Making Company Cars Work For Your Business
Work-related road safety is something companies have to treat very seriously these days. Legally, they have to – they can be liable in the event of an accident if they have not placed sufficient importance on work-related travel in their health and safety policies.
With company cars, combined with fleet management technology, organisations can have far greater control over this aspect of a worker’s day. Modern telematics can produce real-time data about driver behaviour and the number of hours driven per day, and benchmark this data against set KPIs in order to greatly improve driver safety. Driver-error is by far the greatest cause of road traffic accidents, and a third of accidents are thought to be work-related.
By using fleet management telematics on company cars, organisations can greatly reduce the chance of an employee having a work-related accident while traveling. An organisation can help employees avoid fatigue by enforcing regular breaks, or help an employee improve their driving style by collecting data showing aggressive acceleration and breaking.
Currently, this sort of pro-active action is not being taken by enough fleet managers and we urge them to consider it today.
Cost Cutting
One consideration for organisations investing in company cars, or reviewing their current fleet, is the cost of ownership. Fuel, repairs, depreciation and tax mean company cars have the potential to be a painful cost centre that, for some, outweighs the benefits.
But with proper telematics installed, these costs can be drastically reduced. The right technology can provide detailed reports on driving style, speed, acceleration, and sharp steering so an employer can give driving feedback to company car owners. Software can even create competitive league tables to encourage drivers to improve their driving styles, therefore making company cars more fuel efficient and less likely to break down.
Telematics can also mean any faults with the car are automatically, instantly reported to the fleet manager, allowing them to schedule in repairs far more quickly. Servicing, too, can be automatically scheduled based on mileage reducing admin and lengthening the life of the vehicle.
Sales Performance Oversight
If a company provides sales reps with company cars fitted with telematics, it can gather and react to data indicating sales performance and weak points very quickly. Any problems with a rep – from time-management to strategy – can be identified earlier and improvements enforced quickly
Many modern telematics systems provide high-quality dashboards and reporting, so managers can gain a very quick view into what potentially is holding a sales rep back from fulfilling their potential. For example, a manager can instantly see the average appointment time for a sales rep and take action if it is too long or too short.
Embracing technology in this way is a fantastic way for businesses to gain a competitive advantage.
Cheaper Insurance Premiums
Many businesses have found themselves facing increasing insurance costs in recent years, and company cars fitted with telematics is a very effective way to prevent this.
Telematics systems give the insurance provider a much clearer view of the risk profile of a company’s fleet, as they do with private drivers. The data about fleet performance provided by these systems allow insurance providers to far more accurately assess a fair premium, and gives the company itself the chance to pro-actively take measures to reduce the risk in their fleet by enforcing driving style KPIs.
This can make company cars far cheaper to insure, with savings of tens of thousands easily possible.
If you’d like to know more about how technology can help you manage the challenges facing you today, get in touch to find out about our range of state-of-the-art telematics products.
