The provider of industrial services to the oil and gas, energy and petrochemical sectors, identified a need to improve driver safety. It set out to create a company-wide drive to stamp out unsafe driving.
Using Trakm8 technology, safety improved. Driver behaviour, measured by Trakm8’s 0-100% traffic light system, went from 62% in 2016 to 93% in 2019. Incident numbers declined from an annualised rate of 32% in 2016 to 12.5% in 2019. Spending on fines and vehicle repairs reduced by 40%.
Trakm8’s tracking device was installed in all of Altrad’s 1,460 vehicles, providing fleet managers access to data that allowed them to introduce a company-wide initiative to combat poor driving and spread best practice throughout the fleet.
Matthew Hammond, head of fleet, plant and equipment at Altrad Services said: “By partnering with Trakm8 we have been able to bear down on incidents in a way that is at once incredibly effective in reducing incidents and has a positive impact on our fleet workforce. What is unique about Trakm8’s product is its data insights for fleet managers coupled with its friendliness for our entire driving team.
“While fleet managers have access to a powerful tool, it’s also incredibly easy to get data out of the system and use it in our own comprehensive driver support schemes. And drivers are presented with easy to understand statistics that incentivise best practices, with an app they can download to track their score. The data allows us to engage with drivers in a positive way as we can now better understand when an incident is an opportunity for driver training or simply a driver utilising their best judgement in a high-risk situation, and then involve the driver in the solution, instead of making them the problem.”
Altrad’s company-wide driver safety initiative uses Trakm8 technology to perform driver risk assessments using its 0-100% scale. The level of data provided allows Altrad to intervene when required, by providing tailored e-learning courses demonstrating best practice based around where an individual driver is weakest, then following up with one-to-one driver training and a classroom course.
From the outset of this process, one of Altrad’s goals was to fully understand incidents when they occurred so that drivers were never unnecessarily penalised. Where a driver is involved in an accident, the circumstances surrounding the event are examined to their fullest extent, including driving conditions, driving time, and previous driver data.
This information was then coupled with Trakm8 telematics data to create a comprehensive picture of the incident, allowing Altrad to understand whether there were signs in driving style leading up to the event that could have led to the incident. Going further, when the Trakm8 system identifies an incident of poor driving style, this is saved to a route map, allowing Altrad to investigate the incident’s causes. Often, poor driver behaviour when investigated is actually a sign that the driver used their best judgement and reacted quickly in a dangerous situation, according to the company.