers point of view the admin benefit is massive, private mileage can be monitored and recorded, vehicle timesheets are also readily available and can be signed off immediately by your drivers without having to wait for them to submit mileage journey times. Customer/client disputes can be resolved with the use of a telematics system, missing appointment’s for leaving sites early can cause problems with your customers however through the historical reporting these can be monitored and dealt with accordingly.

Overcoming drivers backlash is never easy, however if you gave your own vehicles to a new employee you have the right to know where it is and how it is being driven, and also if you can save money on your fuel bill and increase productivity the Return on Investment will more than cover the cost of the system.

Cost of the system is probably the biggest deterrent we come across from customers as people are unaware how quick they can regain that money back, remember the money that you can save through the system goes straight onto the profit line, simply reducing your fuel bill by 10% is a saving which any owner would like to see go to them rather than out of the exhaust of their fleet of vehicles.

Tackling Fuel Fraud And Fuel Monitoring

Fuel Cost Reporting and Fuel Monitoring features can help the fight against fuel fraud.

One requirement that has been coming ever more frequently with Vehicle Tracking is the necessity to cut out fuel fraud. It is all too regular that drivers fail to give the petrol stations the correct number plate and mileage and what is to stop an employee giving their partner or friend a fuel card?

Nowadays matching up fuel card data with a Vehicle Tracking platform is getting so much easier, even being able to identify if a vehicle was actually at a specific fuel station only takes a matter of seconds.

We identified several employees within a sales based firm that were actually committing fuel fraud, how could a driver fill up 2 tanks worth £70 each in the space of 3 days? Our Vehicle Timesheet reported that he only drove 130 miles and with minimal idling time (7 minutes), we worked out that his Diesel car would have to be doing close to 10mpg in a car that averages closer to 60mpg, we also knew what date and time the fuel receipt was printed and when we matched this to the fleet management platform his company car was 42 miles away from the garage, therefore the evidence was so much against the employee that he lost his job and all over £40 worth of fuel, or it could have been more, unfortunately the fleet tracking solution was only in place for a month so we were unable to monitor behaviour before then.

The problem can be so much larger for a bigger organisation and fuel fraud could run into the £1000’s also fuel syphoning is on the up as a way round handing out your fuel card but the Vehicle Tracking market is now being flooded with CANbus solutions and fuel monitoring devices. It is great to see so many ways in which companies can tackle things like fuel fraud, there will always be people who can beat the system, but it is our job to make it harder and harder for fraudsters and in the end employees will get caught!

January Vehicle Tracking Sale

January Sale

Throughout the whole of January Business Vehicle Tracking promise to beat or match any quote you can find from our competitors on new tracking units and monthly payments.

This offer is only available to new customers who do not currently have tracking units supplied by Business Vehicle Tracking.

So what are you waiting for, contact us now on 0844 556 8632 or sales@businessvehicletracking.co.uk for a live demo and quote.

GPS Tracking Solutions

Where are your drivers right now?
Where have they been driving throughout the day?
Did they arrive and leave jobs at the correct time?
How long have they been at a job?
Do you know the nearest vehicle to a specific address?
Are you aware of unauthorised usage of your fleet of vehicles?
Do your drivers exceed the speeding limits?

The main idea of GPS tracking is to help companies manage their fleet tracking and vehicle tracking needs and to answer the all the above questions without the need investigate each and every driver individually. There are many companies who remain unsure about adopting this concept as they feel it only benefits companies that have a large fleet of vehicles. In reality both small and large companies can benefit from vehicle tracking.

Real-time Vehicle Tracking – This allows a business to monitor where their vehicles are at any given time, it is therefore easy to spot delays and to manage delivery allocation. A taxi company, for example, will be able to efficiently allocate jobs at all times as the live tracking function will show the operator where each driver is at any given time.

Employee Management – Having a fleet management system in place will give you far more control over your employees when out on the road. GPS Tracking will make sure that employees are hitting deadlines on the road, starting and finishing jobs at the specified time and to ensure they are using the most direct route. It can also benefit the drivers too as the fleet management platform can identify if they are caught up in traffic and simply can’t make a destination on time. The system will also identify out of hours usage on the vehicles meaning that you can either charge mileage to the employee or eradicate the need for personnel to fill out private mileage forms.

Operational Management – It doesn’t matter if you have 1 or 100 vehicles, vehicle tracking allows a business to assess and evaluate how deliveries work which makes it far easier to plan routes and to allocate jobs. We all know that timely deliveries will increase customer satisfaction and getting an edge on your competitors can be priceless in today’s market. Seeing a decrease in your overall operational costs due to increased efficiency is also a possibility, managing your fuel bill and associated costs could be driven down giving you greater profitability for the year.

We at Business Vehicles Tracking have been assisting both large and small companies over a number of years now, we even help out companies with 1 vehicle and they understand the benefits of the fleet management system and how it is saving them money on a daily basis, for more information visit our website www.businessvehicletracking.co.uk