South West haulier rewards good driver behaviour

Haulier C&D South West is incentivising its drivers to improve their driving style using data from a Quartix telematics system.

The operators, which runs a fleet of 35 vehicles from its base in Chard, Somerset and is a Palletforce founder member, uses Driving Style Monitoring in combination with other core features of the Quartix system to drive down fuel consumption and accident rates.

“With the Driving Style Monitoring suite we are able to identify problematic drivers and issues which need addressing,” said Darren Hammond, director of C&D South West. “We then speak to our drivers about their strengths and weaknesses and work with them to improve their quality of driving.”

The system aggregates individual driver performance on a 100-point scale, and by working with drivers C&D South West has driven up its average scores. “Because the system’s collective data allows us to know more about our drivers’ behaviour, we know our fleet’s average driving style score is currently 95/100,” said Hammond. “On top of saving on fuel expenses, we also have fewer accidents and our drivers are much more professional.”

To share these benefits with driver, the company has put in place a performance-based incentive scheme. “For the past 12 months, we have been incentivising good driving by giving our drivers a retrospective bonus based on the data provided by the Quartix system,” said Hammond. “We can use the system to regularly refer back to our historical data. It’s a fantastic way to source the information we need when rewarding our drivers.

“It’s a key tool for my business: I use it as a management tool and other departments use it as an operational tool. We’re also soon to be opening a new satellite depot and we want to put the Quartix system into all our vehicles and monitor the trucks remotely, which will be great for us.”