FDBusiness.com

Snack food giant Tayto Group has slashed its annual fuel spend by almost €100,000 and drastically reduced its carbon footprint, after installing TomTom Telematics technology to transform driver behaviour. Mr. Tayto’s firm has boosted MPG by 15 per cent by reducing both speeding and idling through a programme to improve driving performance.

The contract is underpinned by WEBFLEET, TomTom’s SaaS fleet management platform, which allows Tayto to monitor aspects of driving style, including speeding, acceleration, fuel efficiency, idling time and harsh steering or braking. “By gaining unprecedented insight into the behaviour of our drivers, we have been able to address areas of poor performance and drastically reduce inefficiency in the operation of our vehicle fleet,” said Peter Rush, Purchasing & Fleet Manager at the Tayto Group. “The data delivered by WEBFLEET provided the perfect starting point for us to work with our staff in order to help them better understand where improvements could be made and, ultimately, become better, safer and more environmentally-aware drivers.”

Tayto worked in partnership with TomTom reseller partner Fleet Simplicity to develop processes that allowed it to make best use of the data provided by WEBFLEET to meet it’s specific business goals. Drivers are provided with weekly communications on speeding, idling and driver behaviour, as well as twice-weekly fuel awareness updates, monthly group reviews and targeted training. WEBFLEET also profiles each driver, giving them an Optidrive score from one to 10 based on how safely and efficiently they are driving in terms of speeding, incidences of harsh steering or braking and MPG. As a result of being able to manage and communicate using the score, Tayto achieved a 42 per cent improvement in average Optidrive score in 12 months.

Tayto has also used WEBFLEET to monitor the use of its vehicles more closely, effectively eliminating any unauthorised out-of-hours usage. The system also automatically logs vehicle mileage and reports on business and private mileage to simplify expenses claims and records for compliance.

“Insightful data is crucial to business intelligence and Tayto has put itself in a great position to evolve and respond to any future challenges by tackling inefficient practice,” added Giles Margerison, Director UK & Ireland, TomTom Telematics. “By using the available information to identify where issues might exist and working with drivers to address them where necessary, it is possible to bring about positive change in the operation of a vehicle fleet.”