What are the benefits of Airmax Remote? AKA Profleet2
For both companies and their drivers the key benefits are mileage capture – the on-line automated journey logging facility available for drivers and the pro-active notification of trouble codes and vehicle services becoming due. Driver style monitoring is becoming more important as legislation impacts on duty of care, health and safety, driver time directives and corporate manslaughter legislation.
David Yates, ALD’s Marketing Director
In recent times no fleet leasing company has been more successful at differentiating itself from the competition than ALD Automotive (ALD) by use of its ProFleet2 telematics system. Ref: www.profleet2.com
Getting down to it
There are 4 main headings that matter to the fleet manager and the driver.
High level data at a glance
Reduced risk of contract recharges
With manufacturer service intervals being extended and vehicles regularly being reallocated, it’s easy to see how services can be missed. Drivers are always busy and even if they know when their next service is due, it’s rarely convenient having their vehicle off the road for any time. With lengthy lead times, too, it could be several weeks before a service is possible.
Chasing monthly expenses
Inaccurate ‘guestimates’ of business mileage
Over-payment of mileage claims
With Profleet2, however, you can be assured of accurate mileage data, fully compliant with HMR&C guidelines on expense claims and submissions, making time-sheet management and overtime claims easy to administer for both driver and their manager.
Fuel usage monitoring for lower operating costs
Our in-vehicle unit constantly reads fuel related information from the vehicle’s CAN bus and uses this to calculate both the amount of fuel in the vehicle and the vehicle’s fuel usage per trip. This fuel data is compared with speed and mileage to estimate fuel consumption (mpg or km) as well as detecting when the vehicle has been refuelled and estimating how much fuel was added. Additional driving style data is also collected (speed, revs etc) to indicate what aspects of the driving characteristics have contributed to the reported fuel consumption, such as high speed, excessive revving or accelerating.
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Reduced operating costs
With remote mileage capture and detailed journey reporting Profleet2 helps improve control over pool car and LCV use by identifying unauthorised private mileage and ‘out of hours’ activity.
Unauthorised private mileage
Excessive ‘out of hours’ activity
Higher fuel costs and excess mileage charges
With greater visibility provided by Profleet2, there is also less likelihood of unauthorised journeys being undertaken resulting in less mileage abuse and, consequently, reduced fuel and rental costs.
Even reducing use by 50 miles each week, in one van alone, could result in £1500 in fuel cost savings and a reduction of over £500 in rental costs over the life of the contract.
Accurate mileage capture
Accurate mileage capture, whether for business mileage reimbursements, running an Employee Car Ownership scheme or monitoring carbon footprint, continues to provide a huge challenge for most companies.
Carbon footprint
Inaccurate ‘guestimates’ of business mileage
Improved tax efficiency
For fleets operating an Employee Car Ownership scheme, moving from annual to monthly reconciliation requires mileage records to be submitted in a timely manner, every month. Where no mileage is submitted companies have to assume 100% private mileage resulting in the grossing up of the monthly allowance resulting in increased costs.
Higher costs
Tax increases for LCV drivers
Having an auditable record of LCV use ‘out of hours’, too, can reduce the likelihood of drivers having to pay increased benefit in kind, or higher NI contributions. Without this, vehicles may be classified as available for private use; again, Profleet2 provides the answer.
As companies are increasingly challenged to measure, monitor and reduce their carbon output, vehicle fleets are, inevitably, under the spotlight. With Profleet2’s reporting suite, however, CO2 is automatically recorded, thereby maintaining an accurate log of carbon footprint to help with ongoing CSR reporting.
Improved contract management
Whilst standard fleet reporting is limited to a ‘driver view’ only, fleet managers may wish to view data across their entire fleet as part of a wider risk management programme. This is possible once consent has been given by employees with a specific fleet manager view to access unique Duty of Care Indicators (DCI’s).
High risk driving hours
Hours behind the wheel
Driving without a break
High mileage
Profleet2, by itself, will not reduce costs or accidents but it will provide all the management information required to help make accurate and informed decisions that manage such issues; allowing you to identify their significance and react quickly. Profleet2 data, therefore, is key to an efficiently run fleet.
