Altrad reaps rewards of telematics

Since using Trakm8 vehicle tracking, driver behaviour scoring, and vehicle health alerts, the company has reduced its total fleet mileage by 1.5 million miles, more than halved its accident rate, and average driver scores have soared from a baseline 68% to 97%. In addition, Trakm8’s Connectedcare vehicle health alerts help prevent breakdowns and costly repairs, saving the company £20,000 per annum.

Matthew Hammond, Head of Fleet, Plant and Equipment at Altrad Services, says: “We are absolutely astounded by the results we have achieved. Trakm8 has proved to be an invaluable part of our operations and has saved us a lot of money.”

Altrad Services UK was created through the merger of Cape, Hertel and NSG. It employs 6500 people, operating across many sectors including oil and gas, power generation, petrochemical, nuclear and infrastructure.

“Every driver of every Altrad vehicle is an ambassador for our business and our brand, which is built on excellence and safety,” adds Hammond. “With over 1000 drivers we needed a solution that would enable us to identify higher risk drivers and work them to reduce that risk. 

“For us, driver risk management is not about trying to find fault with drivers, it is trying to identify the high-risk drivers and, through education, make them better drivers. The buy-in from our drivers has been fantastic. When we refreshed our fleet we swapped 250 vans out over the course of two weeks. The majority of our drivers specifically came to me saying ‘don’t forget to move my device over’. They like the protection and security that Trakm8 gives them. 

“Complaints about our drivers have almost completely stopped. We have even used the data to successfully dispute parking fines and bus lane fines.”

Altrad invested in telematics to enable vehicle tracking and analyse vehicle utilisation. Hammond continues: “We tried other systems before Trakm8 and they drove us mad! My team spent all day trawling through data, whereas Trakm8 guides us straight to the data we need. Once you have clarity on your operations, you can act to further improve them.”

However, Hammond and his team soon realised that Trakm8 could do much more than basic track and trace. “We realised we could get a lot more data than we thought possible. And we found we could tie it in with licence checking and accident data. We never considered that was possible before,” he said. 

“To successfully manage risk, we first needed to have a clear understanding of what we were looking to achieve and how it could be measured. Once we began to build a picture and profile of each high-risk driver, we could start to analyse their driving style and run comparisons. As a result, we have seen our accident rate fall from 30 per cent to 12.5 per cent.”

The company has also achieved a return on investment due to lower fuel expenditure. “Our diesel bill has reduced by about 11 per cent,” adds Hammond. “We attribute that to smoother driving and better vehicle utilisation. We set ourselves a target of saving 1 million miles and we actually saved 1.5 million.”

Altrad has installed Trakm8 on 300 of its light commercial vehicles and is rolling it out to hundreds more over the next few months. 

“Telematics can make such a difference if you commit the resources to properly utilise it,” said Matthew. “What it can give us as a business is phenomenal. It impacts every part of the business.”

Trakm8’s innovative Connectedcare technology uses the telematics device to read vehicle faults and communicate them to Altrad’s fleet team.

“The benefits of telematics reach much further than its intended purpose of driver management,” continues Hammond. “The data capture and reporting on the vehicle status has also allowed us to identify potential costly issues with the fleet before they become costly repairs. In fact, we are able to identify many issues even before the vehicle flags them to the driver.

“One example of this would be through the potential clogging of the diesel particulate filter. A large proportion of our fleet does low daily mileage, resulting in the vehicles not being able to undergo a full regeneration cycle. This leads to a build-up of carbon in the DPF which, if left unmanaged, would result in a costly repair. Through the use of telematics, we can be alerted to potential, early stage issues on these vehicles and can take preventative action to avoid garage time. This data alone has saved the business in excess of £20,000.

“During the winter months we use Trakm8 to identify vehicles whose batteries are low on charge. This has allowed us to raise the issue with the vehicle provider and arrange for replacement batteries before the problem escalates to a vehicle non-start. This means we eliminate unnecessary downtime across the fleet, which saves us money, but also gives a level of comfort to the drivers who appreciate we are looking out to ensure they have minimal issues with the vehicle they are assigned.”