The Company
Birmingham-based logistics specialists Corporate Solutions provide bespoke warehousing and distribution services for some of the UK's largest retailers, including Smurfit Kappa, Lidl and Vax.
The company runs a fleet of 100 44 tonne HGVs, fulfilling 60,000 temperature controlled and ambient deliveries and travelling 10 million miles every year – with less than 4% empty running.
We are passionate about technology at Corporate Solutions, says Stuart Payne, Commercial Director. It lies at the heart of our client offering, allowing us to reduce distribution costs and carbon footprint while improving service.
The Challenge
Checking the validity of fuel card activity was proving very time-consuming and both accuracy and effectiveness were limited.
Before we moved to the integrated solution, the accounts and operations team had to literally check thousands of individual fuel card transactions manually every year for accuracy, explains Stuart. It was a painstaking and laborious process and one still prone to human error, despite the effort involved.
The Solution
Having installed the Webfleet Solutions WEBFLEET solution across the fleet in 2014, the company decided to enhance the service by introducing BP FleetMove Pro. The new integrated approach combines vehicle location, fuel consumption, driver behaviour and vehicle maintenance data from WEBFLEET, with BP fuel card information to give full visibility of how fuel is being used across the entire fleet in one, easy-to-use interface.
Data is updated every 15 minutes and delivered via one convenient single software interface, with no need to download any spreadsheets.
As the software shows fuel levels alongside vehicle location and transactions, it helps to identify potential fuel card misuse or fraud.
Now we automatically get fuel card exception reports which highlight at a glance if there is an anomaly which might indicate fraudulent card use, says Stuart.
This could be an employee filling up with fuel in excess of their vehicle fuel tank’s capacity, topping up before the corresponding mileage has been driven or using their card to buy fuel when the relevant vehicle is at a different location. In each case, Stuart's team will get an alert via email or text and it will appear as an anomaly case in the reporting.
Driving behaviour scores are calculated by WEBFLEET’s integral OptiDrive 360 functionality, which gives drivers in-cab feedback and advice on a number of key indicators affecting fuel efficiency, including speeding, idling, sudden braking and harsh steering.
Together with mpg figures, the score forms the foundation for the company’s driver bonus scheme, with drivers rewarded for safer and more efficient performance on the road.
The company's commitment to improving driving style has reaped notable rewards. The average OptiDrive score has improved from 8.2 to 9.1 over 2 years, helping to push mpg performance across the fleet up by 9.2% and to cut fuel costs by 8.1%.
Being able to compare how employees are driving with how they are using their fuel card is also highlighting the reasons behind fuel usage patterns. A low mpg, for example, might be attributable to journeys in built-up locations, or it might be caused by harsh, inefficient, driving which needs addressing through the company's ongoing driver training programme.
WEBFLEET alerts will also notify Stuart when any of the dashcam cameras are no longer working, helping to plug any evidence gaps for insurance claims.
Integration with the incumbent routing and scheduling system means that, as well as sending order and route instructions to each driver terminal, Stuart will soon be able send his drivers directions to the most appropriate BP stations on each route to help them get the best fuel deals.