Lower insurance costs
With the help of a GPS ‘vehicle location’ facility*, pivotal in the successful recovery of over £1m of vehicles to date, Profleet2 has resulted in significantly reduced insurance costs for many major businesses.
Whilst subject to individual companies’ terms and conditions, as insurers become more aware of the benefits of Profleet2 and the wealth of fleet management data available, no longer need your fleet be deemed such a risk.
Improved driving behaviour
As an optional upgrade within the Profleet2 Premium package, fleet managers can also be alerted to other aspects of, potentially, dangerous or costly driving behaviour with advanced driver profiling:
Harsh acceleration
Excessive speeds
Heavy braking
Excessive idling
Even where driver profiling is not selected, however, with the greater visibility of Profleet2, employees are more likely to drive responsibly and operate within ‘best practise’ guidelines, helping the overall operational efficiency of the fleet.
Driver Benefits
Timely service reminders
With service intervals being extended and vehicles regularly reallocated it’s easy to see how services can be missed. Drivers are, no doubt, very busy and, even if they do know when their next service is due, it probably won’t be convenient having their vehicle off the road for any time. With lengthy servicing lead-times, too, it could be several weeks before a service is possible. The consequence?
Future resale values are affected from a poor service history
Routine repairs can become more complex and costly from missing a service
Warranty programmes can be invalidated
A missed service can cause a component failure with catastrophic consequences
This, of course, could lead to costly re-charges being passed on – both to the company and the driver.
With remote odometer readings and pre-defined preference settings, however, Profleet2 will automatically remind drivers to service their vehicle by SMS messaging or email, allowing work to be carried out on time, at a time to suit providing them with a courtesy car facility, wash and vac service and collection and delivery arrangements.
Journey reporting
Maintaining an accurate log of all business journeys is a tiresome process. Profleet2, however, automatically records all journey data. Everything you need is recorded accurately and meets HMR&C guidelines on expenses claims and submissions, saving you time and effort and simplifying the whole process. After registering your vehicle online, data is accessed via your own unique website which provides you with an exclusive suite of reports covering all journeys undertaken.
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Improved duty of care
Where an employee is required to drive on business an employer has a duty to do all that is reasonably practicable to avoid or minimise the safety risks associated with their driving. However, whilst employers have a corporate responsibility towards their driver’s health and safety, employees, too, have to accept personal responsibility to ensure the roadworthiness of their vehicle and that they are fit to drive at all times.
Profleet2 can help by highlighting journeys which might cause driving fatigue. These reports can then help identify where their journey risks are, allowing them to change their driving behaviour – before it’s too late.
Legislation affecting YOU!
There are at least 25 separate pieces of legislation which impact on the safe management and driving of employees while at work.
The legislation ranges from road traffic laws such as the Road Traffic and Road Safety Acts and the Road Vehicle (Construction and Use Regulations) to the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations and more recently the Working Time Directive, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act and the Health and Safety (Offences) Act.
Apart from the police, which typically will investigate road crashes, prosecutions for breaches of laws and regulations could also be bought by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency and the Health and Safety Executive, which will usually confine enforcement action to incidents where the police or VOSA have identified that serious management failures have been a significant contributory factor in the incident.
In the UK there are an estimated up to 200 road deaths and serious injuries a week resulting from crashes involving at work drivers, and more employees are killed and seriously injured on Britain’s roads while driving on behalf of their employer than in any other work-related activity (1).
In addition to legal compliance, however, businesses have a moral duty to ensure the health and safety of all employees while at work, while the financial argument too highlights that investment in road safety delivers multiple wins (4).
Additionally, media coverage resulting from a work-related road crash could prove disastrous for an organisation and its future trading with brand value damaged.
Finally, depending on the seriousness of the offence and the law(s) under which employees, managers, directors and the company could face prosecution punishments could range from fines and penalty points for drivers for breaches of road traffic law to fines running into thousands of pounds and jail terms for managers and directors and multi-million pound fines for businesses
