Telematic’s is the tracking of vehicles, usually managed through a hard wired box in the vehicle, linked to a software program which will provide various levels of data depending on the criteria set.

Fitting Telematic’s to vehicles is designed to help businesses in a number of ways to control various elements of the business costs.

The fitting of telematic’s in isolation will have little impact on reducing or controlling costs unless the data captured is reviewed and used to effect driver behaviour.

Although systems have differing levels of functionality; we would expect a system designed for the commercial fleet market to do the following:

• The whereabouts of the vehicle at any given time 24/7
• Speeding (set with some resistance against the national speed limit – to 10%)
• Sharp Braking / Cornering
• Impact

Who was driving the vehicle (multiple user vehicles should be able to be allocated to a driver at any given time).

The aim of fitting telemetry to the vehicles is to reduce and control costs, some of these costs will have a direct affect on the insurance, and some will have impact elsewhere in the business.

In order to ensure that drivers and department managers understand the reasons for any risk management, we would suggest that a formal meeting is held to roll out the initiative and drivers are asked to sign a document to confirm that they understand.

That document must also ensure that any relevant equipment must be operative, in good working order and that any failures are reported as they would with any issues with their vehicle.

Any tampering or falsifying of data should be considered a disciplinary issue.

Any risk Management aimed at reducing costs with employee’s works best when all parties are able to ‘buy in’ to the decision and understand the reasons for their introduction. In this case, the installation of any equipment which will effectively monitor their performance, through dialogue, drivers should be able to understand and see that the equipment can be used for their benefit and protection, as much as the business.

Ideally, in the case of vehicle telematic’s, the drivers will be explained to why these devices are necessary, what they do, how they do it, and how this benefits them.

Effective workers with nothing to hide who want to do a good and efficient job should not object to monitoring their performance, as long as a reasonable approach is taken at all stages. Very few businesses do not monitor their staff’s performance in some shape or form and most are often in charge of much less expensive and potentially damaging equipment than a Heavy Goods Vehicle.